Staff A-Z

Gidon has twice been the recipient of Italy’s leading annual opera award, the Abbiati Prize, won a Gramophone Award for the title role in Handel’s Saul under Rene Jacobs, and has been nominated for both a Dora Award in Canada and for the Golden Mask in Moscow.

He has sung a wide repertoire internationally, and is active as a singing teacher, director, designer and author. He began directing and designing aged 17 in South Africa with Roger McGough’s Puny Little Life Show, and has created work in Manchester, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Antwerp, Ghent and London. He has taught masterclasses in Moscow, Seattle, London, Stavanger, Cape Town, Berlin, Toronto, Cleveland (with Roger Vignoles) and Amsterdam. Next season he creates roles in new operas in Hamburg and Brussels. 

Image credit: Danny Lowe

Through her extensive performance and creative work, Alice has become increasingly focused on the subtleties and interplay of audience/performer, and the relationship of event and site. This informs her ongoing collaboration with architectural research fellow Dr Rachel Sara, with whom she has co-authored and presented this research in various contexts. These ideas have informed a series of choreographic works including ‘Body Stories in a Peopled Space – v.1 & v.2’ created in collaboration with dance artist Clare Baker and presented at the AHRA Transgressions conference – MShed Bristol, ICA, Blackheath Halls, ‘Rosemary Butcher in the Present Tense’ at Siobhan Davies Studio. Alice and Clare have most recently devised and presented Betweens and Aparts, a collaborative performance project at Tate Exchange in collaboration with Dr Rachel Sara and composer Ronen Kazokoro with Dance and Music students from Trinity Laban and Architecture students from the University of the West of England.

Alice has taught at Trinity Laban for over a decade, teaching Contemporary Dance Technique, Improvisation and Performance. Her technique class aims to develop an articulate, efficient and expressive use of the body in motion, informed through her wide-ranging experience in dance and somatic movement approaches, including her diploma in Pilates Matwork Teaching, and her broad experience of devising and improvisational processes, varied audience/performer relationships and performance contexts influence her approach to rehearsal direction, improvisation and performance mentoring.

Qualifications

• MA – Contemporary Dance – London Contemporary Dance School/University of Kent
• BA (Hons) – Contemporary Dance – London Contemporary Dance School
• Diploma – Art, Media & Design – University of the West of England
• Diploma – Pilates Matwork – The Place/Pilates Foundation

Outputs & Publications

• Sara, A and Sara, R. (2006) ‘Between the Lines – Experiencing Space through dance’ Transactions Vol. 3, Issue 1, April, pp 95-105
• Sara, R in collaboration with Sara, A (2015) Between dance and architecture. In V. Hunter (Ed.), ‘Moving Sites: Investigating Site-Specific Dance Performance’(pp 62-77). London: Routledge.

Olly has performed at venues such as Ronnie Scotts, The Jazz Café, The Elgar room, XOYO, The Royal Festival Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall, Pizza Express Jazz Club, The 606, The Vortex, Band on the Wall and Cadogan Hall. He has recorded live radio sessions for BBC Radio 2 with Jamie Cullum, World music on BBC radio 3, BBC 6 music and pre-recorded sessions at Herts Jazz for BBC Jazz on 3. Sarkar has recorded live streams for Ronnie Scotts Jazz Club, Camden Roundhouse Rising Festival, the British Music Embassy’s SXSW showcase and Jazz Re:Freshed’s SXSW showcase live from Abbey Road studio 2.

As a Trinity trust scholar of TrinityLaban Conservatoire of music & dance Sarkar studied under the tutelage of Simon Purcell, Dave Wickens, Gene Calderazzo. Sarkar learnt the importance of studying musical traditions and how to approach new music. Sarkar has furthered his studies

with Jonathan Blake, John Riley, Kenny Washington & Richard Spaven. Olly proudly endorses Canopus drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Vic Firth Drum Sticks.

In demand as a chamber musician, Jan has performed in many of the major concert halls internationally with the Angell Trio, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, the Schubert Ensemble of London and the Razumovsky Ensemble. He has broadcast for American networks, French and Swiss radio as well as most German radio stations and has appeared on NHK-TV, Japan.  His recordings have appeared on the Sanctuary, ASV, Guild, Lorelt and Chandos labels.

Since 2015, the Angell Trio has collaborated with operatic bass Matthew Rose and soprano Katherine Broderick to commission four new works for voice and trio by Martin Suckling, Kate Whitley, Jordan Hunt and John Woolrich.

Supported by the Arts Council England, she has since then created numerous productions for her company, of which many are interdisciplinary collaborations with a particular focus on movement, the visual arts and sound. Her work so far has toured to theatres and other performance spaces in the UK and abroad in Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Spain.

Stephanie has a passion for and extensive experience in teaching in community, vocational training and professional development contexts. She has been commissioned to create works for students at Northampton University, London Metropolitan University, The Place, Northern School of Contemporary Dance and Trinity Laban. In 2014 she initiated ‘Locus’, a professional development project for dance and performance artists in the East of England.

As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Pieter was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

Anneke is principal horn of a number of internationally renowned period instrument ensembles including Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the English Baroque Soloists, ensemble Pygmalion, The Orchestra of the Sixteen, The Irish Baroque Orchestra, Dunedin Consort and Players, Oxford Bach Soloists and many others. She is similarly in great demand as a guest principal horn, regularly appearing with orchestras and ensembles worldwide. 

Anneke enjoys an international solo career and discography embracing three centuries of virtuosic horn works. Her expertise in baroque horn repertoire ensures that she is frequently to be heard performing the famous obligato arias of composers such as Bach and Handel as well as solo concertos from this period. Her critically acclaimed solo recordings also include three discs focussing on the music of the leading Parisian horn player of the nineteenth century; Jaques-François Gallay. 

Anneke enjoys collaborating with a wide range of musicians and is a key member of a number of chamber music ensembles including nineteenth century period brass ensemble The Prince Regent’s Band, the harmoniemusik ensemble Boxwood & Brass, historic wind ensemble Syrinx and EnsembleF2. She regularly works with leading period keyboardists including Steven Devine, Neal Peres da Costa, Geoffrey Govier and Kathryn Cok and period harpist Frances Kelly. 

In addition to her teaching at Trinity Laban, she also teaches at The University of Birmingham, The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and on the online teaching platform Play with a Pro. In 2018 she was awarded Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music and in 2019 she was one of the recipients of the International Horn Society “Punto Award”.  

Naomi’s professional choreographic work has been commissioned and presented across Canada and Europe (since 1998) within festivals such as TanzArt (Germany), Brighton Fringe (UK), Dancing of the Edge (Canada) and Chutzpah! (Canada). Naomi’s practice-led research is published in academic journals and book chapters (Intellect, Frontiers and Routledge), she presents regularly at national and international conferences and is a reviewer for the Frontiers in Psychology Journal. Naomi’s artistic work and teaching is informed by her doctoral research which examined the effect of mindfulness meditation on a creative process of dance making. Naomi’s current research is funded by Arts Council England.

Qualifications / Educational Background

Graduate Studies & Professional Qualifications

• Reader of Choreographic Practice – July 2021
• Senior Fellow Higher Education Academy – May 2019
• PhD Creative Practice (Dance) – July 2013, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – London, UK
• Fellow Higher Education Academy – September 2007
• MA Choreography – October 2004 Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – London, UK

Undergraduate Studies

• Bachelor of Fine Arts – Major in Dance – April 1998, Simon Fraser University – Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Professional Dance Diploma – April 1996, Grant MacEwan Community College – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Creative Outputs

• Book chapter entitled ‘Moving as a thought process: the practice of choreography through stillness’ for the Routledge Dance Companion Series, edited by Professor Helen Thomas & Stacey Prickett – 2019
• International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Montreal, practitioner wisdom presentation, October 2019
• 5th International Dance & Somatic Practices Conference – Coventry University – invited presenter – July 2019
• Perf/Forming Future: Artistic Doctorates in Europe, Middlesex University – invited presenter – April 2019
• Frontiers of Psychology, Expertise in evaluating choreographic creativity: An online adaption of the Consensual Assessment Technique, co-authored with Lucie Clements, Emma Redding & Jon May, 9:1448. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01448, August 2018
• Presented in Parallax Trinity Laban Research series ‘Moving as a thought process: studio development and creative encounters’ + documentary film by Jason Brooks – October 2018
• Arts Council England, Grant for the Arts funding award – for Part 2 Research and Development – dance-making and mindfulness with Lucille Teppa and Tara Silverthorn – February 2016 – November 2018
•  Journal of Performance and Mindfulness, ‘Moving as a thought process: An insight into mindfulness through dance and choreography’, co-authored with Tara Silverthorn & Lucille Teppa, article published Autumn 2018
• XVII International Conservatory Week Festival, St Petersburg, Russia – invited presenter – October 2017
• AHRC Leverhulme Imagery project team for In the dancer’s mind: creativity, novelty, imagination, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, September 2014 – December 2017.
• 4th International Dance & Somatic Practices Conference – Coventry University – invited presenter – July 2017
• Girls’ Day School Trust, The Cultivation of Mindfulness in Schools conference – invited presenter June 2017
• Presented at Labanarium, Mental imagery and creativity – University of Surrey – January 2017
• International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Hong Kong, practitioner wisdom presentation entitled: ‘Mindful Moving: An insight into mindfulness through dance-making and choreography’, October 201
• Presented in Parallax Trinity Laban Research series ‘Moving as a thought process: An insight into mindfulness through dance and choreography’ + documentary film by Jason Brooks – October 2016
• Performance and Mindfulness International Symposium, Huddersfield University, paper presentation – June 2016
• Journal Article, ‘Sharing Practitioner wisdom: Collaborative approaches to learning and teaching for contemporary dancers in conservatoire training’, Journal of Dance & Somatic Practices, co-authored with Dr Emma Redding & Alison Curtis-Jones – April 2016, Vol 8, No 2.
• Foundations for Excellence Conference – Meeting the challenges of excellence in Music and Dance – invited presenter – November 2015
• Arts Council England, Grant for the Arts funding award – for Part 1 Research and Development – dharmakaya with Lucille Teppa and Tara Silverthorn – August 2015 – October 2016
• Co-authored book chapter, ‘Dancing and flourishing: mindful meditation in dance making and performing’ with Professor Sarah Whatley in Dance, Somatics and Spiritualties: Contemporary sacred narratives, leading voices in the field, edited by Sarah Whatley, Glenna Batson, Amanda Williamson, Intellect November 2014
• International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Basel, Switzerland, practitioner wisdom presentation entitled ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching for contemporary dancers in conservatoire training’, October 2014
• World Dance Alliance Global Summit, Angers, France, panel presentation entitled ‘Interdisciplinary approaches to learning and teaching for contemporary dancers in conservatoire training’, July 2014
• PhD Creative Practice (Dance) thesis entitled dharmakaya: An investigation into the impact of mindful meditation on dancers’ creative processes in a choreographic environment, June 2013
• Research in Dance Education Volume 11 Issue 3, 251, book review of Charm and speed: virtuosity in the performing arts, V. A. Howard , June 2010
• Authored chapter in The artists’ stories: Featuring 30 Canadian Artists, published by Canadian Arts Alliance, June 2006
• International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, Stockholm, Sweden, ‘The development of a longitudinal inter-disciplinary screening program for full time dance students’. Paper presentation, Emma Redding, MSc, Rogerio Correa, Peter Curtis, Sarah Irvine, MSc, Naomi Lefebvre Sell, MA, November 2005

Link to PhD thesis:https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/2634/

Awards:

• External Examiner, Bath Spa University, BA Dance, 2021-2024
• Professional Development Course for External Examiners, Advance HE, 2018
• External Examiner, University of Sunderland, BA Professional Dance, MA Advanced Dance Practice, MA Advanced Professional Practice (Dance), 2018-2022
• External Examiner, University of Salford, BA (Hons) Dance 2019-2023
• Validation panel member, University of Sunderland, BA Professional Dance, MA Advanced Dance Practice, MA Advanced Professional Practice (Dance) 2018
• Reviewer for Arts, open access journal
• Reviewer for Frontiers in Psychology – an open access online journal

This season he takes up the position of Ring Cycle Conducting Fellow at Longborough Festival Opera, conducting performances of Siegfried, and working towards their Ring Cycle in 2024. A finalist in both the LSO’s Donatella Flick and Athens International Conducting Competitions, he has worked on the music staff at ENO, Den Jyske Opera, and the Grange Festival, collaborating with orchestras including the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Odense Symfoniorkester, and the Britten Sinfonia, and has performed at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, and the Barbican. 

Harry’s recent composition highlights include commissions for the Oxford Lieder Festival and the Wigmore Hall, and his musicals James and the Giant Peach, Guess How Much I Love You, and Mr. Men & Little Miss have toured internationally with Sell-A-Door Productions. Other theatre scores include The Kreutzer Sonata (Arcola Theatre), Sleeping Beauty and My Mother Said I Never Should (The Theatre Chipping Norton), King Lear, As You Like It,  and Love’s Labours Lost (The Minack Theatre). For the screen, credits include Stalker (CBS), and Rossum’s Universal Robots for BBC Radio 4 .

As a soloist with orchestra, he has performed with Musikkollegium Winterthur, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra among others.

He has worked with leading conductors including Christopher Warren-Green, Pascal Rophé, Nikoloz Rachveli and Gianluca Marcianó.

In July 2010 Mikhail won the Bronze Medal at the prestigious Vianna da Motta International Piano Competition in Lisbon.

Mikhail lives in London and plays mostly in the UK and Europe. He has been taking part in numerous festivals across Europe including Zaubersee festival in Lucerne and Suoni dal Golfo in La Spezia, Italy.

Among his chamber music partners are Boris Brovtsyn, Anastasia Kobekina and Natalie Clein. He is interested in historical performance practice and gives recitals on fortepianos.

Mikhail is also known for his collaboration with singers including Anna Gorbacheva, Nardus Williams, Yuri Yurchuk, Tuuli Takkala and Anush Hovhannisyan.

Mikhail’s repertoire stretches from early Baroque to contemporary music with its focus on J. S. Bach, Viennese classics, German romantics and Chopin.

He has recently released two critically acclaimed CDs on Toccata Classics and Stone Records. His new record made on historical Bechstein has been released by Willowhayne Records.

In smaller groups he has played with Gary Husband’s ‘Drive’, Django Bates’ Human Chain, NYC performance artist/violinist Laurie Anderson and pianist/singer-songwriter Steve Nieve, The Smith Quartet, Kirk Lightsey, Norma Winstone, Jason Palmer’s Quartet featuring Jeff Ballard. He is a member of Oren Marshall’s ‘Charming Transport Band’ featuring musicians from Ghana and Nigeria. Julian has also performed with vocalists Cleo Laine, Beverley Knight, Joe Lee Wilson, Liane Carroll, Eddi Reader, Charlene Spiteri, Jacqueline Dankworth, Lizz Wright, Juliet Roberts, Keziah Jones, Terri Walker, Christine Tobin and punk rock legend Steve Ignorant (formerly of Crass).