Biography
Trio Anima was formed in 2006 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. For the past decade, they have been delighting audiences with their distinctive combination of flute, viola and harp. The trio won the Elias Fawcett Award for Outstanding Chamber Ensemble at the 2012 Royal Overseas League Competition & First Prize at the Camac Harps Chamber Ensemble Competition in 2007. They have been Live Music Now Artists, and were awarded a Chamber Music Fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2011. In 2017 they were selected as Kirckman Concert Society Artists.
Three outstanding musicians of their generation form this fine chamber ensemble: Matthew Featherstone is the principal flute of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and has appeared as guest principal with orchestras such as Britten Sinfonia, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, & the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He won the Royal Overseas League Wind Prize in 2012. Violist Rosalind Ventris has performed with Mitsuko Uchida at Marlboro Festival, Tabea Zimmermann at the Wigmore Hall, & Gerhard Schultz at the Salzburg Festival. She won five prizes including Yuri Bashmet’s President’s Prize at the 2013 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and is a member of the Albion String Quartet. Anneke Hodnett pursues a busy career as a chamber and orchestral musician, playing as guest principal with orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia and the RTE National Symphony Orchestra
Concert engagements have taken the trio across the UK and further afield. A highly successful tour of France included performances in Paris, Pithivers and the Orléans Conservatoire. Reports of this tour described their performance as "daring, audacious and simply magnificent". On the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme, they enjoyed a series of concerts at music clubs around the UK. Recent concerts in the 2017-2018 season have included The Music Room in Champs Hill and Cardiff University Concert Series. Other venues have included St. David’s Hall, Conway Hall, King's Place Gallery and Bishopsgate Institute.
Trio Anima has a strong commitment to expanding the repertoire for their ensemble, premiering works by composers such as Francisco Coll and Sasha Siem. The trio’s interest in contemporary music was reflected in a recital at St. Martin-in-the-Fields for their New Music Series, and performances at the Royal Opera House as part of the innovative “Operashots” series. They performed Sofia Gubaidulina's Garten Von Freuden Und Traurigkeiten, in the BBC Composers Festival: the composer was present at this concert and hailed the performance as "marvelous!" The trio are currently commissioning Scottish composer Rory Boyle to write them a new work.
