Staff A-Z

Graham currently holds the position of sub-principal bassoon with both the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His career to date has included working regularly as Guest Principal and section player with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, English Chamber Orchestra and most other orchestras in London and throughout the UK. He has toured, broadcast and recorded extensively, and has also worked in the West End and on film sessions.

Graham began playing the bassoon at age 11. He won a scholarship to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Graham Sheen, Meyrick Alexander and Robin O’Neill. Whilst still a student, he performed as soloist with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Daugherty’s ‘Dead Elvis’ at the Royal Festival Hall. By the time he completed his studies he had won the Needlemaker’s Wind Prize and been awarded the Chairman’s Prize. 

Suzie holds a BA (Hons) English & Drama, from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA Critical Studies: Visual Art & Theatre, from Wimbledon School of Art, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Collaborating regularly with international choreographers, design credits include works for: Rosemary Butcher, Maresa Von Stockert, Protein Dance, CandoCo Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Transitions Dance Company, and Lizzi Kew Ross & Co.

The focus of Suzie’s design and teaching practice is upon the performing body’s scenographic relationship with its environment. Key to her design-led work with choreographers is a fascination with the appearance and behaviour of materials animated by movement and light. In 2024, her costume designs were worn for the Design Museum’s opening of The World of Tim Burton exhibition.

Stella has 20 years’ experience as a dance artist: performing nationally and internationally, teaching extensively in schools, colleges, community and health settings. She also leads professional development opportunities with teachers, dance artists, and professional dance companies.

She is Artist-in-Residence at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, where she engages children and their families to find joy in moving. She also leads Breathe Dance at Guys & St Thomas’ hospital, and Dancing for Health at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance developed with Headway the Brain Injury association.

Stella worked with artist Lucy Evans to choreograph I grew out of that a long time ago, a duet exploring reflections from creative interventions in adults living with dementia. She has had international success with award winning dance film Porcelain (Directed by Roswitha Chesher) featuring the relationship of a married couple in their 60s.

As faculty at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Stella lectures on the soft and hard skills of teaching dance, within education, community, and inclusive practice.

Calum’s passion extends beyond performance, with a strong focus on education. He is a highly sought-after workshop leader and educator, currently serving as Percussion Lead and Professor of Marimba and Percussion at Trinity Laban and as a visiting professor at other UK institutions. As part of the artistic team at the Benedetti Foundation, he is committed to challenging the boundaries of classical music and ensuring all young people have access to music education. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Musicians’ Union ED&I committee.

Calum is a Yamaha Artist and an Acoustic Percussion Signature Artist.

In 2019 Ashley began teaching at the Guildford School of Acting, GSA, across Masters, Degree and Foundation courses. She had her own cohorts of Musical Theatre Foundation students and currently teaches the Masters, MFA’s, Degree & Foundation Actor 1-1 Singing lessons. Ashley achieved her Singing Teacher Fellow status through GSA in 2021 gaining a Fellowship in Higher Education, FHEA.

Ashley runs her successful teaching practice, AK Vocal Training for a range of clients in theatre, television, film and bands. Clients also include those preparing for professional auditions and Drama School places.

She has been the resident Singing & Vocal Coach at Queen Mary’s College since 2004, leading Singing technique and performance classes, audition workshops and show prep along with 1-1 tutoring.

Ashley was one of the first to graduate from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in 1999 with a BA (hons) Degree in Music, Performing Arts. Alongside performing and recording as a Singer Songwriter under management between Dublin and London, Ashley was teaching Singing throughout these years carrying on from her classical based training while brought up in Dublin, Ireland.

BA(hons) Degree, Music Performing Arts (LIPA)

FHEA, Singing Teacher Fellow (GSA)

Jess Hui is a researcher, educator, and community musician based in London and Hertfordshire. Her work explores the intersections of emerging technologies, culture, and sound, with a current focus on the social and cultural implications of creative AI in community music and higher education contexts.

Jess completed her PhD in Music at the University of Cambridge in 2024, funded by the Scottish International Education Trust. In 2022, she was a visiting scholar at Tokyo University of the Arts, supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation. There, she conducted research on the legacy of Japanese singer Misora Hibari and the ethical dimensions of her vocal revival using AI singing voice synthesis. Her doctoral research examined the cultural history of technological voices, tracing imitation from eighteenth-century speaking machines to contemporary AI voice synthesis. She has published research in the Cambridge Opera Journal and the Oxford Handbook of Media and Vocality (forthcoming).

Alongside her academic work, Jess is also a composer, writing primarily for small ensembles and organ. Her compositions have been performed in the UK, US, and Estonia, including premieres at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is active as a community musician, collaborating with local charities in Hertfordshire to run music groups and creative projects.

Research interests

– Music and Technology
– Social, cultural and ethical effects of Creative AI
– Sound Studies
– Community music
– Media/Audiovisuality

Mark has also worked as a choreographer and director since 2010. Credits include: Peter Pan for BYMT, The Last Five Years and Tin Pan Alley for Cosson’s Performing Arts, Cautionary Tales for Youth Music Theatre UK, Milk Milk Lemonade, for Ovalhouse, Stepping Out, and Legally Blonde for Reynolds Performing Arts, and Romeo and Juliet for Arch 468.

In 2011, Mark received a First Class BA (Hons) degree in Professional Practice: Musical Theatre Education, from Middlesex University as well as receiving his PTLLS and DTLLS teaching qualifications. He has taught Jazz Dance, Ballet, Musical Theatre, Physical Theatre and Clowning on a variety of vocational courses and helped establish Cosson’s Performing Arts, where he was Head of Dance for 3 years, creating and developing course content and pedagogy.

Since 2022, Mark has also been the Lead Producer for An Tobar and Mull Theatre on the Isle of Mull and has produced and co-produced a variety of productions for the organisation including Our Carnal Hearts, In the Weeds and Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid.

His choreographic work has been shown at the National Theatre in Belgrade, Madlenianum Opera & Theatre, Serbian National Theatre Novi Sad, National Theatre Sarajevo, Festival Velenje, Music Center in Montenegro, Zagreb Dance Center, National Opera and Ballet of Macedonia and the Šibenik Dance Festival, amongst others.

Aleksandar was Acting Director of Belgrade Culture Centre (2019-2023) and Artistic Director of BELEF the Belgrade Summer Festival (2017-2022). He is a Professor and a founder of the Belgrade Dance Institute, President of Association of Professional Ballet Dancers, Choreographers and Ballet Pedagogues of Serbia and Director of Dance Magazine Stepart. He has also written three books of poetry. He is currently an ensemble pedagogue at the National Theater in Belgrade and the Music Center in Montenegro

Photo credit: Belkisa Beka Abdulovic

Richard has also undertaken extensive concert work, including appearances with conductors Sir David Willcocks, Sir Neville Marriner, Gary Bertini, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Richard Hickox. He has performed Handel’s Belshazzar at the Bath Festival, Christus in Jonathan Miller’s dramatisation of Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Festival d’Ambronay in France, Britain and Spain, Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall and St Matthew Passion with the City of London Sinfonia at the Barbican.

After singing in the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, for three years, Richard attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and worked privately with Pierre Bernac.

Richard has taught both German and French song at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and is in demand as leader of masterclasses.

She has appeared as Guest Principal with most major UK ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Welsh, BBC Scottish, BBC Concert Orchestra, CBSO, Hallé Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, RSNO, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, City of London Sinfonia, RTÉ National Symphony, the Orchestra of Opera North and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Carol’s session work features on a number of commercial soundtracks for feature films, advertisements, jingles, albums and singles. Carol has also contributed to myriad commercial pop tracks and as such her work has appeared in the Top 10 UK charts numerous times.

Carol has been a trombone professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music for over eleven years and has given masterclasses throughout the world, including Lucerne Conservatoire in Switzerland, University of California in Los Angeles, Rice University in Houston, Mexico City University, Lima Conservatoire in Peru and at the Jazz Institute in Graz, Austria. She quite often serves as an outside assessor at UK Conservatoires and abroad, and on international juries for trombone competitions around the globe. Carol is a former President of the British Trombone Society and was appointed President of the International Trombone Festival in 2017.

As well as performing and teaching, Carol has written orchestral arrangements for a whole host of different artists and genres. Most notably for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Grammy award-winning stars such as Corinne Bailey Rae and multi-Platinum-selling pop star Seal. She was part of the production team on a Eurovision Song Contest entry representing the UK and her orchestrations have been featured on Mercury Prize nominated albums, been in the top 5 of the UK Album Charts, top 10 on the US Billboard Chart and also been recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.

Carol recorded her debut solo album ‘Smile’ at Pinewood Studios, which reached the penultimate round of the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Carol is a solo endorsed artist with Michael Rath Trombones and Roland Keyboards.

Theatre credits include: The Book of Mormon (UK/International Tour); Annie (UK Tour); Madagascar the Musical (UK Tour); Sunset Boulevard (UK Tour); Annie (Cork Opera House); Starlight Express (Germany); Saturday Night Fever (Frankfurt); Grease (UK Tour); An Evening of Dirty Dancing (UK Tour); Taimid Seanachai (Toronto, Canada); High School Rocks (UK Tour); Zombie Prom (Landor, UK Premier); Peter Pan (Derngate); Snow White (Hawth); Dick Whittington and Aladdin (Gala); and the Royal Masonic Variety Show (Prince Edward).
Film and Television credits include: Wicked: Part One; Axe Gold Commercial; Clive in Nickelodeon’s hit sitcom Genie In The House; and dancing for Tim Minchin’s Canvas Bags video. Darren is passionate about the voice. He is a qualified Vocal Health First Aider, has completed his Advanced Professional Diploma in teaching contemporary singing through The Voice College, and teaches at institutions including The Miskin Theatre and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

www.darrenjohn.co.uk

For the past few years, Kate has been creating a series of dance scores for use in everyday situations, with a particular focus on relationships and mood. Where and how these scores exist, in terms of location and medium, is an important aspect of this work.

Her current collaboration, with artist Lili Murphy-Johnson and dancers Kirsty Alexander and Lily Paine, is an exploration of the act of “doing” through film and dance and uses film as an integral part of the choreographic process.

Previous collaborations have been with dance artist Marina Collard, poet Carol Watts, and film maker Ros Cheshire.

As a dance animateur for Yorkshire Dance, Swindon Dance, Cambridgeshire and Rambert, Kate has taught in a variety of community settings. She has also taught at Barnsley College of Art, Lewisham College and London Contemporary Dance School.