Cara Houghton – flute, piccolo, alto flute
Sarah Austen – soprano and alto saxophone, clarinet, flute
Jessica Tomlinson – clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
Eleanor Mills – bassoon, baritone saxophone, clarinet
Chameleon are a versatile woodwind ensemble with a mission to Create, Empower, and Share music with audiences young and old, far and wide. Their performances feature an impressive array of up to 13 woodwind instruments split between only four members, with the quartet seamlessly transitioning between them to showcase the diversity of the woodwind family in an array of concerts, residencies and workshops.
Cara Houghton, Sarah Austen, Jessica Tomlinson and Eleanor Mills deliver visually exciting, accessible performances that explore an array of sound worlds. They step outside of the conventions of classical music performance, by re-imagining a wide range of repertoire from various settings and exploring the relationship between memorisation and movement work, always putting audience experience at the heart of what they do.
Chameleon are winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Award (2023), Making Music Recommended Artists (2024) and are Live Music Now artists specialising in SEND and primary school engagement. They were recipients of the RPS Enterprise Fund for “Virtually Live” in 2021, a concert series driven by a passion for connecting with their audience through conversation and interaction. Their performing and engagement projects work in tandem, with a firm belief that every piece of music can be understood and enjoyed by anyone.
Since their creation at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2016, Chameleon have been awarded the June Emerson Launchpad Prize (2017), have won the Trevor Wye Woodwind Prize (2017) and the Brodsky Prize (2018), and were highly commended and won the audience vote for the Christopher Rowland Chamber Music Competition (2018) at the RNCM.
Graduates from the RNCM, RCM, Trinity Laban, University of Leeds and University of Nottingham, they have individual playing credits with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaleidoscope Orchestra, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, JAMES, Hope Mill Theatre and Thursford Christmas Spectacular. Through their engagement work, they have worked with London Sinfonietta, Wigmore Hall Chamber Tots, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Music for Life and The Rig, and are musicians in residence at SEND schools in the North West.
Chameleon often get told that they “look like they’re having fun on stage” – and it is absolutely true!
