On CHROMA's live performances:

Barber of Seville, Iford Opera Festival June/July 2009
Director André Heller-Lopez, conductor Andrew Griffiths

***** "Productions such as this could single-handedly reverse opera’s dwindling fortunes if performed in a city square. Rather than any rarefied high-art ideal, it is the upfront, street-theatre feel of this 1960s-set production of Rossini’s opera buffa that imbues it with knee-weakening charm... this is a cast that oozes youthful charisma. Add the zingy playing of chamber ensemble Chroma and the stunning setting, and you have an unparalleled pleasure from start to finish."
Anna Britten, MetroLife 25 June 2009

The Black Angels programme, Cardiff February 2009

**** "George Crumb's seminal work Black Angels began as an examination of the polarity between the devil and God and ended up as an anti-war statement. In a programme exploring the nature of conflict, Chroma have used Crumb's quartet as the backdrop for four new pieces. It was thought-provoking, not least because it came just days after Guantánamo detainees had spoken at Cardiff University.
Matthew Sansom's calming electro-acoustic prelude, muraqabah, made the tone of Dai Fujikura's Poison Mushroom for solo flute and electronics all the more potent. Kathryn Thomas's sharply focused playing conveyed the terror of the Hiroshima bombing, with the pitter-patter of contaminated raindrops and the flute's dying breaths the most potent of all.
Julian Grant's septet, Strike Opponent's Ears With Both Fists, based on a fundamental of Taijiquan martial arts, moves from a point of stillness to a powerful engagement of his forces. By contrast, John Cooney's sextet, Songlines, progressed from the unison of strings, flute and clarinet to more independently asserted lines.
Arlene Sierra's sextet Surrounded Ground was a 2008 commission by the exemplary Chroma. Sierra reflects her disquiet at the militarism of her native US by using instruments to mirror a strategy from Sun Tzu's military treatise The Art of War. In the fast-firing Egress, the last of the three movements, the conviction reaches an intense peak.

All four works reinforced the impact of the Crumb quartet, hauntingly delivered by the Chroma players, its ghostly quotations a gentle chiding of man's inability to learn from the past. "
Rian Evans, The Guardian February 2009

"Set amongst a number of local festive concerts, reflections and carols by candlelight, CHROMA completed their Winter Wonderland series of Music for Christmas with a stunning evening of Skempton and Bach at Warwick's warmest venue – the Unitarian Chapel.
...Fine viola (Rose Redgrave)/cello (Clare O'Connell) duets were supported by Emily Davis's strong violin playing – all blending so well. They were joined by accomplished accordion player, Howard Skempton, for three Bach Chorales - the added accordion enabled the performance of the four-part harmonisation of these tunes and brought an evening of truly remarkable playing to a thoroughly pleasing climax. Verdict: A gem of an evening"
Leamington Courier Jan 09

"The Cumnor Affair" composed by Philip Cashian, libretto by Iain Pears
with Tête à Tête opera company November 2008

“Much of the character is within the tiny orchestra (CHROMA, half visible throughout), with wind instruments carrying the mystery, percussion the menace”
Nick Kimberley Evening Standard Nov 08

“Cashian’s skill is to mke the true mystery that of the human heart. His score, for CHROMA’s tiny ensemble of seven players, conducted by Tim Murray, is an electrocardiogram of Dudley’s heart, torn between a wife he loves and a Queen he adores.
Counterpointing his own long lines, first of ennui, then of impassioned mourning, is a sinister spooking of percussion, and a tense cross-hatching of violin, cello, flute and clarinet, as the courtiers William Cecil and Sir Francis Walsingham play out their own equally dark and complex loyalties.”
Hilary Finch, The Times, Nov 08

"Blind Date" - six opera shorts, with Tête à Tête opera company November 2007:

"expert playing from the ensemble CHROMA under Tim Murray's alert baton "
George Hall, The Guardian, Nov 2007

"The progeny of speed-dated librettists and composers as workshopped at Tete a Tete’s inaugural opera festival last August, Blind Date emerges now as polished full-length entertainment. Its six components, expertly projected by singers, ensemble and musical director Tim Murray are economically but memorably presented on a sparsely furnished open stage suffused with red light. "
David Gutman, The Stage, Nov 2007

"Odysseus Unwound" - composed by Julian Grant, libretto by Hattie Naylor
with Tête à Tête opera company, October-November 2006:

"the top-notch chamber ensemble CHROMA"
Erica Jeal, The Guardian 13 Oct 2006

"so beautifully played by CHROMA under Tim Murray, and so very well sung and acted that this shoe-string touring production is a must-see" Anna Picard, The Independent 22 October 2006

On Spital Fields - A Community Cantata, composer Jonathan Dove
(winner of the RPS Music Award 2006 for Education)
Christ Church, Spitalfields Festival June 2005:

"Musical alchemy creates perfect gem... a brilliant kaleidoscope of colour and mood, zestful and touching in equal measure, its exhilarating performance here a glowing tribute to the community spirit." Geoffrey Norris in The Telegraph 24 June 2005

"This brilliant 75-minute cantata is the best piece of community music-making I have seen in several years ... Dove also used the chamber ensemble CHROMA to produce both sinister shadows and moments of ethereal beauty, including one exquisitely calm, quasi-Elizabethan song for solo soprano and harp." The Times 24 June 2005

"At the medieval priory of Ewenny in Bridgend, it is as much the resonance of history as the acoustic that makes concerts such a vivid experience. On September 6, the players of the ensemble CHROMA used the reverberance to their advantage, creating some fine tone colours and harmonics: first in John Cooney's Chasing Shadows and then in the String Quartet no.2, Ring of Waves, by Gabriel Jackson. Here first violinist Marcus Barcham-Stevens brought a soaring beauty to phrases reminiscent of the pastoral ecstasy of Vaughan Williams.

CHROMA's cellist Clare O'Connell gave an evocative performance of two movements from Peter Reynolds' Suite for Cello: her tender tone lent a poignant edge to the lyrical barcarolle, while the eerie but atmospheric moto perpetuo was well controlled."
Rian Evans in the STRAD - December 2004

"CHROMA played with an unabashed and infectious passion... A fine example of the hidden gems the Festival can occasionally produce, a huge standing ovation came as no great surprise. More, please!"
THIS IS BRIGHTON AND HOVE - May 2004 - Ed Hughes' "In Memory of Colour" at the Brighton Festival

"The remarkable young chamber group CHROMA"
BIRMINGHAM POST - April 2003 - Bromsgrove 'Mixing Music' series

"Taking the disturbing grotesqueries of Goya's Los Caprichos as its starting-point, this sparky piece accumulates great kinetic energy. Violin, cello and the hyperactive piano often provide percussive effects to season the occasional long-breathed melody from clarinet and violin, and the whole piece exploits with tremendous success the natural empathy of the CHROMA players, to whom it is dedicated."
BIRMINGHAM POST - April 2003 - world première of Caprichos by Philip Cashian

"Featuring three wind soloists in turn, (Ritual Songs and Blessings) proved to be a beautifully constructed composition for seven musicians from the excellent young group CHROMA"
INDEPENDENT - June 20002 - Spitalfields Festival commission by Joseph Phibbs

"CHROMA could give such groups as the Nash and Endymion a run for their money...the cause of new music needs advocates like these"
DAILY TELEGRAPH - January 2001 - on CHROMA's South Bank debut

"The mixed ensemble CHROMA showed itself quite a find too - the Nash and Endymion had better start watching out"
THE CLASSICAL SOURCE - January 2001

"Ensemble playing of incomparable splendour"
HUDDERSFIELD EXAMINER - 2001

"Technically skilled and polished, the five young CHROMA instrumentalists were outstanding"
SHEFFIELD TELEGRAPH - 2000

"A fine sense of ensemble"
DAILY TELEGRAPH - 2001

On CHROMA's debut CD out on RiverRun records:

"**** - finely played by the ensemble CHROMA"
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE - December 2001 - a four-star rating

"A very welcome arrival on the chamber music scene...their excellent playing and interpretation is apparent throughout"
MUSICIAN'S UNION MAGAZINE - December 2001

"CHROMA's performance is exquisite...this is a CD for playing on a balmy summer evening with figs and Chablis to hand"
THE CLASSICAL SOURCE - January 2002