Dynamite Island is a group of artists based in London and Manchester. We combine live music with elements of participatory art, theatre, cabaret, radio and more, looking for new ways of telling stories and exploring the places where music, theatre and real life bump up against each other.

We are made up of four core members, Thom Andrewes, Catherine Carter, Will Gardner and Miriam Sherwood, but we regularly collaborate with other artists.

Dynamite Island was founded in 2019, after almost 10 years working together on music theatre events, cross-genre concerts, and contemporary opera productions under different names.

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Thom Andrewes

Thom is a composer, performer and writer. He is interested in music as narrative, ritual and theatre, and its relationships to the real and the utopian.

His music theatre works include the vaporwave opera White-Haired Boy, Christmas Yet To Come and MLR, written for the charity Freedom from Torture.

As a music writer and critic, Thom’s work can be found at The Biting Point and The Night Mail. Publications include We Break Strings: The Alternative Classical Scene in London (Hackney Classical Press). He also curates the video–music archive States of Exception.

Thom is an associate of ERRATICA and a member of chamber-pop collective The Coveryard.

 
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Catherine Carter

Catherine is a performer and theatre maker. She sings, writes and composes and is a founding member of the children’s opera company HurlyBurly, classical chamber ensemble TROUPE and the Creative Director and co-founder of Fairbeats Music. Catherine also works regularly with the Scottish site-specific theatre arts company Oceanallover and is a long-standing collaborator of visual artist Chloe Langlois. Over the years Catherine has performed and made work with Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Erratica; Spitalfields Music Festival, Tate Britain; The Bascule Chamber Concerts; Aurora Orchestra; Birmingham Opera Company; Lost Dog and the Langham Research Centre.

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Will Gardner

Will is a composer and pianist who works across various different genres and practices.

Will began his music career in Berlin, working for composer Jonathan Bepler and artist Matthew Barney on River of Fundament, a groundbreaking operatic film project. It was described as "jaw-dropping cinematic art" (The Hollywood Reporter), and "a fully realised opera in its own right... there's nothing else quite like it." (The Guardian).

Will has also collaborated with Mercury Award winners alt-J & Grammy-nominated producer Jonny Coffer

Will also works as an orchestrator for film and television, and has orchestrated scores for Oceans 8, Sky Atlantic’s Tin Star, and BBC’s Dynasties.

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Miriam Sherwood

Miriam is a theatre-maker and producer who works with oral histories and documentary material to find inventive ways to tell true stories with the people who lived them.

Her work includes Eardrum, a durational performance where she shares embarrassing stories with strangers, The Real Reasons We Drink at the Ranelagh, which told the social history of the 150-year old London pub round the corner from where she grew up, and Rendezvous in Bratislava, a contemporary cabaret about her grandad co-created with Will and Thom.

As a producer and development manager she works with arts organisations and independent companies including Clod Ensemble, Battersea Arts Centre and Synergy Theatre Project.