Staff A-Z

Professorial Staff – Violin

Diana has been a professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance since 1994.

Diana is one of the most distinguished violinists in Great Britain, her career spanning a wide spectrum of musical activities. After winning prizes in the Niccolò Paganini and Alberto Curci violin competitions, she developed a busy international career as a recitalist and a concerto soloist, playing an extensive repertoire from the Baroque to the Contemporary. She gave the first performance in Finland of the Violin Concerto by Peter Maxwell Davies and is dedicated to the promotion and performance of new works.

Singing Teacher

Joe Cummings is a musical director, vocal coach, pianist, composer and animateur working across opera and musical theatre. He is a Répétiteur at the Royal Ballet and Opera and Musical Director of Opera Holland Park’s Youth Opera Chorus, and has worked with English National Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Matilda The Musical and London Musical Theatre Orchestra. Alongside his work at Trinity Laban, Joe teaches at BIRD College as well as visiting teaching roles at Mountview and the Royal Academy of Music. He trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. 

FHEA, MA, PGCE, BA(Hons)

Artistic Director of award-winning Summit Dance Theatre, internationally recognised dance artist, movement consultant, contemporary choreological expert, researcher and leading exponent in re-imagining Rudolf Laban’s ‘lost’ choreographic works. Ali teaches annually in Switzerland and Croatia and her choreographic work performed throughout Europe, UK, Switzerland and Canada, filmed and screened by Swiss TV company RSI, German TV company ARTE and featured in the BBC documentary Dance Rebels.

Research Interests: Body as Archive; Archival practices; Movement documentation; Creative Dance Pedagogy; Choreography; Improvisation; Choreological Studies; Mentoring/Movement Direction; Contemporary dance technique; Contemporary body practices; Historical and cultural perspective on dance; Dance artists in education and participatory settings; Performance psychology; Community participatory work; Restaging work; Cross-curricular work and interdisciplinary creative practices; Movement for musicians

Luisa teaches adult Pilates as part of the Public Engagement team.

Luisa teaches dance technique, improvisation, and choreographic workshops at degree, postgraduate and vocational levels in the UK and Italy. She is a dancer and has worked for several choreographers including A. Vahla, R. Garrison, Rebecca Skelton, and L. Latour, as well as making her own work. She also choreographs for the theatre, collaborating with various theatre directors at Italia Conti in London and in Rome. After training in contemporary dance, Luisa D’Ambrosio trained as a Pilates teacher at The Place with The Pilates Foundation. She also works independently as an instructor and lectures in Pilates and Body Conditioning.

Born in Bologna, Italy, Gabriella studied in Italy, France and Germany with Pierre Jamet and Fabrice Pierre, Jaqueline Borot, Giselle Herbert and Anna Loro.

Now based in London, she continues to follow an international and high profile career performing and teaching the harp.Captivating audiences around the globe her critically acclaimed recordings span solo, chamber and orchestral works on the Claves, Koch, Stradivarius, Dal Segno and Ambitus labels, and she has also made many live recordings for French, German, Italian and Swiss Radio.

Her wide and varied repertoire covers most solo, concertos, chamber music repertoire as well as orchestral works (symphonic, operatic and ballet). Internationally active as a soloist and chamber musician, Gabriella has given recitals and concerts throughout Europe, USA, the Far and Middle East.

She also freelances with some of the most outstanding UK and European orchestras: the Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Conductors she works with include Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Simon Rattle, Lorin Maazel, Sir Colin Davis, Antonio Pappano, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Osawa and Esa-Pekka Salonen amongst countless others.

Research interests and areas of supervision:

• Harp performance
• Musicology

Junior Trinity Cello Teacher

Daniel studied cello with Leonid Gorokhov at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Daniel is an accomplished cellist and currently divides his time between being Artistic Director of Music at Nantwen, Teaching at Trinity Laban, his family and performance. He is also a musician for Music in Hospitals and Care.

Emily is the leader of the Hallé Orchestra, which she combines with a vibrant career guest leading other ensembles across Europe, alongside engagements as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher.

Penny began her career combining piano performance with school and college teaching, first leading an A-Level Music department over forty years ago.

She joined Junior Trinity in 2002, tasked with developing the GCSE and A Level examination courses. Consolidating her teaching experience by examining for Edexcel since 1990, she has in turn become a Senior Examiner and a Principal Examiner.

Dedicated to offering opportunities to young musicians she is a trustee for several music charities, co-ordinates a Young Musician of the Year competition and has run a concert series for young professionals in her converted chapel home.

Sasi Del Bono is a lecturer on the BA Contemporary Dance programme and a liaison librarian in the Faculty of Dance Library. In addition to Historical Perspectives on Dance, she teaches on the Cultural Perspectives on Dance and Research Methods One modules and supervises third-year undergraduate projects.

David Delarre is a musician, composer and music educator. Through his work with the award winning singer Eliza Carthy MBE and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, David has performed at a number of high profile venues and festivals across the UK and Europe.

He has recently recorded sessions for BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 and has also performed on BBC 1 for Jools Holland and BBC 1 Breakfast TV. His theatre credits include The Globe’s production of The Two Noble Kinsman, Bartholomew Fair, Tony Award winning Broadway musical Hadestown and the National Theatre’s Hex.

Niamh is a Performance Enhancement Tutor for the Centre for Advanced Training in Dance.

I am a graduate of a BSc in Sports Science and Health (Dublin City University) and an MSc in Dance Science (Trinity Laban). I have completed a diploma in sports massage (Sports Ttherapy UK), a corrective exercise certificate (Core Exercise Solutions, 2021) and in 2019 I achieved a PhD in clinical exercise physiology.

Professorial Staff – Violin

Matthew Denton (violin) has performed for three decades as leader of the internationally acclaimed Carducci Quartet, one of the UK’s most celebrated ensembles. 

As a chamber musician, he has won prizes at major international competitions including the Concert Artists Guild Competition, Kuhmo Chamber Music Competition, Charles Hennen Competition, Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition. In the UK, he has received awards from organisations including the Royal Over-Seas League, Tillett Trust, Tunnell Trust, Countess of Munster Musical Trust and the Parkhouse Award. 

With the Carducci Quartet, Matthew has recorded more than 25 albums for labels including Signum Records, Naxos, BMG, Somm Recordings and Nimbus Records, as well as the quartet’s own label. He has performed at leading venues worldwide including Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw and Tivoli Concert Hall, with the quartet presenting around 90 concerts each year. 

Renowned for their complete cycles of Bartók, Beethoven and Shostakovich, the quartet received a Royal Philharmonic Society Award for their landmark ‘Shostakovich15’ project—ten complete cycles presented worldwide, culminating in an immersive single-day performance at Shakespeare’s Globe. 

Steven combines a performing career with the post of Assistant Curator to the Finchcocks Collection, one of the principal collections of historical keyboard instruments in Europe. In 1993 he won the Broadwood Harpsichord Competition and made his London recital debut shortly afterward. Additional performances include chamber music on fortepiano with Ensemble Galant and the Fitzwilliam Quartet as well as conducting new productions with New Chamber Opera and Opera Restor’d. He went on tour to the USA, where he played the complete Brandenburg Concertos with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Graham Anthony Devine was born in England and began his musical studies at Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester studying guitar with Gordon Crosskey. At 19 years old, Graham relocated to Brazil where he lived for almost a decade giving many recitals and masterclasses throughout South America during this period.

In April 2002, Graham was awarded first prize at one of the guitar’s most prestigious international competitions, the Alhambra International Guitar Competition held in Alcoy, Spain. He was to repeat this success one month later by winning the first prize at the Emilio Pujol International Guitar Competition, Italy. He is the only English guitarist to win either of these competitions.

Graham records for NAXOS and his many CD releases, which include the music of J.S. Bach through to South American music and twentieth century repertoire, have received rave reviews worldwide. His 2005 NAXOS release, British Guitar music, was chosen as disc of the week on America’s NPR radio station and CLASSIC FM’s John Brunning commented “Graham Devine, who plays with great sensitivity, strikes me as an ideal artist to continue Julian Bream’s musical legacy.’’