Bones Apart
Formed in 1999, the all-female trombone quartet Bones Apart has quickly established itself as one of the world's leading young chamber ensembles.
Winners of the prestigious Royal Over-Seas League Competition, Rio Tinto Ensemble Prize and Miller Trophy, Bones Apart has performed at major UK venues including London's Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, St. Martin-in-the-Fields as well as regular appearances on BBC Television and Radio, Classic FM and feature articles with The Independent, The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Evening Standard, Time Out Magazine, Manchester Evening News, Muso Magazine, Classical Music Magazine, Musical Opinion and The Brass Herald.
They were guest artists for the International Trombone Festival in Utrecht, Holland (2000) and Texas (2002), International Women's Brass Conference (Illinois), and also the 2003 Spanish Brass Festival (Alzira). Most recent tours have included performances at the British Embassy in Zürich, Switzerland, the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Hollywood, Los Angeles, a return visit to Spain for the trombone festival in Muro de Alcoy and they also organized their own hectic touring schedule giving clinics at Universities in Houston, Cleveland and Kentucky. Future tours include Japan and New Orleans and France.
Committed to raising the profile of the trombone and live music in the community, the group has strong relationships with numerous schools across the United Kingdom, and abroad, performing to thousands of children through its educational programmes. They have taken part in the BBC Music Live Festival, regularly perform for Yehudi Menuhin's Live Music Now! scheme and have recently been added as Ambassadors to Youth Music’s Endangered and Protected Species Project.
The diversity of their concert programmes incorporates not only theatre and costume, but music of all styles and genres including baroque, classical, romantic, latin, jazz, contemporary and popular as well as numerous commissioned works for trombone quartet by composers such as John Kenny, Gary Carpenter and trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg.
Of their second CD No More Blues, The Trombonist magazine said the disc showed "great virtuosity . . . dazzling dexterity . . . versatile style and sound" and MUSO magazine's recent poll of The Most Gifted – and Glamorous – In the Music Business described Bones Apart as "the truly awesome, phwoarsome foursome".
The members of the ensemble - Carol Jarvis, Becky Smith, Becca Harper and Lorna McDonald - also perform as soloists and freelancers in the major orchestras and ensembles across the UK and Europe, including the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Andy Prior Big Band, BBC Concert Orchestra, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Roy Wood's Army, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Portugal’s Remix Ensemble, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Scottish Opera and World Brass.
Visit the group's site at www.bonesapart.com.