About us
Psappha, Manchester's new music ensemble and one of the UK's top
contemporary music groups, was formed in 1991 by its Artistic
Director Tim Williams and specialises in the performance of music
by living composers and that of the 20th and 21st centuries. The
ensemble has an extensive and varied repertoire of hundreds of
works and a reputation for technical assurance and interpretive
flair. Attracting attention from audiences and music press
internationally, it won the Manchester Evening News Award for Opera
in 2000 and has twice been shortlisted for a prestigious Royal
Philharmonic Society award. Psappha has commissioned and premiered
many works by a wide range of composers including the award-winning
music-theatre work, Mr Emmet Takes a Walk, by its Patron,
Peter Maxwell Davies, also recorded by the original
performers.
Psappha has appeared throughout the UK, featuring regularly at
most of the country's major music festivals, including the BBC
Proms, in special Henze and Maxwell Davies portrait series and in
the recent Bernstein Project at London's Southbank Centre, and in a
residency at the St. Magnus Festival, Orkney in 2009. To celebrate
its landmark 20th anniversary in 2011, Psappha has lined up an
exciting and diverse array of commissions from John Casken, Sally
Beamish, Gordon McPherson and Ian Wilson.
It has made highly successful tours to North and South America,
Australia, Belgium, France, Holland, Ireland, Jersey, Portugal and
Spain and this season appears in the United States as part of a
residency at Princeton University. Having made a number of
recordings on various labels, Psappha launched its own CD label in
2004 with Maxwell Davies's Eight Songs for a Mad King and
Miss Donnithorne's Maggot. The most recent release, Busted
Micro Shorts, features music by Steven Mackey.
Appointed Contemporary Ensemble in Residence at the University of
Manchester in 2010, Psappha encourages the breaking down of
barriers between artistic and educational experiences, inspiring
creativity and the exchange of ideas with students through
interactive and collaborative projects. Autumn 2010 saw the launch
of 'Composition Lab', an online resource designed to accompany the
composition element of GCSE and A-level music. Tireless champions
of the music of today, Psappha is continually seeking to develop
new audiences, breaking fresh ground in its innovative development
of the digital dissemination of its work through free-to-view films
of live performances on its website. Psappha welcomes people of all
ages to try something new, and become involved with the ensemble
and its composers through its online resources, in performances and
projects and at its pre- and post-concert events.
Keep informed about Psappha's activities by signing up to its regular e-newsletter on www.psappha.com
May 2010