Katrina Penman was born in London in 1982 and began flute and piano lessons  with Helen Duffy. She studied composition and arrangement with Dr Timothy Bowers. She was a Scholar at the Royal College of Music as a flute student of Jaime Martin from 2001 to 2005, also studying piccolo with Stewart McIlwham.  

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In 2003 Katrina studied as an ERASMUS student at Berlin's Universitat der Kunste, meanwhile performing as solo piccolo with the Sibelius Orchester at the Konzerthaus during the 2003-4 season.

 

Katrina carried out postgraduate studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome, and at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where she studied for two years with Davide Formisano and Maurizio Simeoli.  

 

In 2006 she began to perform on both flute and piccolo with the orchestra of Teatro alla Scala under conductors such as Dudamel, Chailly and Harding, and subsequently performed with the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Pappano and Termirkanov, and the Symphonica d’Italia under Lorin Maazel, touring extensively in Europe and Asia.  

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As a chamber musician, she has performed at St Martin in the Fields, National Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Teatro Filodrammatici, Milan, Universitat Der Kunste, Berlin, Universities of Burgos, Soria, Valladolid and Salamanca (Spain), Museum of Modern Art, Nice, and many other venues in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal and Switzerland.

 

She has performed as a soloist with the orchestra of the Portuguese Flute Association, the orchestra of Valladolid University and the Grove Orchestra (UK). 

 

In 2009 Katrina moved to Spain, and over the last ten years she has played with several of the major symphony orchestras in the country (Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana with Placido Domingo, Sinfónica de Castilla y León with Vasily Petrenko, Leonard Slatkin, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Jesús López Cobos and many others).

 

She has performed works by different contemporary composers with her group Trio Rigoletto, giving premieres of works by Pablo Toribio and Mark Fish at the flute conventions of Great Britain (2014), Spain (2016) and Portugal (2016).  They recently released their debut CD "Trio Rigoletto", of traditional flute trio repertoire, on Spotify.  

The original CD release (2014) and subsequent tour was sponsored by Powell Flutes España. 

 

Some of Katrina’s own compositions have been premiered by ensembles such as AFLAUP (Association of Flautists of Portugal), by whom she was also awarded a composition prize, and published by Sonata Ediciones.  

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In 2019 she was a prizewinner in the composition competition organised by "The Flute View" for the Galway Flute Festival, in honour of Sir James Galway's 80th birthday.  Her piece was premiered the same year at the Festival, in Weggis, Switzerland by a group of world class flutists.  This, and other pieces, have been published by Brotons & Mercadal.

Katrina's music has been performed extensively by teachers and students at different music conservatories around Spain.  She has conducted concerts of her own works at the conservatory of Segovia and at the Royal Conservatorio of Madrid. 

 

Katrina has worked for several years as music arranger and flute teacher for the Sinfonica de Castilla y León’s educational project called “In Crescendo".  She has taught at a number of different music academies, and has given masterclasses at the Conservatorio Superior in Seville. She currently teaches at Simancas Music School.

 

She is music director and arranger for three different productions by Teloncillo theatre company in collaboration with Quinteto Respira, with whom she has given well over 100 performances all over Spain.  

  

Current projects include compositions for flute, piccolo and guitar for Dúo Lugares Comunes' latest venture which focuses on women in culture, combining music and poetry. Music from this project, together with guitarist and writer María Elena de Prada, was performed by the authors at the 50th National Flute Convention of the USA in Chicago in August 2022.  

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Other events in 2022 include recitals of Katrina's complete works for solo flute and flute & piano with pianist Claudia Vior at different conservatories and chamber festivals, the premier of her trio for flute, viola and cello at the Música & Mujeres Festival in Valladolid by Luz Sonora trio, presentation at the Auditori Barcelona of Katrina's compositions through performances by students of the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya.

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In 2023, Katrina has won several prizes for original composition:

Global Genius Music Awards (London) - Grand Prize Winner

World Gran Prix International Music Contest - First Prize Winner

European Classical Music Awards - Gold Prize & Artist of the Month

Vienna Classical Music Academy - Honourable Mention

Akademia Music Awards, Los Angeles - Winner "Classical Song"

Global Music Awards (California) - Silver Medal 

 

She was commissioned by the Spanish flute society (AFE) to write the competition piece for the 2023 convention, which took place in Malaga.  Katrina also served as a member of the jury.   

 

In summer 2023, Katrina travelled to Brazil to perform a recital of her own works at the ABRAF Brazilian Flute Society's Festival in Paraty, sponsored by Powell Flutes.  She also gave a masterclass at the University of Rio de Janeiro. 

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Much of Katrina's work is influenced by traditional music from around the world, and she continues to enjoy performing as a Celtic musician.  She also has a keen interest in early development, and offers regular music workshops for young families.   

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