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Carla Rees - flute/composer • Sarah Thurlow - clarinet 
Alexandra Wood - violin • Oliver Wilson - viola 
Sarah Suckling - cello • Huw Watkins - piano/composer 
Charles Wiffen - piano 

Players' Biographies

Carla Rees is a leading alto flute specialist, playing the world¹s first fully quarter-tone Kingma System alto flute, an instrument for which she has commissioned numerous works. She studied flute and composition at the RCM where she was a Junior Fellow. She now holds teaching posts at Wycombe Abbey School and Nottingham University. Carla is the Artistic Director of the ensemble rarescale.

Sarah Thurlow studied as a scholar and Junior Fellow at the RCM. She has given solo recitals at the Purcell Room, Bridgewater Hall and St John¹s Smith Square and has performed concertos with the Philharmonia and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Sarah works as a freelance orchestral musician, and has appeared with the LSO and as guest principal clarinet of both the BBC Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Alexandra Wood studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge, winning the Wort University Prize, before study at the RCM where she held a Junior Fellowship. She won the International Young Musicians Platform, the Countess of Munster Star Award and Haverhill Sinfonia International Soloists Competition, and has given recitals at the Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall. Alexandra has performed concertos with the Orchestra of St John¹s, and the City of London Sinfonia.

Oliver Wilson read Classics at Cambridge before studying the viola at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan and Edsberg Kammarmusik-institutionen in Sweden. He has performed with the music theatre group 'Gogmagogs' and is a member of Continuum. He has also performed with Orchestre Romantique et Revolutionaire in Paris, English Baroque Soloists, London Mozart Players, and Ensemble Cymru.

Sarah Suckling read music at Selwyn College, Cambridge where she was an instrumental scholar. She has given performances throughout Europe, Australia and the Far East, and has appeared as a soloist for BBC Radio 3 and at the South Bank. Sarah is the cellist in Errollyn Wallen¹s Ensemble X, and she also freelances with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. John¹s, English National Opera, and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Charles Wiffen has performed extensively in the UK and internationally, including at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, as solo pianist and chamber musician. He has recorded a number of commercial CDs and broadcast live for BBC Radio 3 and Classic FM. Charles teaches at the Royal College of Music, Bath Spa University and Trinity College of Music, and has taught at the Dartington International Summer School since 1998.

Huw Watkins studied at King's College, Cambridge and the RCM where he is now a professor of composition. He is regularly heard on BBC Radio 3, both as a piano soloist and with artists such as Daniel Hope, Nicholas Daniel and Alexandra Wood. In 2002 he gave the first performance of his own piano concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, for whom he later composed his Double Concerto for viola and cello, commissioned by the BBC Proms 2005. Huw Watkins' music is published by Schott.