WENDY NIEPER, soprano

Wendy's career was always going to be diverse. She began as a jazz musician before turning her attentions to the classical repertoire. She received a 1st class degree in classical singing from the Birmingham Conservatoire, won the Gordon Clinton Prize for English Song and was a member of 'Live Music Now' before joining international touring group 'the Swingle Singers'. During her five years with this renowned a cappella group Wendy performed with many of the worlds most famous orchestra's and opera companies, as well as recording 5 albums with them. Wendy has worked extensively for classical contemporary concerts both as a soloist and ensemble singer. On many occasions, she worked very closely with the composers. "...rapt, plaintive, slightly jazz-inflected and beautifully controlled, Nieper was the show stopping highlight." Birmingham Evening Post [www.wendynieper.com]

KIRSTEN JOHNSON, pianist

Kirsten Johnson's recordings and performances have delighted listeners around the world. She has performed in Austria, the Czech Republic, Italy, Japan and throughout the United States and United Kingdom. Her CDs have been given airplay on BBC Radio 3, on public radio stations across the U.S., and on radio stations in many European countries. In the UK she has performed in the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, the Royal Academy of Music, the Holywell Music Room, Oxford, and the Austrian Institute, London. She has several CDs to her name, and has made a special study of Albanian piano music and that of the American composer Amy Beach. “Johnson plays with nuance and color…” American Record Guide. “Kirsten Johnson expounds all this repertory with manifest sympathy and skill. An unexpected delight.” BBC Music Magazine [www.kirstenjohnsonpiano.com]

CHRISTOPHER BRITTON, flautist

Chris Britton was born in 1953 in London and received his first musical training as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music, studying flute and bassoon. After a period of working as an orchestral flute-player with the BBC he settled in Oxford in 1983 where he built up a substantial teaching practice both privately and in schools. In July of last year he gave up his school-teaching to focus more on his playing career. As well as recording (he is currently engaged on a CD of unaccompanied flute music by Bach), he enjoys a busy and varied playing schedule, with local professional orchestras, the guitarist Raymond Burley and the Abingdon-based Pavlova Wind Quintet. Chris has had a long association with Raymond Head dating back to the days when both were teaching at Tudor Hall School, Banbury. Chris has performed Raymond's 'Sky Dance' many times in concerts and has recorded it. [www.pavlovaquintet.co.uk]

RAYMOND HEAD

In the 60s I was quite definitely a Stockhausen groupy because I found his music exciting and new. However, after studying composition in London I went to Dartington in Devon and began to breathe a different air. A spell teaching in Cambridgeshire and Devon and then Rome (where I was a repetiteur for Hans Werner Henze's first cantiere in Montepulciano, Tuscany) gradually broadened my outlook. Life took over and I found myself feeling disillusioned by the cold and inhibiting world of the then contemporary music. It was at this moment that I was drawn into a different world; the world of Indian influences on the arts in western culture that was to result in two books and much lecturing in various countries, broadcasting, and championing the work of Gustav Holst. Eventually this returned me to the creative and communicative world of music; conducting, composing and teaching voice and piano in Chipping Norton. Today contemporary music is inclusive, without boundaries or a defined style - the possibilities seem endless. [www.Raymondhead.com]

CLEMENT JEWITT

Clement Jewitt uncovered the composing muse within himself after a life review following simultaneous crises in his personal and professional lives in his forties. He formerly designed computer information systems, but always had some connection with music making. He regards music as essentially an act of friendship. In the last decade he has been practising as an improvisationist, and leads group improvisation workshops. Clement has a strong interest in how sound and music is received by body, mind and spirit, which has lead to investigations in acoustics, physiology and transpersonal psychology. He was recently awarded a PhD from Birmingham Conservatoire, writing the extended song cycle 'The Night Sea' as part of the study of the application of a post-Jungian model of the psyche to creative endeavour. Excerpts from 'The Night Sea' are included in the programme of the concerts.

His music has been described as "modernist but entirely accessible", "evocative and haunting" and his PhD supervisor averred that he has a lyrical gift. [www.composersalliance.com]

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