Katie Chatburn trained at the Royal Academy of Music followed by an MMus at the Royal Northern College of Music. In 2016 she was awarded the Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for her work within the music industry. She works as a professional composer, arranger / orchestrator and ‘cellist, specialising in the fields of film music, instrumental concert commissions and rock and pop string arranging.
In 2017 Katie formed Ignition Orchestra as conductor and arranger. Following their debut at Liverpool International Festival, the orchestra has performed to sell out audiences at venues including The Barbican and Eventim Apollo as part of the Garage Classical project. The project recently signed to Sony and the album (featuring Paloma Faith, Lily Allen, Raleigh Ritchie, Zak Abel and Emeli Sande) is now available. In July 2019 Ignition Orchestra performed as part of the 3 Beat 50th anniversary concert at LIMF Festival alongside Sigma, M22 andGeko.
Credits for arrangements and orchestrations include work for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV, including orchestration for dramas including Endeavour and Victoriaand original music for Radio 4 plays including the critically acclaimed Hunting of the Snark featuring Tony Robinson. Work on feature films includes orchestration and arranging work for Scott-Free production Labyrinth, The Next Human, This Beautiful Fantasticand Guy Ritchie’s The Man from UNCLE. Katie worked in the music department at Abbey Road for the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre assisting Global Music.
Katie has worked on arrangements for a range of newer and more established acts across the music industry including XamVolo, Imogen Heap, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Eleanor Nelly, Pizza Girl, Marillion, Essie Jain, Marc Carroll, Parka and Sub Blue and her original music commissions have been performed at venues and film festivals internationally. Katie has album credits for arrangements undertaken for Rough Trade and Jeepster records and works regularly with artists from the prestigious LIMF Academy.
Katie is also passionate about outreach work and has delivered workshops across different sectors of the community for Opera North, Liverpool Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Music for Youth. She was recently artistic director for Brighter Sound’s ‘Manchester Hill’ and composer/conductor on the city wide Peterloo events programme. As an academic and writer, Katie compiled a leading music publication for Bloomsbury Press The Musicians and Songwriters Yearbook and has contributed articles to various other academic music publications. She co-wrote the Royal Northern College of Music Popular Music degree on which she lectures part time on film music and composition. Katie has been invited to speak at conferences internationally and works as a consultant for education establishments across the UK, she is working on developing the popular music curriculum for ABRSM. Most recently Katie was awarded a Leverhulme Trust PhD scholarship to investigate the impact of sound within the city environment.