KALEIDOSCOPE CHAMBER COLLECTIVE
Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, hailed for its “exhilarating performances” (The Times), was dreamed up in 2017 by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, who met through the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. Kaleidoscope’s flexible roster features many of today’s most inspirational musicians, both instrumentalists and singers, and its creative programming is marked by an ardent commitment to celebrating diversity of all forms and a desire to unearth lesser-known gems of the repertoire.
In 2020, Kaleidoscope was appointed Associate Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, where the group makes multiple appearances each season, and was invited to give the Hall’s 120th birthday concert in May 2021. Kaleidoscope broadcasts regularly on BBC Radio 3 and has recently been ensemble-in-residence at Kettle’s Yard, Ischia Music Festival, Chamber Music by the Sea (Maryland USA), and Cheltenham Festival, where the group gave several world premieres and collaborated with Sir Simon Russell Beale and the cast of The Lehman Trilogy.
Kaleidoscope’s debut recording for Chandos Records, American Quintets, features music by Amy Beach, Florence Price, and Samuel Barber. It received glowing reviews, was awarded Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, and immediately led to an invitation to record a series of albums for the label.
Passionate about inspiring the next generation of musicians, Kaleidoscope has featured in Wigmore Hall’s Learning Festival and directed courses for the Benedetti Foundation.
For more info, please visit KaleidoscopeCC.com
COMPOSING
Tom composed music through his childhood and teenage years, most ambitiously writing two chamber operas (based on short stories of Oscar Wilde) before his 14th birthday. Following a compositional hiatus in his twenties as his performing career took off (though he continued to make arrangements of Great American Songbook favourites), he has recently returned to writing music.
Recent commissions include two pieces for Alison Balsom, Turn to the Watery World! (a piece about unusual sea creatures which includes perhaps the first musical depiction of a blobfish) and The Thoughts of Dr May (inspired by Queen guitarist Brian May, and recorded for Warner Classics); and The Depraved Appetite of Tarrare the Freak, a chamber opera for Wattle & Daub, which enjoyed a critically acclaimed three-week run at Wilton’s Music Hall in 2017 - please see clip for a taster.
In April 2019, Tom premiered his short song cycle, The Turning Year, with Matthew Rose at Wigmore Hall, and his reworking of songs by Cole Porter and Kurt Weill was premiered by Claire Booth and Alisdair Hogarth at the 2018 Lammermuir Festival and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. A full-length musical for Wattle & Daub, inspired by the extraordinary life of Dr James Barry, is currently in progress.
UNUSUAL-NOSED ANIMAL OF THE MONTH - Saiga Antelope
