Northerly Winds (NW5) have played to much acclaim since their formation, with performances across the North West, featuring the Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester and Sheffield Cathedral. The success of the quintet’s first year as an ensemble has led to invites to perform in the concert series at Bollington Chamber Society, Spring Bank Arts, WACIDOM, Stockton Heath Music Society, Crosby Music Festival and more.

 

The ensemble is formed from some of the top freelance musicians in the North West, whose individual playing credits include with, amongst others, the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Concert Orchestra, English National Ballet, London Concert Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Each member has studied at the UK’s top conservatoires, graduating from the Royal Northern College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and have further orchestral training with Southbank Sinfonia and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Their love for music, but especially chamber music has brought them together.

 

The ensemble have strong links with outreach and education, receiving funding to spend a day workshopping and performing with students at Bury Grammar School and Holy Cross College, and have hosted outreach days, working with charities such as Archer and Unmasked Mental Health.

 

NW5 always include elements of diversity in their programmes and are passionate about performing and promoting music that may not receive the representation it deserves. They gave the second known UK performance of a quintet by Mary Howe (first woman in the music faculty at New York University) and were gifted a copy of the quintet work ‘Fleeting Images’, to perform by award winning composer, Florence Maunders. The group are in the middle of an ongoing project to raise funding to commission brand new works for quintet to improve the diversity in Chamber repertoire and ensure audiences and musicians of the future feel represented in the classical music world.