Staff A-Z

Commissions include works for Duo Antongirolami-Selva, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Séverine Ballon, Christopher Redgate and Cikada Ensemble, ELISION Ensemble, Duo Galeano-Javaid, Mieko Kanno, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Mosaik, Duo Öhman-Kordzaia, Frode Haltli and Oslo Sinfonietta, Quatuor Diotima, RepertorioZero, Mats Scheidegger and Steamboat Switzerland, performed at festivals including Ars Musica (Brussels), BBC Proms (London), Música Contemporánea Fundación BBVA (Bilbao), Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Utrecht), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Festival Images Sonores (Liège), London Ear Festival, MaerzMusik (Berlin), Musik im 21. Jahrhundert (Saarbrücken), Spitalfields Winter Festival, Tage für Neue Musik (Zürich), Ultima Festival (Oslo) and Warsaw Autumn.

Bruno is a frequent host of the Ronnie Scott’s Late Late show, and has performed in venues and festivals including Southbank Centre, the Shanghai World Music Festival, the London Jazz Festival, Malta International Arts Festival, the Rest Is Noise Festival, Cadogan Hall, and the Royal Albert Hall. He has had his music played on BBC Radio 3, Jazz LineUp, Late Junction, BBC6 Music, BBC Scotland, in Austria, Canada, and the USA, as well as giving live broadcasts and interviews for the BBC and Rai 3 Italy.

He was taught by the late John Taylor and Pete Saberton, and has just been awarded an AHRC-funded practice-based PhD from the Royal Northern College of Music with the title ‘Counterpoint in jazz piano with specific relation to the solo work of Fred Hersch‘. As part of his research, he received funding to travel to New York City to interview and work with Hersch in 2016.

As a composer, Bruno has written for groups ranging from sextet to two pianos and percussion (for a project with Pete Saberton), and from big band to classical string ensemble (for a commission in 2017 from the Camerata Alma Viva). In 2009, Bruno was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Composers Award.

He recently held the piano chair for two performances of Bernstein’s Wonderful Town at the Barbican Centre with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.

Bruno has a longstanding musical partnership with the outstanding Palestinian singer, composer and broadcaster Reem Kelani.

In the freelance field he has played with all of the UK’s major symphony, opera and chamber orchestras working with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Sir Georg Solti, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as performing on many film scores, particularly those of Jerry Goldsmith and John Barry. He was a member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, enjoying many Prom seasons and worldwide concert tours with leading soloists and conductors/ composers such as Pierre Boulez, Olivier Messiaen and Witold Lutosławski. He has been a professor of Trumpet at Trinity Laban since 2004.

She is also in demand as a woodwind performer in London’s West End Shows and has played in Phantom of the Opera, Legally Blonde, A Little Night Music and Cats to name but a few.

Melanie is a Professor of Saxophone and Associated Doubling Skills at Trinity Laban. As well as delivering principal study lessons, she coaches chamber music and lectures on two academic modules ; Artist as Citizen and Artist as Educator. Melanie is a music faculty representative on the Learning and Teaching Board at Trinity Laban and she also examines and adjudicates for other London music conservatoires.

Melanie is a key member of the City of London Sinfonia outreach team which involves delivering workshops and interactive concerts in hospitals and community venues. These include GOSH, Evelina London Children’s Hospital and Headway East.
As a saxophone syllabus selector for the ABRSM, Melanie collaborates with many renowned music educators and composers and has recently recorded pieces from grade six, seven and eight of the new syllabus. She was also part of the team responsible for developing the new scales and sight-reading requirements. Melanie’s contribution to music was honoured by the Royal Academy of Music when she was awarded an ARAM.

Apart from this she has had wide experience playing on the concert platform as guest principal timpanist in symphony orchestras throughout the British Isles. She also has vast experience playing in period instrument orchestras along with West End shows, chamber ensembles and a championship-winning brass band.

She also specialises in playing the bass drum alongside her timpani colleagues and considers this a vital part of any timpani student’s education.

Kate has a very holistic approach to her timpani teaching and encourages her students to develop their own style incorporating all aspects needed to become a fine timpanist and musician.

As a session musician Johnny has performed with Mica Paris, Hamish Stuart, Errol Brown, Tito Jackson, Gary Barlow, While/Matthews, Fred Wesley, Eric Marienthal, Donny Osmond, Pat Lewis and JD73 amongst many others.

Current musical output includes being a member of original band ‘The Deccan Traps’, working with Grammy award winning composer Eliot Kennedy, and freelance recording / touring work.

Johnny is also a Performance tutor at the Royal Northern College of Music.

In his fifth appearance at the BBC Proms in 2002, he premiered a new concerto by David Sawer with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Recently he has also performed concertos by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen, Roger Smalley and Lou Harrison, and worked with high-calibre conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Simon Rattle, Leonard Slatkin, Andrew Davis, Markus Stenz, Oliver Knussen and Franz Welser-Möst. He has been chosen to give a recital as part of Southbank Centre’s Xenakis Weekend and was requested by Elliot Carter to play at the BBC Barbican Weekend with a programme of the composer’s choice. In 2010’s landmark performance of Lachenmann’s Ausklang at the Festival Hall with the London Sinfonietta, the composer asked specifically for Rolf to be the pianist.

Rolf played a leading role in the BBC’s Adams Festival at the Barbican in 2002, as soloist in Phrygian Gates and Grand Pianola Music conducted by the composer; the latter was reprised in 2003 at Alice Tully Hall, New York. As a result, John Adams asked him to play on his disc, Road Movies, released by Nonesuch. Rolf has also recorded for Factory Classics, Virgin, Teldec, Bridge, DaCapo and NMC records, including repertoire from Messiaen as well as works written especially for him. He also recorded the complete solo piano works of Peter Maxwell Davies for the composer’s own internet record label, MaxOpus.

Further afield, he has toured Korea, Taiwan and Cuba and made recital and concerto appearances at the Festivals of Perth (Australia) and Wellington (New Zealand). Rolf has also worked with some of the world’s greatest dancers and choreographers, including Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Rosas, Richard Alston and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. In 2012 he worked with the leading Portuguese choreographer/director Rui Horta on Danza Preparata in which he plays the Sonatas and Interludes of John Cage in a “danced concert”.

In the last few years, he has developed a growing reputation as a composer. Keith Potter of The Independent called him “One of the rare examples of a performer who can make a successful career as a composer”. His piano pieces and a chamber work, The Horse Sacrifice, have been broadcast by the BBC. He wrote a score for Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, broadcast on German radio, and was commissioned by the 2003 Huddersfield Festival for Das Unenthullte, as premiered with his regular duo partner, David Alberman. Recent commissions include Eye of Fire, which he played with The Duke Quartet, and Sunnata for five pianos and one honky-tonk, as well as a piano concerto, Maya-Sesha, for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Maya Sesha, and a solo piano piece “a single hair, a jasmine petal, seven mattresses, a pea..” were both shortlisted for a British Composers Award.

In 2012, Maya-Sesha was played by the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Sir James MacMillan, and Rolf’s largest orchestral score, The Tiniest House of Time, a concerto for accordion (James Crabb) will be premiered in the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in November. Future plans include a work for two pianos and ensemble, and a music-theatre piece.

Rolf is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, teaching piano and composition and coaching chamber music. He has also taught at the Royal Academy of Music and regularly gives masterclasses at Dartington Summer School and throughout Britain and Europe.

In recognition of his high standing within British music, Rolf was Artistic Director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music for two years. He planned a nationwide concert series for 2005-6 on their behalf; he was also for several years the Chairman of International Society for Contemporary Musicians (ISCM) Britain. He planned a large-scale day of music for multiple pianists at London’s Roundhouse, Many Hands, in 2010’s Reverb festival.

Her operatic roles have included Handel with Nicholas Kraemer, Berlioz with Roger Norrington, Ligeti for La Monnaie, Osborne and Knussen for Glyndebourne, Schoenberg for the Royal Opera House and La Fenice, and in 2013 an improvised opera with Bruce McLean, and Lucie Treacher’s The Fisherman’s Brides for Tête-à-Tête. She has worked extensively with London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherché and Ensemble Intercontemporain, singing Ligeti, Berio, Henze, Knussen, Holt, Weir, Muldowney, Lachenmann among many European and American composers. She has sung at the Edinburgh, Paris, Metz, Holland, Ars Musica festivals and at the BBC Proms and has performed with conductors including Gielen, Nagano, Rattle, Howarth, Masson, Metzmacher and Harding.

Linda’s many recordings include Atom Heart Mother with Pink Floyd, Globokar’s Les Emigrés and Privilege with Ivor Cutler, as well as the solo album Songs Cathy Sang with Diego Masson, early music with Fretwork and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Richard Hickox, and a recent release by Non-Classical of a live improv night with the Mercury Quartet.

She has been Head of Vocal Studies at Trinity Laban for 20 years; is President of the Kathleen Ferrier Society, a trustee of the Hinrichsen Foundation, a Fellow of Dartington College of Arts and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Huddersfield University.

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. 

Calum’s passion extends beyond performance, with a strong commitment to music education. A highly sought-after educator, workshop leader and clinician, he is Professor of Marimba at the Royal College of Music and Professor of Solo and Chamber Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Alongside his teaching, he regularly gives masterclasses and guest residencies throughout the UK and internationally.

As an Associate Artist with the Benedetti Foundation, Calum is committed to challenging the boundaries of classical music and championing access to high-quality music education for young people.

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

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.