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Welcoming Trinity Laban’s newest Honorary Fellows

During our graduation ceremonies in December 2024, we awarded a number of Honorary Fellowships to outstanding industry professionals and members of the Trinity Laban community: Gail Parmel MBE, Rakie Ayola, Sachin Das, Nicola Benedetti CBE, and Soumik Datta. Arts professional Ken Tabachnick also received his Honorary Fellowship this January, abroad in New York.

The Honorary Fellows were nominated for outstanding achievements and contributions to the arts throughout their careers. Thank you to Artistic Director & CEO of Dance Umbrella Freddie Opoku-Addaie for making such an inspiring speech as the guest speaker at our first two ceremonies. Gail Parmel MBE is the Founder and Artistic Director of ACE Dance and Music. She graduated from the Northern School of Contemporary in 1996 with a BA in Contemporary Dance. She then moved to Birmingham, and after a spell with Kokuma Dance Company, co-founded ACE Dance and Music with her husband and musician, Ian Parmel. Over her 20 year career as Artistic Director of ACE Dance and Music, Gail has created 10 successful touring productions with the company. The company has a national and international touring programme and provides extensive work and outreach with children, young people, and communities. Combining energetic contemporary movement with African Caribbean dance forms, ACE Dance and Music is one of the most exciting, eclectic and resilient dance companies in the UK. Gail was identified as one of The Cultural Leadership Programme (CLP) Top 50 Women to Watch, an inspiring list of 50 influential women working within the arts and culture sector across the UK. She was also voted one of 20 most Inspirational Women from the African Diaspora in Europe. In 2020, Gail was awarded an MBE for services to Dance and Art in Birmingham. Gail is an outstanding advocate of youth dance: her work on re-positioning what it means to experience African Peoples Dance  as a dancer, audience member or young person has made a significant impact on our cultural landscape in the UK.

Rakie Ayola is a producer and actress who grew up in the Ely district of Cardiff. She is recipient of BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award, a BAFTA Cymru Best Actress Award, and the BAFTA Cymru Sian Phillips Award and the Black British Theatre Best Female Actor in a Play Award. Her work includes Mom, How Did You Meet The Beatles (Chichester), On Bear Ridge (Royal Court and National Theatre of Wales), and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (West End). Among her TV and Film credits are Kaos, Been So Long (both Netflix), and Brexit (Channel 4). Rakie is co-founder of Shanty Productions with her husband Adam Smethurst. She is an advocate of increased ethnic representation in the entertainment industry, and produced the short film Persephone’s Playground for the Cannes Film Festival in order to further her campaign. She is Executive Producer on short films Hedgehog and Safe Space, feature films Diamond Sky and Twelfth Night, and BBC TV series The Pact (S2). Rakie is a Trustee of the Actor’s Children’s Trust and a Patron of the Childhood Tumour Trust.

Sachin Das leads Trinity College India, and is the Trinity College of London lead representative for South India. He is also co-owner and manager of Musée Musical, a music business based in Chennai and with branches across South India, and a partner in our International Academies programme. Founded 180 years ago, Musée Musical is one of India’s oldest businesses, and in the 1960s, it started a music school alongside the retail premises. This school provides a pre-conservatoire training programme and dedicated examination rooms which make up one of Trinity College London’s most vibrant international centres. Sachin is highly involved in initiatives to further music education across India, being a board member of the Western Music Educators’ Association. He is a polymath who has trained as a piano restorer, in business management and as an architect, and runs a pioneering architecture practice.

Nicola Benedetti CBE became the leader of the National Children’s Orchestra of Great Britain at the age of eight. She studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School with Yehudi Menuhin and Natasha Boyarskaya. In August 2002, she won the UK’s Brilliant Prodigy Competition, broadcast by Carlton Television. At the age of 16, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, performing Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. As a result of gaining the award, she came first in the music section of the Top Scot award in December 2005. Winner of the GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo in 2020, as well as Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). Her latest recordings of Vivaldi Concerti and Elgar’s Violin Concerto entered at number one in the UK’s Official Classical Album Chart. Other recent recordings include her GRAMMY award-winning album written especially for her by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin. In 2021, BBC Music Magazine named her “Personality of the Year” for her online support of many young musicians during the pandemic. Nicola has always been a dedicated, passionate ambassador and leader in music education and her commitment was underlined in 2019 when she established The Benedetti Foundation (benedettifoundation.org). The Foundation delivers transformative experiences through mass music events and unites those who believe music is integral to life’s education. The Foundation believes in the strength of music and the power of mass inspirational moments to connect cultures and communities through combining excellence and inclusivity, tradition and innovation and meaningful collaboration. In its first four years, the Foundation has worked with close to 70,000 participants of all ages and levels, instrumentalists and non-instrumentalists alike, across 105 countries. Its free online educational video resources: ‘With Nicky’ and other Foundation videos have had over 6 million views. Nicola was appointed a CBE in 2019, awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music (2017), and an MBE in 2013. In addition, Nicola holds the positions of Vice President (National Children’s Orchestras), Big Sister (Sistema Scotland), Patron (National Youth Orchestras of Scotland’s Junior Orchestra, Music in Secondary Schools Trust and Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). In October 2022, Nicola became the Festival Director of the Edinburgh International Festival. In taking the role she became both the first Scottish and the first female Festival Director since the Festival began in 1947.

Soumik Datta is a musician, composer, and award-winning sarod player. He is co-founder and  Artistic Director of Soumik Datta Arts, a registered charity that supports collaborative music, film, theatre and digital projects and creates platforms for new and emerging talent. He completed the MMus in Composition at Trinity Laban in 2009. Soumik is Artist in Residence 23/24 at the Philharmonia, where he explored “themes relating to refugees and asylum seekers, diaspora, and social and racial inequality. His talents bridge Indian music with contemporary composition and storytelling using a variety of art forms.” He directed and scored an animation commissioned by British Council, which premiered at the UN climate conference (COP26) and at No.10 Downing Street. His piece ‘Awaaz’, which was commissioned by the BBC Singers to commemorate 75 years of Indian independence, premiered in 2022 and is for Choir and Sarod.  He operates across artforms, including having curated a festival of dance at the Horniman Museum in 2017 and he has global recognition, as a laureate of the 2022 Aga Khan Music Awards. As a television host, Soumik presented “Rhythms of India” a BBC 4 series exploring the classical, folk and contemporary music of India. Previously, Soumik and his brother JIJO (filmmaker) directed “Tuning 2 You” a six part series for Channel 4 filming the stories of under-represented musicians from rural India. During lockdown, Soumik produced the YouTube series “Silent Spaces” filmed and recorded inside 8 cultural venues that were closed during the coronavirus pandemic. Venues like the British Museum and Royal Albert Hall opened their doors to Soumik and his creative team who broke the silence of these iconic cultural spaces with new music videos that addressed the mental health issues of the creative community during the time. The project was accompanied by a behind the scenes radio show commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and employed over 80 out of work musicians and dancers through the Soumik Datta Arts charity. Soumik’s previous highlights include performing at BBC Proms, Glastonbury Festival, WOMAD, Singapore Arts Festival, St Paul’s Cathedral and compositional commissions for British Film Institute and Shakespeare’s Globe.