Imogen Burman, BA (Hons)
Imogen Burman graduated in Music, majoring in performance on the cello, from Dartington College of Arts. She has worked as an administrator for Dame Emma Kirkby and the Consort of Musicke, EMI, Finchcocks Musical Museum, Dartington International Summer School and as Production and Services Manager at the British Music Information Centre, where she managed the New and Contemporary Voices composers schemes.
Imogen’s main areas of specialism is contemporary British classical music, and she has had several pieces dedicated to her by leading composers, including Michael Finnissy, Tansy Davies, Laurence Crane and Dave Smith. She also worked closely with many early music performers, and she was in the vocal group Vox Animae, recording a CD and filming a DVD of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, and performing at the York Early Music Festival, The Hildegard Conference in Germany, Copenhagen Early Music Festival (plus broadcast on Danish Radio) and Dartington International Summer School.
She has also worked with many internationally renowned conductors and ensembles during her time at Dartington International Summer School, including the Dufay Collective, Il Fagiolini, Anthony Rooley, Emma Kirkby, Jiří Bělohlávek and Robert Tear. As a cellist, Imogen regularly performs with Sinfonia Tamesa, and has worked on the BBC TV series Maestro, where she was “conducted” by Sue Perkins, Goldie, Alex James (from Blur) and Bradley Walsh. She is currently playing with the band Amphibic, fronted by singer-songwriter Neal Hoffmann.
Having travelled across 28½ countries on a motorbike, she joined the Department of Music in January 2008, where she expanded the annual PureGold Music Festival, which has grown from a two week event to over six weeks and fifty-plus concerts, including opera, popular music, world, electronics, chamber and vocal music.
Imogen is also an active sports woman, having studied Shodokan Aikido for over 7 years, training in Japan at the Shodokan Aikido Hombu (Headquarters) and has competed both nationally and internationally, gaining gold, silver and bronze medals in UK Championships.