Staff A-Z

Born in Israel, Asaf started his professional career as a drummer in the late 80’s and played with some of Israel’s Jazz luminaries such at Harold Rubin and Alber Beger.

Born in Israel, Asaf started his professional career as a drummer in the late 80’s and played with some of Israel’s Jazz luminaries such at Harold Rubin and Alber Beger. A few years after the recording of his first solo album ‘One Step Closer’ Asaf relocated to the Netherlands, France and finally settled in London around 1999 where he soon became one of the most active Jazz drummers around. During that time Asaf became a founder member of Gilad Atzmon’s ‘Orient House’ Ensemble and started his long time collaboration with renown saxophonist Tim Garland and pianist Gwilym Simcock. Asaf has been leading his own bands and projects such as ‘Asaf Sirkis & the Inner Noise’ – a band of an unusual line up of church organ, guitar anddrum as well as the Asaf Sirkis Trio. He has been extensively playing worldwide and has recorded over 100 albums as a sideman and as a leader. Asaf have been playing with many other renown jazz and world artists such as: Dave Holland, Jacob Collier, Tim Garland, Gwilym Simcock, Larry Coryell, Jeff Berlin, John Abercrombie, Bob Sheppard, Norman Watt-Roy (off the Blockheads), Wilco Johnson, Soft Machine, Robert Wyatt, Natacha Atlas, Dave Liebman, David Binney, Gary Husband, pianist John Taylor, Norma Winstone, Kenny Wheeler, Andy Sheppard and many more. 

Matt Skelton is a drummer equally at home in modern and vintage Jazz styles enjoying a diverse musical career that has already spanned three decades.

He has accompanied many leading Jazz luminaries such as Harry “Sweets” Edison, Conte Candoli, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Warren Vache, Scott Hamilton, John Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Gregory Porter, and most recently Georgie Fame.

Malcolm is a highly regarded educator with 30 years of experience working in primary and secondary schools, adult education, summer schools and higher education. He has been Lecturer in Jazz at Trinity Laban since 2005. As a teacher, Malcolm has been involved in primary, secondary and adult sectors as well as with all the major music colleges. He also teaches for the University of Glamorgan and Wavendon Jazz Summer Schools, and runs workshops for the Associated Board.

Simon Smith is a violinist of wide ranging interests. He has been active as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher worldwide for 30 years.

After his London debut recital he was hailed in The Times as “a virtuoso who is at once darkly cool and immensely persuasive” and for “selfless playing, devoted to making the music exist as fully as possible” and praised in The Guardian for “startling talent”. An encore at a subsequent London recital was described in The Strad magazine as being “played with the characteristic poignancy and expressive power which made this concert so enchanting”.

Simon has taught at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2004, and is now delighted to join the staff of Trinity Laban. He also teaches specialist young musicians at the Royal College of Music Junior Department in London and at Wells Cathedral School.

Dele Sosimi stands out as one of the most active musicians currently on the Afrobeat scene worldwide.

Dele’s career began when he joined Fela’s Anikulapo-Kuti’s Egypt 80, where he played keyboards for 7 years (1979-1986). Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was the founder of the style of music known as Afrobeat. The music is a blend of complex but highly danceable funk grooves, Nigerian traditional music (including hi-life), African percussion, underpinning the jazz horns and solos from other instruments, as well as rhythmical singing. Dele was the rhythm keyboard player for Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s Egypt 80 and worked and toured extensively with Fela around the world…

During Fela’s incarceration in 1984, Femi Anikulapo-Kuti – Fela’s son and Dele’s childhood/school friend took over the reins temporarily and led the band Egypt 80. During this period, Dele developed his arranging skills as the musical director of the band. He re-orchestrated and re-arranged for the Egypt 80 and also handled the recruiting and training of new musicians in Egypt 80. Dele played keyboards on the following Fela/Egypt 80 hits, among others Parambulator, Power Show, Original Sufferhead, Customs Check Point, MOP 1 (Movement of the People), Give Me Shit I Give You Shit, Authority Stealing, Army Arrangeement, Government Chicken Boy, ITT (International Thief Thief), and Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense.

Over a long and varied career composer and multi-instrumentalist William South has enjoyed global and critical success with his projects Heavy Shift, Philadelphia Bluntz and The South Trio, freelanced on tour and in the studio with artists as diverse as David Byrne, Larry Heard, All Saints, Dead or Alive and Tom Jones among others, composed extensively for TV/media (including BBC shows Hustle, Death in Paradise and Freefonix) and over the past few years after working as co-composer and band leader on the Punch Drunk immersive theatre show The Drowned Man has developed a passion and focus for composing for contemporary dance/ballet shows and works regularly with various institutions such as English National Ballet and Laban and choreographers such as Sarah Dowling, Stephen Pelton, Jo Meredith and Feet off the Ground among others. Also a very experienced mentor of young bands and musicians started with pioneering work at Goldsmiths working with teenagers, he has helped many young musicians embark on a career in music and in particular overseen the development from scratch of Nova Twins, from learning to play right up to chart success and a recent Mercury Prize nomination.

Martin studied classical saxophone at Trinity College of Music. At that time there were no jazz courses in London, but he met some future jazz musicians at the college, including pianist Simon Purcell, saxophonist Mark Lockheart and the members of saxophone quartet Itchy Fingers who were studying at RAM. He toured Europe, South America, Africa and the USA with Itchy Fingers appearing at major jazz festivals and playing on their first two CDs Quark (Virgin Records) and Teranga (Venture). In 1986 they won the Schlitz Young Jazz Musicians of the Year Award, which was televised by the BBC.

Maxwell Spiers studied oboe and piano at the Royal College of Music with John Anderson, Christopher Cowie and Ruth Gerald, continuing cor anglais studies with Christine Pendrill, Michael Winfield and Sue Bohling. After a year with the National Orchestra of Malta, he returned to the UK and in 2001 was appointed principal cor anglais with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, a position he still holds. Max has played guest principal cor anglais with all the London symphony orchestras, although his main work is currently with the London Symphony Orchestra, (with whom he has featured on many film and commercial recordings) BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia , the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and for English Touring Opera . He is a regular guest with the English Chamber Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestra of English National Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has given international masterclasses in Malta and Singapore and is the senior wind tutor for the South London Youth Orchestra.

Stephen Stirling is one of England’s busiest and most sought after horn players. Since studying at the Royal Northern College of Music he has worked mostly in chamber music. He has had an enormously varied career travelling the world. Increasingly in demand as a soloist, he has broadcast concertos in BBCTV and Radio 3, and appeared with orchestras such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the City of London Sinfonia and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, under the batons of Richard Hickox, Sir Neville Marriner, Heinz Holliger and Ivan Fischer.

Anita Strevens’ career is a varied mix of orchestral, chamber music and solo performance, teaching, workshop leading and adjudicating. She has played with most of the London chamber orchestras – City of London Sinfonia, London Mozart Players, Orchestra of St Johns, Primavera – and is a member of Accordare Quartet and Trio Vita. Recent solo performances have included Haydn’s C major Cello Concerto and all six Bach Unaccompanied Cello Suites in JAM on the Marsh Festival and in Garway Bach Festival. She teaches cello and Dalcroze Eurhythmics at Junior Trinity and Sevenoaks School and is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham Conservatoire, teaching pedagogy.

Dr Aleksander Szram joined Trinity Laban’s teaching staff 15 years ago and was appointed Artistic Director in September 2024. Aleks is currently Programme Leader of the BMus and Foundation programmes, a Reader in Performance Studies and a Senior Teaching Fellow, where he supervises creative practice PhDs.  

Research interests and areas of supervision:

• Piano performance
• 20th and 21st century performance practice
• Indeterminacy, aleatoric music and graph scores
• Chamber music
• Critical pedagogy
• Online and blended learning environments

Eunice S. Y. Tang joined Trinity Laban in 2024 as a member of the Professorial Staff for Music Education. As a Lecturer in Music Education, she contributes to the MA Music Education, MA Music Education and Performance, and the MEd Music Education (online) programmes, where she brings her expertise to inspire and mentor the next generation of musicians and music educators.

Neil Tarlton is Principal Double Bass at Philharmonia Orchestra.

Before becoming a full-time student with Adrian Beers at the Royal College of Music, Neil was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Manchester College of Music and a member of the National Youth Orchestra.

He worked as Guest Principal Bass with both Scottish Opera and the Northern Sinfonia while still a student.

Percussion and piano were the vehicles which led Nigel Thomas (via Brass Bands and Youth Orchestras) to the Royal College Of Music (in 1978) as its first ever Timpani & Percussion Scholar. Soon to follow was being appointed timpanist with the European Community Youth Orchestra, winning the Shell LSO Music Scholarship (1980) and an invitation to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra (where he remained for 8 years). In 1988 Nigel was headhunted to be Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra, whom he joined later that year.