Staff A-Z

Qualifications/ Educational Background

• MA in Music Education
• BA in Music Education with Qualified Teacher Status
• DRSAM (Singing Teacher)
• FHEA
• FISM

Research Interests

• Pedagogy
• Vocal Health

Creative Outputs

Raising awareness of the benefits of effective voice screening: a study of vocal health among undergraduate singing students
Janet Munro, Patricia Holmes, Terry Clark, Emma Redding

Reflective Conservatoire (2012) GSMD

A specialist in the US-Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow, he has spent 10 years, researching, curating, arranging and presenting his works around the world.

Starting as a self-taught musician, he has gradually made a transition from playing drums and percussion as a member of The High Llamas as well as recordings with Pavement, Stereolab and many others, to classically-based composition and education. Since 2003 he has been Head of Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, forming a department that has become well-known for its innovative methods and student-centred approaches.

He has taught at every educational level and is currently in demand as a supervisor and examiner for practice-based PhDs.

Dan is also a featured artist with Lee Oskar Harmonicas, pioneering his own style of beatbox harmonica playing which has seen him perform on television in Japan, Ireland, France, the U.K. and the U.S. 

Dan is lead singer of Irish band Hermitage Green, which he founded with his brother in 2010. Hermitage Green signed to Sony in 2015 and have been releasing music and touring internationally since. To date, they’ve released three studio albums and their music has been streamed over 40 million times on Spotify. 

The band tour extensively in Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle East. In the Summer of 2022, they joined Paloma Faith on her UK tour before heading to Australia and the Middle East in the Autumn on their own headline tour.  

Aleksandra is a Polish accompanist and a répétiteur. She graduated from the Royal Academy of Music where she studied piano with prof. Christopher Elton and prof. Hamish Milne, whereas her chamber music studies were supervised by prof. Michael Dussek and Ian Brown.

Aleksandra is a prizewinner of both solo competitions and chamber music contests such as the III International Chopin Competition in Budapest, Wilfrid Parry Brahms Prize, Brenda Webb Accompanist Prize and many others. In 2022 she joined the Solti Accademia Young Artists and, together with soprano Katrine Deleuran Strunk, she was chosen to be the Leeds Lieder Young Artist.

Aleksandra gained the majority of her professional experience in the field of opera at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she was a Junior Fellow in Piano Accompaniment 2019-2021. Since then, she has worked as a répétiteur with Gidon Saks on his role of Hagen in Deutsche Oper, Opera Loki on Carmen and Tosca, Puzzle Piece Opera, All Aboard! Opera, Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Longhope Opera and others.

Apart from her Academy mentors, Aleksandra is particularly grateful for artistic advice from prof. Richard Stokes, Christoph Prégardien, Ferenc Rados, Maxim Vengerov, Michel Beroff, Rodney Friend and Sarah Pring.

Peter studied composition with David Harold Cox at Sheffield University, and later with Michael Finnissy. He obtained his doctorate in creative practice in 2024 at Trinity Laban, where he also teaches. His music has been performed in Bath, Birmingham, Huddersfield, Manchester and London by ensembles and performers including Elision, the New Music Players, the Duke Quartet, Angharad Davies and rarescale. He performs regularly throughout London and beyond, both solo and in groups, in particular Rising of the Lights with Jonny Martin and an ongoing multidisciplinary collaboration with Claire Zakiewicz, Petra Haller and Emily Suzanne Shapiro. Dance collaborations include Invisible Cities (2022) and Once Up On a Cube (premiered 2022; further performances at Totally Thames Festival, 2023), both with Scirocco Dance Theatre Company. Ouroboros, an installation/performance created in collaboration with Carla Rees, was first presented in 2024 at Safehouse Peckham. Recordings include An Equal and Opposite Reaction (Linear Obsessional, 2019) and Sophie Stone’s Amalgamations (Sawyer Editions, 2022).

His research interests include:

• Composition
• Improvisation
• Drone aesthetics
• Phenomenology and political ecologies of performance and sonic arts practices
• Multi/trans/post-disciplinary collaboration
• Ambiguity and uncertainty as aesthetic strategies

Hilary holds a BA in Psychology and Linguistics, ARAD and PDTC Teaching certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance, and has recently completed her Pilates Teachers Qualification with the Pilates Foundation, UK. She has more than 12 years experience as performer and dance teacher and has worked with a wide spectrum of dancers both abroad and in the UK.

Performing the first solo tuba recital at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester and the first tuba player to be awarded the Worshipful Company of Dyers Award at the Royal Overseas League Competition, Les has always pushed the boundaries. His 3 solo releases, Salt of the Earth, Shine and Affinity have won numerous awards including Brass Band World, British Bandsman, 4barsrest.com Solo CD of the Year and the prestigious Roger Bobo Award in Recording Excellence from the International Tuba Euphonium Association.

Away from solo performance Les is part of the tuba section of the American based, Brass Band of Battle Creek and as a chamber musician is a member of the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, a group with a 30 year history having performed in over 60 countries. He has also performed with orchestras throughout the UK, including the Halle, RTE Concert, Ulster and London Symphony Orchestra.

Alongside his performing commitments Les is tuba tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music, RNCM Junior School, Salford University, Birmingham Conservatoire and Huddersfield University. He has given masterclasses at the Trinity College and Royal Academy of Music, London.

He has served as tutor for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Switzerland and has performed recitals and masterclasses throughout the UK, Europe, USA, South America, Japan and Australia.

Her career began at Cheshire Dance, she then took up a position as a Dance Artist in residence for DanceXchange (now FABRIC) in the West Midlands. Rachel then moved to London to work for English National Ballet. Rachel has since worked for Half Moon Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Tots, The Dance Network Association, Dance West, DashDotDance and many more organisations.

Rachel loves the diversity of her work, one day dancing with tiny tots in a nursery the next it’s seated dance exercise with a young at heart 93-year-old. Rachel’s memorable performing moments were dancing as a punk cat on the tv show ‘The Grimleys’, where she was wearing so much make-up her mother didn’t recognise her! And on another occasion, in a theatre show, being a snake that performed a rap about being proud to be unique and happy in your own skin!

Paul Newland PhD MMus GMusRNCM – studied composition with Anthony Gilbert and Sir Harrison Birtwistle at Royal Northern College of Music Manchester as a James Caird Scholar, with Michael Finnissy at Royal Academy of Music London and with Simon Holt at Royal Holloway University of London with an AHRC award. He received his doctorate in 2006.

In 1999 he was awarded a Japanese government Monbusho scholarship and studied in Japan with composer Jo Kondo from ’99-’02.

Recent commissions and performances include: surface for London Symphony Orchestra commissioned for the UBS Soundscape Pioneers series and premiered at the Barbican, 5 for harpsichord, dancer and film for Jane Chapman and dancer Gregoire Meyer, time quivers and monotonous forest for ensemble Radius commissioned by the Britten Foundation premiered at the Wigmore Hall, momiji gari for Japanese guitarists Norio Sato and Toshimitsu Kamigaichi and husk for [rout] and Okeanos.

Recent performances by Exquisite Corpse include London’s Vibe Bar, Café Oto and Sonic Art Oxford. As part of an ongoing project Graft duo Exquisite Corpse created a series of semi-improvised works with choreographer Mari Frogner giving performances at Crondell St. Underground Car Park Shoreditch, The Book Club Spitalfields and The Old Police Station Deptford.

Most recently Exquisite Corpse performed common wealth a work created specifically for the derelict Commonwealth Institute building on Kensington High Street. This new piece was created in collaboration with choreographer Mari Frogner and commissioned by Fruits of the Apocalypse for their Common Sounds project as part of Kensington and Chelsea Arts Festval. Forthcoming performances include Bermondsey Street Festival London and the Theatre of Yugen San Francisco.

Current projects include a new piece nicholas givotovsky as part of ensemble [rout]’s Lost and Found project, and a web-based collaboration with the Dutch dancer Aleksandra Borys.

CD releases include: Standing Jump recorded by [rout] on [rout]one (Divine Art 29001), Butterfly dreaming… performed by Philip Howard (Divine Art 25021), 1-4 commissioned and recorded by Jane Chapman on ‘Wired’ (NMC D145), and Trance commissioned and recorded by Noszferatu (NMC D166).

Complete list of works is available at https://pnewland.moonfruit.com/

He is a recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composition (1993) and the New Millenium Composer’s Award (2010).

Show credits include: GOT TO DANCE Semi Finalist 2010; STREET DANCE MOVIE 3D; THANKS TIM (2012 London Olympics); SAN FRANCISCO HIP HOP FESTIVAL; LEGACY: THE RETURN (Danceeast Ipswich/ Stratford Theatre); BREAKIN CONVENTION (Sadlers Wells/ Apollo Theatre, New York), Nike, An Night With BoyBlue, Boadicea Bahrain, EuroVision Opening Liverpool, MOBO Awards, Latitude Festival, Wilderness Festival , BBC TV Series- MOOD, Nostos Festival (Athens) and More

Assistant Choreographer/Rehearsal Director/Team Leader credits include: PROJECT REBEL: BOYBLUE ENTERTAINMENT (Edinburgh International Festival), Guys and Dolls (Talawa Theatre Company), An Night with BoyBlue (Barbican Theatre), Walk with Amaal, Queens Platinum Jubilee.

Artist Credits Include: Sugababes, Dizzee Rascal, Giggs, Emeli Sande, Zara Larson, Roxanne, Jesy Nelson, Black Sherif, Alexandra Burke.

The main areas of research that Uchenna is involved in focus on marginalised identities in Western classical music and digital pedagogy. Drawing on years of experience in digital learning, she founded plainsightSOUND – an online research project highlighting the under-recognised work of historical Black African diasporic classical musicians in Britain.

Uchenna is also founder and artistic director of Decus Ensemble – a chamber group specialising in under-performed music composed for wind and strings. Much of their repertoire emerges from her research into Black classical music and repertoire and is regularly presented through concerts and workshops. Uchenna has appeared as a presenter and guest contributor for several BBC Radio programmes, including Sounds Connected and Inside Music. She also presented the BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature documentary ‘Frank Johnson, Queen Victoria and the Black Brass Band’, which followed her research into the life of the innovative 19^th-century African American performer and composer.

Her research interests include:

• Practice-as-Research
• Chamber music
• Black British and European histories
• Classical music curatorial practices
• Decolonial pedagogies
• Digital music scholarship
• Digital learning pedagogies
• Interdisciplinary studies

In 1997 he joined the Bobby Wellins Quartet, the rhythm section of which continues today as the Liam Noble Trio, recently documented on the 2009 CD “BRUBECK”, gaining an almost unprecedented 5 star review in The Guardian.

In 2001, “In The Meantime”, released on Basho Records, explored longer compositional forms and unorthodox improvisational structures, and April 2002 saw a commission from Birmingham Jazz resulting in a song cycle based on Japanese Death Poetry. Noble plays keyboards and samples throughout, marking a new foray into electronica inspired by artists such as Aphex Twin and Arto Lindsay.

In 2004, following a Cheltenham Festival gig the previous year, Liam recorded the acclaimed “Romance Among The Fishes” on Basho Records with guitarist Phil Robson and the New York rhythm section of Drew Gress and Tom Rainey on bass and drums respectively.

Liam’s working relationship has continued with Tom Rainey in the free improv trio, “Sleepthief” with Ingrid Laubrock, with an album released in September 2008, and a second, “The Madness Of Crowds” in 2011. Other frequent collaborators have included Christine Tobin, Paul Clarvis and Julian Siegel. His growing reputation as a free improviser has also resulted in recent performances with Mary Halverson, Marc Ducret, Mat Maneri, Evan Parker, Okkyung Lee and Peter Evans.

In June 2011 he was featured on a recording by Zhenya Strigalev with Larry Grenadier, Tim LeFebvre and Eric Harland. “Brother Face”, an expanded version of his trio with Chris Batchelor and Shabaka Hutchings, looks to expand short form composition into longer arcs. As a kind of summation of the diverse areas in which he works combined with a compositional eye for structure, this new group was highly praised at its premiere performance at the Cheltenham Jazz festival in 2012.

A solo CD, “A Room Somewhere”, released in 2015 on Basho Records, features an eclectic mix of improvisations, as well as versions of music by, amongst others, Edward Elgar, Joe Zawinul, Gillian Welch, Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Liam has also played duo gigs with Dave Liebman and Tim Berne, two highly contrasting giants of jazz who exemplify the chameleon-like tendencies of his collaborations.

Liam holds posts as Lecturer in Jazz at Birmingham Conservatoire and 
Trinity Laban. He has published 4 volumes of transcriptions of the Bill Evans Trio, and a book of original compositions “Jazz Piano; An In Depth Look at the Styles of the Masters”, both published by Hal Leonard.

He played in the National Youth Orchestra for two years, and studied at the Royal College of Music with Terence MacDonagh. He then won Countess of Munster, Vaughan Williams Trust and Martin Musical Scholarships to continue his studies in London and in Germany with Heinz Holliger. Chris is well known for his expertise in the performance of contemporary and experimental music, and has been oboist in the ground-breaking ensemble Capricorn since 1977. He now plays in the internationally renowned ensemble The Fibonacci Sequence, with whom he is shortly to make a CD of oboe chamber music. He has performed and broadcast as a soloist since 1976, being described by Paul Griffiths in the Financial Times as “an outstanding musician, one who seems to exist within his instrument, rapt in concentration” at his Purcell Room debut recital.