Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade: The Composers’ Fund
Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade is a composer and cellist based in Edinburgh. Composing for old, new, and damaged instruments, her past projects have included works for symphony orchestra, viols and theorbo, string and percussion quartets, a homemade glass harmonica, the Princeton University carillon, and a fire-damaged piano. Currently a composer-in-residence at Glyndebourne (2019-22), Ninfea has also participated in the the 2019-20 London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s 2018-19 Composers’ Hub. She was awarded the UK’s Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize (2015) and a composition fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center (2017), before receiving a commission to write ‘Table Talk’ – a large ensemble brass work – for the 2018 Tanglewood Music Festival. 2020 sees the continued circulation of her work in the United States, including performances of ‘Three études for piano and flower pots’ (2019) by members of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles. Other recent commissions include works for Glyndebourne Youth Opera and the Presteigne Festival.
In 2020 Ninfea was awarded the Psappha Ensemble’s Peter Maxwell Davies Commission and will create a new work for sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun and chamber ensemble. Her PRS Composers’ Fund grant will enable her to have sitar lessons with Degun and to purchase an instrument to study on, as well as covering the costs of a studio filming session to be made shortly after the premiere. The project will be shared through Psappha’s video channel on YouTube, and the composition will tour to different regions of the UK.