Naomi Atherton French horn and Dan Whibley double bass
Naomi and Dan recently organised a very successful graphic notation workshop for staff from some ‘Music for Life’ schools.
Naomi Atherton
Naomi studied horn at the Royal Northern College of Music with Michael Purton and Derek Taylor. During this time she won the brass final of the 1984 BBC’s Young Musician of the Year competition. This led to a variety of engagements including concertos with the BBC Philharmonic and Ulster Orchestras and recitals around the country.
Naomi is a member of Sheffield based Ensemble 360. She is also principal horn player with both the Manchester Camerata and Northern Chamber Orchestra with whom she has recorded numerous CDs.
Naomi and Dan organised a very successful graphic notation workshop for staff from some ‘Music for Life’ schools in 2009.
Dan Whibley
Dan is the ‘tallest double bass player in the world’ as well as the Assistant Principal Double Bass of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. He toured Japan with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra during 2011 and now has a permanent contract. He was born in Manchester and took up the double bass when he was 10 years old as he was already 6 feet tall and the orchestra needed a double bass player. Having failed his ‘O levels’ (GCSE’s) Daniel’s parents packed him off to Chetham’s School of Music and soon after the Royal Northern College of Music.
Since then Daniel has played all over the world with different orchestras and more recently spent a lot of time with children either with orchestras or as ‘Big Bass Dan’.
In the Hallé, he plays an active role within the education department and enjoys working with children of all ages, sometimes as young as 6 months!