Amy Bebbington is sought-after for her dynamic and engaging teaching style, her wealth of choral and pedagogical experience and is a passionate advocate for choral singing and choral conductor training. With degrees in Piano Performance (UK) and a Doctoral Degree in Choral Conducting (USA), Amy is the Director of Training for the Association of British Choral Directors and co-founder of the London International Choral Conducting Competition (LICCC).
Amy leads choral conducting masterclasses and teaches at international summer schools, including Cork, Limerick and Sherborne. He successful online training course, Choral Leadership and Pedogogy (CLP), created as a direct result of the pandemic, enabled her to engage, and share good practice with choral conductors from all over the world.
She was delighted to be a guest clinician at the Leading Voices Festival (The Netherlands) and at Chor.com (Germany), presenting sessions on kinaesthetic gestures, training emerging professionals and female composers. Known for her advocacy for female conductors and composers, she champions marginalised musicians through choral programming, Discovery Days and private mentoring.
Amy has choral works published by Banks Music Publications, Multitude of Voyces and Choral Music Publishing and is proud to be Musical Director of Corra Sound, Harlequin Chamber Choir, Nota Bene and Sempre Fidelis Singers. She is in demand as a leading choral clinician, adjudicator, mentor and teacher.
James Davey is one of the UK’s most distinguished and respected choral directors, in demand for his work as a conductor, choir trainer, choral education practitioner, arranger and adjudicator.
James is in demand across the UK and, at the heart of his busy schedule he is Musical Director of Chantage, winners of the Malta International Choral Competition Grand Prix 2015 and BBC Radio 3 Choir of the year 2006, the Chandos Chamber Choir, Amici Cantate, Halstead Choral and 4Tunes, the award-winning staff choir at Channel 4 TV in association with Music in Offices.
Formerly the chief choral advisor for the BBC’s sheet music archive, James has delivered projects for the BBC Singers Education Department as well as regularly conducting and preparing choirs for broadcasts on television and radio. He is also Director of ChoirFixer Limited, fixing professional ensembles for recording sessions and events for films, TV advertising and the entertainment industry. James is also a conducting tutor for the Association of British Choral Directors and the Association of Irish Choirs and is on the ABCD’s Council of Practitioners. In 2018 he co-founded the London International Choral Conducting Competition (LICCC), the first of its kind in the UK.
More recently he has been appointed Chorus Master of Saffron Opera Group, preparing Wagner’s epic opera scores for concert productions, including Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal and Tannhäuser.
Philip Ellis Since winning first prize at the Leeds International Conductors’ Competition in 1991 Philip has established a reputation as one of Britain’s most versatile conductors.
In this country he has worked with all the major London and provincial orchestras including broadcasts and television appearances with all the BBC orchestras. Abroad he has a busy schedule with orchestras in France, Belgium, Holland, Hong Kong, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Australia and Germany. Philip works extensively as a conductor for ballet.
He has been associated with the Royal Ballet since 1989 and regularly conducts many international companies in Italy, France, Australia, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Russia and Canada. He also has an extensive recording catalogue including discs with EMI, Nimbus, Universal and BBC TV and has received particular acclaim for his recordings with the soprano Lesley Garrett.
John Gibbons works with most major British orchestras including the BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras, LPO, CBSO, Bournemouth, Ulster, and the RPO with whom he conducted the first Classic FM ‘Hall of Fame’ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall. He is Music Director of Worthing Symphony Orchestra – the professional orchestra of West Sussex as well as Northampton Symphony Orchestra, Ealing Symphony Orchestra and St Albans Chamber Choir.
He studied music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music winning numerous awards as a conductor, pianist and accompanist. John is also a composer and arranger with notable performances in both St Albans Abbey and Clifton Cathedral. He assisted John Eliot Gardiner on the Beethoven ‘Leonore’ project and the Philips recording of music by Percy Grainger and was second conductor to Leonard Slatkin for Ives’ Fourth Symphony with the Concertgebouw and various conductors at the Royal Opera House.
Renowned for his adventurous programming, John has given many world and UK premieres of both new pieces and neglected works. He has several discs to his name including music by Skalkottas, Wordsworth, Arnold, , Bruckner, Mozart and Benjamin.
He has also recorded several film scores and conducted numerous operas for Opera Holland Park, the Spier Festival in South Africa, the WNO, Opera Northern Ireland & Opera Theatre Company and ETO.
Well known as a communicator, John is a Fellow of the Royal College of Arts and Vice Chairman of the British Music Society.
Simon Gregory studied music at Christ Church, Oxford under Simon Preston and Francis Grier and organ with Richard Popplewell, Nicholas Danby and Anne Marsden-Thomas. He retired from Emanuel School, Wandsworth in 2020, having completed periods as Head of Lower School and Director of Music.
He has been an accompanist for the Association of British Choral Directors choral conducting courses in addition to various Sherborne choral and conducting courses. Simon has also acted as tutor and accompanist on Benslow Music Trust courses.
As well as giving organ recitals throughout the UK, he has accompanied various choirs in concerts and at services in many English Cathedrals. He is also a past council member and present trustee of ABCD and has held posts as Musical Director with several choral societies.
Mike Hall is a jazz saxophonist and educator. He began his musical career with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra which led to a twenty year association with composer/pianist Michael Garrick with whom he toured Malaysia and made several CD recordings and national radio broadcasts.
He has frequently freelanced with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the Hallé Orchestras and now regularly plays with the Echoes of Ellington Orchestra. Career highlights have included a week at Ronnie Scott’s Club, concerts at the World Saxophone Congress in Slovenia and Strasbourg with Andy Scott’s Group S and features in John Dankworth and Cleo Laine’s Christmas Show.
He has made a number of CD recordings under his own name and appeared on numerous recordings for other leaders recently including The Jazz Planets, a reworking of Holst’s masterpiece.
Mike headed Jazz Studies at the RNCM for 20 years. He now focusses on performing, writing and running various public jazz workshops throughout the UK and abroad.
Greg Hallam is an esteemed choral director, singer and teacher. He is Musical Director of Swansea Bach Choir, Reading Festival Chorus and Bracknell Choral Society. He is proud to have helped set-up the London Youth Choir, directing their boys’ choir and training choir and delivering workshops as part of their ‘Aspire’ scheme.
Greg was Assistant Music Director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain for several years and founded the Ulster Youth Junior Choir in 2017. He is tutor to the postgraduate choral conducting students at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, guiding them in the use of gesture and technique alongside how to lead efficient and effective rehearsals.
As singing teacher at Wellington College and Christchurch Cathedral School, Oxford, Greg teaches individual lessons to young singers aged 8-18. He works closely with Worcester College, Oxford; delivering regular workshops for the chapel choir, providing vocal tuition to undergraduate students and helping produce their most recent recordings.
Recently he has been working with Mahogany Opera Group as Music Director for their ‘Snappy Operas’ – teaching and conducting ten newly commissioned 10-minute operas to children in Cornwall, Durham and Essex.
As singing teacher at Wellington College and Christchurch Cathedral School, Oxford, Greg teaches individual lessons to young singers aged 8-18. He works closely with Worcester College, Oxford; delivering regular workshops for the chapel choir, providing vocal tuition to undergraduate students and helping produce their most recent recordings. Recently he has been working with Mahogany Opera Group as Music Director for their ‘Snappy Operas’ – teaching and conducting ten newly commissioned 10-minute operas to children in Cornwall, Durham and Essex.
Greg’s conducting and rehearsing style is drawn from his experiences as a singer. As a baritone he has sung with a number of groups including London Voices, Philharmonia Voices, Voces8 and Dieci Voices and is often asked to coordinate and sing in small ensembles for various private functions and for special services at the Dutch Church in London. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, Greg was awarded an ARAM (Associate of the Royal Academy of Music) for his significant contribution to the music profession in 2019.
Mark Heron is a Scottish conductor noted for dynamic and well-rehearsed performances of an unusually wide repertoire.
He appears regularly with major orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Manchester Camerata, Psappha and Meininger Hofkapelle. He is Music Director of the Nottingham Philharmonic and as Professor and Head of Conducting at the RNCM works regularly with all the College’s orchestras and ensembles.
Mark has vast expertise in contemporary music and has collaborated with many of the greatest living composers. He has recorded more than twenty CDs with the RNCM Wind Orchestra and Manchester Camerata on labels such as Chandos, Naxos, NMC, ASC and Polyphonic.
Alongside his conducting activities, Mark has an international reputation as a conducting teacher. Apart from leading the RNCM’s world-renowned conducting programmes, he is a visiting professor to the Royal Air Force and is frequently invited to teach at masterclasses all over the world.
He is a board member of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.
Linda Hirst studied singing and the flute at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her career as a mezzo soprano began in the early music revival of the seventies singing for Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gardiner and David Munrow as well as making Atom Heart Mother with Pink Floyd, recording Tommy with The Who and 2000 Motels with Frank Zappa. From 1974 to 1978 she was a Swingle Singer, she then co-founded Electric Phoenix. With both groups Linda travelled the world leading to an international career working with living composers; among them Ligetti, Berio and Henze and recording pieces written for her by Knussen, Weir, Holt and Osborne etc.
Linda has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, festivals and opera companies with conductors Rattle, Gielen, Nagano, Howarth, Harding and more. Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has been a constant thread throughout the last 40 years, a highlight being Glen Tetley’s ballet with the Royal Opera House. With her improvising trio Tryst, they gave a concert in the Trier Festival in 2023 and will visit the Grieg Academy in Norway in 2024.
She has always worked in education and was Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire from 1995 to 2017. Currently she is vocal coach and singing teacher to the Lay Clerks and Choral Scholars at Canterbury Cathedral. Linda has given masterclasses in the Teatro Colon, La Fenice, several American Universities and for many years at Dartington and the Hilliard Ensemble Summer Schools. She is a fellow of Dartington College of Arts, an Hon DLit (Huddersfield) and a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation and was made President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society in 2013.
A native of Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, Robert Houlihan lived in Metz, France from 1981 until 2002. There he conducted at the Municipal Theatre as well as frequent guest appearances with the l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, l’Orchestre de Chambre de Metz and his own ‘Nouvel Ensemble Instrumental’. He became a French citizen in 1988. Robert was Principal Conductor of the Tirgu Mures Philharmonic in Romania and Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Savaria Symphony Orchestra in Hungary. His festival appearances have included the BBC Proms and the Almeida Festival, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Bartok Festival, the Amsterdam Summer Festival and the Wurzburg Mozart Festival.
He is renowned for his dedication to new music and is frequent in demand to conduct new contemporary works. His fine relationship with many of the world’s leading soloists include Maxim Vengerov, Olivier Charlier, Javier Camarena, Rebecca Olvera, Lesley Garret, Istvan Ruha, Miklos Perenyi, Patrick Gallois, Joaquin Achucarro and John O Conor. Robert has many recordings to his name including the works of several major Irish composers. His reputation as a teacher is legendary and he is much in demand giving masterclasses around the world including most recently classes in Ireland, the UK, France, Holland, Portugal and Hungary.
Robert returned to live in his native Ireland in 2002 where alongside his European commitments he frequently works as a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTE Concert Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
Nigel Hutchison graduated with a first class honours degree from the University of Glasgow, this was followed by intensive study with Craig Sheppard at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with help of scholarships from the Scottish International Education Trust and the Sir James Caird Trust. A Fulbright scholarship subsequently enabled him to study with Earl Wild at the Julliard School in New York.
Since his acclaimed Wigmore Hall debut, he has performed throughout Europe, the Far East and the USA and has given concerts in all the major halls in the UK as both soloist and chamber musician as well as broadcasts for the BBC and various radio and television stations in Italy, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Poland and China. He has performed with the London Mozart Players, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic orchestras amongst others and has recorded Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with the London Symphony Orchestra.
As a chamber musician Nigel has worked with a number of distinguished artists including Leonid Gorokhov, Robert Cohen, Xue Wei, Hu Kun, Grigori Zhislin and Radoslaw Szulc and has been official pianist for the Menuhin International Competition, the Britten International Competition and the All China International Violin Competition. Nigel is presently an accompanist and coach at the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Alex Jenkins read music at the University of Nottingham graduating with a BA(Hons) and an MA. He was appointed Musician-in-Residence at Christ’s Hospital in West Sussex for two years, where he later worked as a visiting piano teacher. In 2017 Alex graduated with distinction in his MPerf in Piano Accompaniment at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of Simon Lepper, Roger Vignoles and Andrew Zolinsky. Whilst there Alex was awarded the Titanic Memoriam Prize for best performance by a pianist in the Lies Askonas Vocal Competition and an Accompanist’s Prize at the Brooks-van der Pump English Song Competition, as well as performing at the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Albert Hall and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
He is currently a professional accompanist and vocal coach at the Royal Welsh College of Music, working predominantly with the Vocal, Choral Conducting and Opera Departments. He is musical director for the postgraduate opera scenes at the RWCMD as well as senior vocal coach in his regular summer residency at Sherborne Summer School of Music. In December 2022 Alex made his TV debut as the pianist for an S4C documentary alongside the ‘Only Boys, Girls and Kids Aloud’ choirs and the world-renowned soprano Rebecca Evans.
Alex regularly works as a choral repetiteurand he is the official accompanist for the Swansea Philharmonic Choir and numerous male voice choirs. Recent concert highlights include accompanying Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. Alongside the wealth of vocal music he is involved with, Alex is also a member of the Apollo Trio with violinist Oliver Nelson and clarinettist Paul Vowles. He has recently been appointed as the official accompanist for the prestigious Gregynog Young Musician of the Year competition.
Jan Loeffler’s career as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborative pianist and pedagogue has so far taken him to Hungary (where a piano recital of works by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin was in part recorded for Hungarian television), Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Ireland, the USA and China. Jan obtained a Performance Diploma and an Instrumental Pedagogy Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, Germany, where he studied with Prof. Silke-Thora Matthies and a Master of Performance & Research degree from the Royal Academy of Music London under Ian Fountain.
Critically acclaimed appearances with the Camerata Europeana, Philharmonie Heidelberg, Helios Chamber Orchestra et al include piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. He is scheduled to record the cello sonatas by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Mel Bonis with US-based cellist Ruth Boden in 2026, as well as Steven Christopher Sacco’s 3rd Piano Trio. Sacco has recently written his 3rd piano sonata for, and dedicated it to Jan, who will give its world premiere in New York.
Jan has given masterclasses, lectures, and adjudicated prizes, in Europe, Asia and the US, most notably in Los Angeles, New York and Nashville, Dresden/Germany, at the Chongqing Normal University/China, Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and the Leeds Conservatoire. He has taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2013 where he is also the Head of Piano and chamber music coach in the Junior Conservatoire. He also teaches at Radley College, Abingdon and the University of Warwick. He is an External Examiner for Leeds Conservatoire.
John Longstaff read music at Girton College, Cambridge and studied conducting with George Hurst, Edward Downes and Vilem Tausky. He came second in the 1988 Leeds Conductors Competition and since then has held full time positions at the Opera House in Kiel, Germany and with Northern Ballet. He has worked on projects with Sir Charles Mackerras, David Lloyd Jones, John Price-Jones, Ivor Bolton and Richard Bonynge and is a sought-after composer, orchestrator, arranger and conducting teacher as well as playing for conducting courses with Denise Ham and Sian Edwards.
John is Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church in Harrogate and was until 2011 Artistic Director of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra. His children’s ballet Goldilocks and the Three Bears was shown on CBeebies television and on national tour with Northern Ballet. With English National Ballet he has conducted Nutcracker, Giselle, Swan Lake and Coppélia and in 2019 he made a new English translation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. During lockdown his reduced orchestrations of ballet scores were played in several notable opera houses including, Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, L’Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Greek National Opera in Athens.
He is Musical Director of the Kernow Philharmonic Orchestra in Cornwall.
Natalia Luis-Bassa is a dynamic conductor and a passionate advocate for the education of young musicians.
As part of her career, she has promoted the conductors’ craft and orchestral playing for young people, believing that the provision of music education is a right that should be available to everyone. In this cause Natalia has established successful partnerships with a wide variety of organisations throughout the world.
Natalia’s musical studies started in the world famous ‘El Sistema’ in Venezuela. She read music at the University Institute of Musical Studies in Venezuela being the first person to obtain a degree in orchestral conducting. Further studies were undertaken at the Royal College of Music in the UK where she held the RCM Junior Fellowship in Opera Conducting and where she now holds the record of being the first woman to hold a permanent position as Professor of Conducting. She has a master’s degree from the University of Huddersfield, where she is also a part-time lecturer.
Natalia has worked with orchestras in the UK and abroad including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Sinfónica Venezuela, the South Bank Sinfonia and the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra. Since 2020, she has held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Oxford University Orchestra.
Colin Metters, is an English conductor, orchestral trainer and conducting pedagogue. He was Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music (London) where he founded the Conductors’ Course in 1983. He retired as Head of Studies after serving in the post for 30 years. He currently holds the title of Emeritus Professor of Conducting, RAM, London.
His early studies were with the revered George Hurst, who invited him to work as his assistant at the Canford Summer School of Music. With over five decades of experience, he has mentored many of the world’s leading conductors through personal guidance and friendship. He has an unparalleled insight into conducting technique and the instpiration to truly connect with the music.
Colin left the Royal College of Music to take up the post of principal conductor at the Ballet Rambert Company. He was later appointed conductor of Sadlers Wells Royal Ballet, whilst at the same time forging a burgeoning career guest conducting all over the world. He has worked with many of the major symphony orchestras in the UK, Europe, USA, South America and the Far East.
As a teacher, he has given masterclasses in Germany, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Australia, China, Portugal, Venezuela, Vietnam and the USA and he is frequently invited to join the juries of prestigious international conducting competitions in Germany, Russia, USA, Spain and Portugal.
Oliver Nelson, born in Glasgow, began learning the violin at the age of six. He gained scholarships to both Canford School and the Royal Academy of Music and at the latter he studied the violin with Xue-Wei. During this time, he gained distinctions in both an MMus and the Fellowship diploma, winning the Academy concerto competition and appearing as soloist with its string orchestra.
His performances have included recitals at St Martin-in-the-Fields, chamber music at Jamie Walton’s North York Moors Chamber Music Festival and concertos ranging from those with the Dorset Chamber Orchestra and Rebecca Gilliver, to the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
He is in demand as a recitalist with some of Britain’s finest pianists, including Nigel Hutchison, Julian Jacobson, and Vasilis Rakitzis. Oliver’s violin playing appears in film, both in Francois Girard’s The Song of Names collaborating with Howard Shore and Clive Owen, and Bruce Webb’s award-winning Rare Books and Manuscripts.
Martyn Noble In 2023, Martyn became Acting Director of Music at H.M. Chapel Royal, St. James’s Palace after spending nine years as their Sub-Organist. He is also Teacher of Organ at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and is Musician-in-Residence at Highgate School. Former organ pupils have gone on to hold Organ Scholarships at major London churches, New College Oxford and to study the Organ at undergraduate level at the Royal College of Music. Martyn has given recitals in Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court and St. James’ Palace, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s and Canterbury Cathedrals as well as concerts in the Netherlands, Northern Ireland and Hungary.
In 2018, he was fortunate to play Keys 2 for the UK tour of ‘Miss Saigon’ and in 2020 had his debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra where he performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir. More recently, Martyn has performed for the London Festival of Contemporary Music in London and, during Summer 2023, gave the opening recital at Himmerod Abbey’s Orgelsommer in Germany.
In 2015, Martyn graduated with a first class BMus from London’s Royal College of Music and has completed his Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO) and Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM) diplomas in Organ Performance in 2023 and 2011 respectively. Martyn has appeared live on BBC Radios 3 and 4 and has recorded for Novello, Boosey & Hawkes and for choral CD’s with Priory and Signum Records. He also plays annually for Classic FM’s broadcast of ‘Carols from Buckingham Palace’ which airs immediately after H.M. The King’s speech on Christmas Day, although in Christmas 2023, he also directed the choir for it.
As a composer, Martyn has written several choral works, all of which have received premieres. He is currently published by Chichester Music Press.
Charlie Penn graduated from the University of Birmingham where he studied the piano with Joseph Middleton. He has a busy freelance career as a versatile musician specialising in work with choirs of all ages and abilities.
Charlie is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, previously joining the music staff for the award-winning Grimes on the Beach in Aldeburgh. He is director of the Harborough Singers, the A440 choir in Reading and Assistant Director to Cantate Youth Choir. He also works with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain as an assistant conductor and accompanist.
Additionally, he delivers choral workshops in schools across the country for the ABRSM Voices, accompanies singing lessons in special needs schools in the West Midlands for Music for Life and regularly works with Sinfonia Viva on their education and orchestral projects. On stage in the UK and Australia, he has appeared in Orpheus, an original piece devised and performed by Little Bulb Theatre and as Keyboard 1 in an exciting new orchestration of the Threepennny Opera for the renowned Salzburg Festival. He has even made a brief appearance on the BBC’s The One Show, teaching Lee Mack some basic piano vamping!
Bjørn Sagstad is Artistic Director of the Military Wind Bands in Norway, professor at the Academy of Music (FHNW) in Basel Switzerland and an associate Professor at the University of Bergen (Grieg Academy of Music).
Bjørn undertook his formal training at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Grieg Academy of Music in Norway and the University of Tromsø and Trondheim/NTNU in Norway. He has worked with symphony orchestras in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Hong Kong and the USA and with all the professional military wind ensembles in Scandinavia along with the Royal Marine Band in Holland and the Royal Marines in Portsmouth UK. He was Chief Conductor of several orchestras and wind ensembles including the Prinsen Brass Ensemble (Denmark), the Kristiansund Symphony Orchestra and Opera (Norway), the Norwegian Navy Band and the Kristiansund Wind Ensemble.
He is a sort-after guest conductor and conducting lecturer giving masterclasses all over the world. His repertoire is extensive and includes orchestral, choral, music theatre, opera and ballet as well as specialising in contemporary music.
He has made several recordings and been responsible for the premieres of a large number of new works. Bjørn is currently directing a five-year mentoring programme for young conductors sponsored by Dextra Musica and the Norwegian Band Federation.
Malcolm Singer composer, conductor and teacher, was Director of Music at the Yehudi Menuhin School for 19 years and currently teaches Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He read music at Magdalene College, Cambridge before studying in Europe with both Nadia Boulanger and Gyorgy Ligeti. He was later awarded a Harkness Fellowship, spending two years at Stanford University, California.
Malcolm has many works to his name and is particularly known for his choral music and his pieces for young people. His many commissioners have included the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers and a piece for Lord Menuhin which was premièred in the Royal Albert Hall.
London Landscapes, commissioned by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra was performed by the orchestra in Ohio in the autumn of 2024 and Clarion Call for Wind Ensemble (first heard at Sherborne) was performed by the University of Dayton Wind Ensemble. A new piano piece will be premièred by Thomas Beijer at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam early in 2025.
David Smith is an experienced, prize-winning and sought after accompanist having performed in many important venues including the Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. He has featured on BBC Radio 3 and in festivals which include Aix-en-Provence and Heidelberg partnering some of today’s exceptional singers and instrumentalists.
He studied at both the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music and is now linked variously as both accompanist and coach at both of those conservatoires as well as Trinity College of Music. In addition, he works as a freelance repetiteur and pianist at amongst others, the Royal Opera House, Opera Holland Park and Dorset Opera.
Timothy Uglow is a versatile, dynamic and inspiring conductor, organist and harpsichordist whose work has been heard on all UK classical radio stations and beyond. He is the Director of Music at Worksop College and North Notts Chamber Choir, having previously been Organ Scholar at Salisbury Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge. He has numerous CD recordings to his name: early recordings date back to his time as a chorister at Wells Cathedral, whilst in more recent ones he features as organist or conductor.
As an organist, he has performed as a soloist in many of the UK’s leading cathedrals and concert halls and he brings to the summer school a wealth of experience working with both amateur and professional choirs.
Stephen Varcoe was for many years a leading international baritone soloist, with a wide repertoire ranging from the Baroque to Contemporary music. Among his more than 150 recordings are works by Purcell, Handel and Bach with the John Elliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir; Haydn and Beethoven Masses with Richard Hickox and a large number of songs with piano. These include Schubert, Fauré, Chabrier and Hahn with Graham Johnson, Parry, Stanford and Finzi with Clifford Benson and Grainger with Penny Thwaites.
Since retiring as a performer, Stephen has taught notably at the Royal College of Music where he directs song classes and coaches individual students. This and his Doctorate in Performance make him ideally suited to teach at Sherborne Summer School where he has been now for several years.
Alongside his teaching career, Matthew Wright is regularly engaged as an Organist, holding positions as Director of Music at St Wilfred’s Church, Cantley as well as Organist at Worksop College and Musician in Residence at Ranby House School. His responsibilities take him across the country for services and recitals at many of the major cathedrals. He also plays regularly for a number of choral societies in the region. Matthew started his formal training as an Organ Scholar at Doncaster Minster under the direction of Joseph Sentence, Dr Francis Jackson and Martin How. Matthew continues his professional studies with Gareth Green.
Prior to his career as an Organist, Matthew trained as an Opera Singer at both Birmingham Conservatoire and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Matthew made his professional debut with Glyndebourne in 2011, working with notable directors including Sir David McVicar. What followed was an international career as a freelance singer with companies including Wexford Festival Opera, Buxton Festival Opera, Raymond Gubbay, Bergen National Opera and orchestras such as the CBSO and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Notable TV and radio credits include The Office the Opera where Matthew worked closely with Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant to recreate the character of David Brent for their 2009 Comic Relief sketch and Lads in their Hundreds, a collection of songs curated by Ian Burnside premiered on In Tune with Sean Rafferty for BBC Radio Three.
Matthew works regularly as a workshop leader with charitable organisations such as VoiceChoice, Streetwise Opera and Singing Squad who work in the community and in schools; demonstrating techniques employed in singing and performance which act as a highly effective model for learning and personal development.
Agata Zajac is a Polish conductor of considerable reputation. She started her musical life as a violinist which was followed with conducting studies at the Poznan Academy of Music in Poland. In 2022/23 she held the position of the Mills Williams Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
In Poland, Agata was Resident Conductor with the Torun Symphony Orchestra during the 2020/21 season and the Sudeten Philharmonic Orchestra during 2021/22. She has worked with many international orchestras including the Hallé, BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Britten Sinfonia, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Grazer Philharmoniker, Malmö Opera and the Orchestre National de Metz to name but a few. For the last two artistic seasons she has held the position of Assistant Conductor with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Agata has studied with many eminent teachers including Paavo Järvi, Alan Gilbert, Jorma Panula, Johannes Schlaefli, Mark Heron, Antony Hermus, Peter Eötvös and Marin Alsop. The summer of 2023 was spent at Tanglewood Music Festival as a Conducting Fellow working under the guidance of Andris Nelsons, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She was also a student at the Tonhalle Conductors’ Academy in 2022/23 and the Gstaad Conducting Academy and NOSPR Conducting Academies in 2021.
Agata has taken part in many important conducting competitions including the Siemens Hallé International Competition where she won second place, the Malta International Masterclass and Competition where she received a special distinction and the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition where she reached the semi-finals. In 2018 Agata was awarded a scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and in December 2024 Agata was awarded an Associate Membership of the RNCM in recognition of her achievements in the music profession and ongoing contribution to the RNCM and its community.
