Heather is a clarinettist and bass clarinettist based in London. She particularly enjoys cross-arts, collaborative work with composers, dancers and artists in other fields.

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I am a London-based freelance clarinettist and bass clarinettist - I like to immerse myself in sound and particularly enjoy discovering and playing with harmonics. I enjoy trying new techniques and working in settings which allow me to respond to the world around me through improvisation; using contact mics to build closer sonic relationships with nature.

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I completed a Junior Fellowship (2019) and the Orchestral Artistry Masters (2018) at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After graduating I joined the side-by-side scheme with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, as part of NEXT and have recently completed the PPCM Post-Graduate course in Graz, Austria, a side-by-side scheme with Klangforum Wien.

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As a classical musician, I have performed works by Richard Rodney Bennett and Harrison Birtwistle for BBC Radio 3 and have worked with Klangforum Wien, Garsington Opera, Riot Ensemble, BCMG, Dr K Sextet, side-by-side with the LSO and with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields as an animateur. I have performed in diverse settings such as Hallr Wood, Somerset, The Barbican, Wigmore Hall, King's Place, by the Lea in Olympic Park, Cadogan Hall, The Place Theatre, The Sage, Gateshead, Windsor Castle, Scadbury Park, the English Speaking Union (Dartmouth House) and Milton Court.

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I particularly enjoy playing contemporary and new music, improvising and collaborating with composers and have worked with Rebecca Saunders, Bernhard Gander, Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Agata Zubel, Clara Iannota, Chaya Czernowin, Stevie Wishart, Sylvia Lim, Clare Elton, Nilufar Habibian and Torsten Herrmann. As a free improviser I was lucky enough to play my first improvisation with Tom Jackson and have worked with Sylvain Monchoce and Lixue Lin-Siedler in Berlin as well as the group Ad-Lib Ensemble, Conduction Groups and London Soundpainting Orchestra.

I am involved in various cross-arts collaborations including a project with two artists, Miriam Sedacca and Karen Le Roy Harris on an immersive site-specific project, Until You Became Me, at the Moulin de Quétivel in Jersey as well as writing music for a short film, ieau, premiered in April 2022. I am co-artistic director of the cross-arts group, Intertwined Cross-Arts Collective. We are in the process of planning our next project, after releasing Tillow in Autumn 2021, a collaboration between composer, Clare Elton, choreographer, Kasia Witek, videographer, Rūta Vero, musicians, Sandy Thompson and Zosia Jagodzinska, and performers Stella Papi and Elisa Vassena. 

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