Staff A-Z

Blair Kelly is a vocal coach and lecturer specialising in contemporary commercial music, musical theatre, spoken voice and drag and cabaret performance. Blair teaches singing on the Popular Music and Musical Theatre programmes at Trinity Laban and is the founder and Artistic Director of Errata: London’s Queerest Choir with an additional interest and specialism in working with drag and cabaret performers. He is an Estill Master Trainer and is trained in Body-Based Voice Pedagogy.

Trained on the modern harp and with a music degree from the University of Cambridge, Frances was one of the first harpists to be drawn towards early music and the exploration of early harps, their repertoire and in particular, the use of the harp as a continuo instrument. Well known both as a chamber musician and soloist, she is now a leading exponent of early harps and much in demand as a continuo player. She has worked with many distinguished ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the New London Consort, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Brandenburg Consort. She has numerous recordings to her name and her work has taken her throughout Europe and to the USA, China and Japan. Frances also has a keen interest in music education and teaching at all levels and ages and enjoys a busy teaching practice.

Born in Cork, Ireland, Fiona Kelly completed her undergraduate studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance with Anna Noakes and went on to complete a Master’s at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert Langevin, principal flute of the New York Philharmonic. 

Fiona was principal flute of the Swedish Chamber Orchestra from 2012-2016. Since relocating to London she leads a busy freelance career performing as guest principal flute with many of the UK’s leading orchestras including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. 

Fiona is equally in demand as a soloist and has performed concertos at the BBC Proms, Heidelberg and Rheingau festivals. 

With a keen interest in expanding the repertoire for the flute, Fiona has premiered and commissioned many new works, by composers such as Uri Caine and Ian Wilson. 

Susan is an award-winning choreographer, performer and teacher. Her career as a dancer took her from Sydney to Tokyo, New York, Madrid, Barcelona, and now London. Her choreographies have been programmed in festivals and theatres in Czech Republic, Chile, Italy, Spain and the UK. She teaches in schools and academies and has been guest teacher for companies in Spain, Sweden and Germany. Since living in London, she has taught at London Contemporary Dance School, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London Studio Centre and Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance as well as leading open professional classes at The Place.

www.susankempster.com

David studied the cello with William Pleeth, Aldo Parisot and Boris Pergamenshikov, and has Masters Degrees from the University of Cambridge and Yale. An experienced chamber musician, David was a founder member of the London Mozart Trio and the London Piano Quartet. As well as his broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and internationally, David has received renown for his recordings, and had the honour of being invited to perform in Jaqueline du Pré Memorial Concerts in Lambeth Palace and the Wigmore Hall. He recorded the complete Bach solo Cello Suites, released by Signum Classics in 2007 (“unaffected, honest musicianship at its best” Brian Clark, Early Music Review; “Isserlis is a widely known and highly regarded cellist, yet I found myself less impressed with his effort than that of Kenedy” Good-Music-Guide 2013). David co-directed the National Cello Festival “Go Cello!” held in Greenwich in 2018, and currently directs the String Chamber Music Programme at Trinity Laban, where he has taught since 1990. Most recently, he recorded Schubert’s Sonata for Arpeggione and Chopin’s Cello Sonata with his wife, Rianka Bouwmeester, released by Signum Classics in June 2017. David speaks French, German, Italian and Dutch, as well as English.

Shaun recently directed the 10th Anniversary Concert of “Made in Dagenham” at The London Palladium starring Pixie Lott and Bonnie Langford and Andrew Lloyd Webbers “Love Never Dies – in concert” at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, which won the 2024 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Concert or Event.

Gary became co-principal percussionist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20 and since then has become one of Britain’s most sought after percussionists. He is stylistically versatile, with experience in all fields of music from Latin American and Ethnic through straight Classical to Pop and Contemporary. His long association with film and television music also began at a young age. Gary has worked with such eminent artists as Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Paul McCartney, John Williams, Michael Kamen, Danny Elfman, David Arnold and Elmer Bernstein to name but a few.

Before moving to the UK, Soyeon received a Bachelor of Music in Composition at the Yonsei University in South Korea. Since then, she has performed extensively as a singer-songwriter in Korea and has released
over four albums.

She featured in numerous CDs for well-known Korean pop musicians such as Shin Seunghun, Park Jonghyun, Yoon Jongshin, Wheesung and 015B and worked as a vocal coach and guide for a wide variety of artists such as Lee Hyori, IU, Lyn, Geomi, Baik Jiyoung, Ivy and Seo Inyoung to name a few. Soyeon was also a vocal coach for contestants in two of the most popular Korean singing competitions; ‘Superstar K’ and ‘The Great Birth of a Star.’ Her performances have been broadcast live on both radio and television on channels such as KBS2, MBC and KBS Radio.

Having received her Master in Music (Popular Music) with Distinction at the Royal Northern College of Music, Soyeon also works at the RNCM as a vocal tutor and ensemble tutor.

Lauren Kinsella performs in a range of diverse projects as a band leader, side-woman and collaborator. Using her voice as an instrument, her work encompasses composition and improvisation across several genres including jazz, alternative folk, experimental and contemporary classical music. Awarded UK vocalist of the year (Jazz FM 2016), she has received many accolades to date including the Arts Foundation Fellowship in jazz composition (2017), THSH Jazzlines Fellowship (2015) and the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize (2013). Kinsella’s performances and music are reviewed worldwide and she regularly features on radio stations including BBC Radio 3 and Radio 6 and RTÉ Lyric FM. To date, she has released several critically acclaimed albums on Edition Records, WideEarRecords, Diatribe and Two Rivers Records. 

Peter Knapp brings an in-depth understanding of the physical processes involved in singing and speaking to his training of performers, as well as a long and wide-ranging experience as a performer himself.

Hans Koller was born into a musical family, his father was a jazz-loving Lutheran pastor, his mother a music teacher and his four sisters all played instruments.

Koller started playing in bands with saxophonist Stan Sulzmann and trumpeter Chris Batchelor and went on to form his own group, ‘Neverland’, with bass player Dave Whitford, saxophonist Rob Townsend and drummer Stuart Laurence.  This group was augmented into a nine-piece outfit for Koller’s début album Magic Mountain (1997), which established him as one of the leading new jazz composers in the UK.  Three years later he won the Joey Award for composers organised by Eastern Arts, and subsequently was awarded major commissions by Birmingham Jazz and by the Freden International Music Festival.  In 2001 he released Lovers and Strangers, an album featuring his trio alongside the harpist Helen Tunstall, the singer Christine Tobin and the percussionist Corrina Sylvester.

Research interests and areas of supervision:

• Composition and improvisation, specifically 12-tone improvisation and development and transformation of serialism and counterpoint for jazz composition and performance
• George Russell’s Lydian-Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization 
• Thelonious Monk
• Jazz histories and futures
• Jazz pedagogy
• Collaboration with dance

Amir Konjani (Ph.D.) is a composer, Situation maker, performance designer, and instrument designer for specific films.

His works have been nominated and won many awards including the Ivors Composer Awards 2020, London Symphony Orchestra selected composer (Jerwood composer +), an Oscar in the 90th Academy Awards 2018 .

Research interests and areas of supervision:

• Composition
• Experience design and situation making: shaping immersive environments that engage performers and audiences through creative narratives and spatial sound
• Living and performing sculpture
• Film scoring: composing evocative scores for cinematic storytelling
• Persian music: exploring the intersection of traditional Persian music with contemporary classical techniques
• Performance design
• The art of delivering – contemporary music notation: crafting visual representations of music that challenge traditional notation and performance
• Interdisciplinary collaboration

Joely Koos leads an active freelance musical life alongside her teaching, in orchestral, solo and chamber work. She is a member of the City of London Sinfonia and regularly plays with the London Chamber Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. She has been invited as guest principal for various major orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Joely was educated at Chethams School of Music and won scholarships to the University of Cambridge and then the Royal Academy of Music. During this time she studied with William Pleeth, Liza Wilson, Christopher Bunting and David Strange.

Panaretos Kyriatzidis is increasingly sought after as a collaborative performer, vocal coach and musical director. A Britten Pears young artist, Panaretos has won the Gerald Moore Award, Oxford Lieder Young Artist Platform, the Emmy Destinn Awards Accompanist prize and the duo prize at the London Song Festival.

Gary teaches Cunningham-based technique across the undergraduate dance programme at Trinity Laban, and also on the MA Dance Performance (Transitions Dance Company) Programme.

He is Component Leader for BA1 Choreography and the OYP Devising and Performance. Gary also devises and choreographs work for BA1 Performance Project and BA3 commissioned works.