Counterpoise is a highly acclaimed ensemble consisting of some of the most sought-after instrumentalists in the UK. It was formed in 2008 to give the first performances of a new work, On the Edge, commissioned from the outstanding young English composer Edward Rushton, with text by Dagny Gioulami and visuals by Syl Betulius. Its programmes cross musical genres and explore the relationship between music, poetry and visual elements, seeking also to develop aspects of narrative and other extra-musical influences.
A flexible line-up including trumpet, saxophone/clarinet, trombone and piano enables composers to create new soundworlds and to experiment with challenging fusions of music, text and visuals. The ensemble went on to commission a second work from Rushton, Pandora – Organic Machine, and several others from leading composers. These included three commissions from John Casken (Deadly Pleasures, Kokoschka’s Doll and The Shackled King), as well as works from David Matthews (Actaeon), Charlotte Bray (Soft City), Russell Hepplewhite (Urban Abstract), Jean Hasse (scores for the silent films The Fall of the House of Usher, Ghosts Before Breakfast, Arthème Swallows his Clarinet and The Devilish Tenant) and Ross Lorraine (Not More Lovely). Other notable works in the ensemble’s repertory include HK Gruber’s Expulsion from Paradise, Walton’s Façade, Britten’s Cabaret Suite and works by Piazzolla, Mauricio Kagel, Heiner Goebbels, as well as melodramas by Strauss, Grieg and Liszt.
Counterpoise has been privileged to work with such acclaimed artists as Sir John Tomlinson, Susan Bullock, Sir Willard White, Eleanor Bron, Donald Maxwell, Rozanna Madylus and the late Richard Angas and has appeared at the Cheltenham, Buxton, Wimbledon, Brighton, Deal, Petworth and Newbury Festivals, as well as other significant venues up and down the country including Kings Place (London), Holywell Music Room (Oxford) and St George’s Bristol.
The ensemble is proud to have been supported by such bodies as Arts Council England, PRS for Music, the Holst, Steegmann, John S. Cohen and Tippett foundations, the Vaughan Williams and Ida Carroll trusts and a number of generous individuals to all of whom we are enormously grateful.
‘delivered by Counterpoise with aplomb’, The Times
‘weird and wonderful’, The Independent
‘crisply narrated … and deftly played’, The Independent on Sunday
Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong

Cassiopeia writes: I’m a director, writer and performer from Croydon, passionate about new writing in theatre and opera. My creative practice focuses on collaborating with others to reimagine canonic material and creating original work which champions global majority voices. Music is an integral part of all my work and I’m always exploring new ways to enrich and expand how we tell stories through music on stage. My portfolio of work encompasses writing, directing, devising, dramaturgy, performing, composing and workshop facilitation. I also regularly work in drama schools and higher education settings.
I studied Music at the University of York and then trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Music so musical storytelling is a cornerstone of my practice and I regularly work as a dramaturg on projects which include a musical element. I am also co-founder of Speaks of Rivers, a physical theatre company who use puppetry, spoken word and music to create original stories for young audiences. Some of my highlights as a performer include making my West End debut in Caroline, or Change, understudying three roles in Into the Woods at Theatre Royal Bath and being part of the original cast of Just For One Day at the Old Vic theatre. My debut play Shuck ’n’ Jive co-written with Simone Ibbett-Brown premiered at Soho Theatre and is published by Oberon Modern Plays; it also streamed as part of Soho’s first on-demand film festival. I’m super excited to be creating a new work for babies (aged 6–18 months!), Home Songa, a co-production between Talawa and Unicorn Theatre which will premiere in 2025.
WEBSITE – Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong
Yshani Perinpanayagam

‘Perinpanayagam is a modern day musical polyglot.’
Opera Now
As a multi-genre pianist and music director, Yshani has performed at venues from the Wigmore Hall to the London Palladium, at events from the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the Barbican Mime Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Nina Conti. She is pianist of the Del Mar Piano Trio and Carismático Tango Band, a regular improvising pianist with The Comedy Store Players and guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.
Yshani was music director/conductor for the triple-Olivier winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Ruination at the Royal Opera House, Street Scene for Opéra Bastille, Passion starring Ruthie Henshall, Poppea for English Touring Opera, Goat for Rambert Dance Company/Lost Dog Dance, the circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, Les Noces for New Movement Collective, and for the Olivier award-winning Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier-winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy, a collaboration between the Royal Opera House and Little Bulb Theatre. She has more recently been the music director of the new music theatre work The F**gots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Philip Venables and Ted Huffman, co-commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Southbank Centre, Bregenzer Festspiele and NYU Center in New York City.
Yshani’s commitment to contemporary music has seen her premiere works by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall, Benjamin Oliver, Alex Paxton, Kate Whitley and others. Her commissions for piano, Commodore 64 and bespoke 8-bit synthesisers have been performed at the National Theatre Riverstage, The Place Theatre and the All Your Bass National Videogames Arcade festival. As a composer herself, commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, OAE, St Martin’s Voices and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn, with her arrangements performed by CHROMA, Chineke! and for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s Share Sound.
WEBSITE – Yshani Perinpanayagam
Deborah Calland

‘A superb recital by the notable trumpeter Deborah Calland’
(Malcolm Miller, Musical Opinion)
Deborah Calland has given trumpet and organ recitals in the USA, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, as well as venues throughout the United Kingdom, and has performed concertos with, among others, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Virtuosi di Kuhmo (Finland) and the Britten Sinfonia. She has also appeared as a recitalist at many of the major festivals in England, such as the Cheltenham and City of London.
She has a special interest in contemporary music and has played an active role in increasing the repertoire for the instrument, receiving the award of the ARAM in recognition of her achievement. Compositions have been written for her by the British composers Hugh Wood, Robin Holloway, Sally Beamish, Diana Burrell, Jonathan Dove, Huw Watkins, Rhian Samuel, and John Hawkins, as well as the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara and Bent Lorentzen from Denmark. She has also given British premieres of works by Peter Sculthorpe and Aulis Sallinen. A CD of contemporary British music for trumpet and organ, recorded by Deux-Elles at Douai Abbey with organist William Whitehead, was released in 2006 to critical acclaim.
Amy Green

Amy is one of the leading saxophonists of her generation both as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including receiving the Royal College of Music’s coveted Tagore Gold Medal for the most outstanding student.
As a soloist, Amy has given recitals at the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, Cadogan Hall, St Martin in the Fields and St John’s Smith Square, and performed in the BBC Proms Plus series broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Amy has also given recitals throughout the UK as part of the Countess of Munster Trust recital scheme and was awarded the Making Music Philip and Dorothy Green Award for Young Concert Artists in 2015, in the same year making her Wigmore Hall debut as a YCAT finalist.
During her studies Amy was selected to play in the Rising Stars concert series at Cadogan Hall, London, for four successive years, won the Melber Saxophone Competition, and was the first saxophonist ever to win the Edward and Helen Hague Senior Woodwind Prize. She has since twice been a selected Park Lane Group Artist.
Amy is a passionate teacher and educator. She is the saxophone teacher at the Purcell School of Music and has given masterclasses and workshops at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the University of Southampton and the University of Aberdeen.
Andrew Connington

Andrew Connington is principal trombone of the English National Ballet Philharmonic and trombonist with the Riot Ensemble. He regularly plays principal trombone with the London Chamber Orchestra and also freelances with many of the UK’s orchestras and on the West End’s Lion King. He is active in the recording studio and appears on many CDs and film soundtracks such as Zero Dark Thirty and The Hobbit.
Andrew was the trombone soloist in ‘Orchestra Finalists’, part of Birmingham Opera Company’s production of Stockhausen’s Mittwoch aus Licht at the 2012 Cultural Olympics. He studied at Chetham’s School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London.
WEBSITE –Andrew Connington
Emily Ling Williams

Emily directed A Playlist for the Revolution by AJ Yi at the Bush Theatre for which she won the Stage Debut Award for Best Director. A Playlist was chosen as one of the Stage’s Top 50 shows of 2023. Other directing credits include Angus Harrison’s Polko at Paines Plough’s Roundabout, The Full Works, The Key Workers Cycle by Josh Elliott at the Almeida, text me when you’re home by Zia Ahmed as part of Five Plays at the Young Vic and Wasted by Chanel Fernandes and Kane Feagan for the Lyric Hammersmith’s Evolution Festival.
She has also directed shows at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, LAMDA and Rose Bruford College. As an associate/assistant director she has worked at the Almeida, Headlong, Young Vic, Chichester Festival Theatre, Arcola and Paines Plough.
Emily has also completed the Soho Theatre Writers Lab and has an MSc in International Politics from SOAS.
She has most recently been attached to direct an adaptation of the best-selling children’s book Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid of Ghosts for Polka Theatre.
WEBSITE –Emily Ling-Williams