Staff A-Z

Les Neish has created a career as a soloist, chamber musician and educator with a world-wide reputation. Known for his musicianship, artistry and high level of communication, Les dazzles audiences with fabulous technique and stunning musicianship.

Dr Paul Newland is a founding member of electric guitar duo Exquisite Corpse and ensemble [rout] www.routweb.com.  Paul’s work has been performed and broadcast by ensembles and artists such as [rout], 175 East, Arditti Quartet, Asko Ensemble, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Richard Casey, Jane Chapman, Composers Ensemble, Exquisite Corpse, Rolf Hind, Philip Howard, Huuj Ensemble, Ives Ensemble, Ixion, Jane’s Minstrels, Okeanos, Seth Josel, Mieko Kanno, London Sinfonietta, London Symphony Orchestra, Noszferatu, Psappha, Opus 20, and Thallein.

Yolanda currently teaches Dance Fusion at Trinity Laban.

Yolanda began her dance career at Irie Dance Theatre, studying Contemporary, Ballet, African and Caribbean Dance, specialising
in Hip Hop Foundations and Waakin.

Uchenna Ngwe is an oboist, curator, educator, and researcher. Born in North London, she studied oboe and cor anglais at Trinity College of Music from the Junior Department, through undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Alongside a busy freelance career, her interest in research led to a return to study at Trinity Laban and a PhD titled Re-sounding the African Diaspora: Uncovering Afro-British histories in British classical music through curatorial-activism. Since then, her continued exploration into expanding repertoire through creative practice investigates and highlights the lives and work of historical Black classical musicians in Britain from the perspective of a performer-curator-activist.

After studying music at Oxford University, and jazz at the Guildhall in London, Liam Noble started to build a reputation of note playing with Stan Sulzmann, Anita Wardell, John Stevens and Harry Beckett. His first CD, a solo entitled “Close Your Eyes” was released in 1994, and contained a mix of standards, originals and improvisations. This mixture of approaches has characterized his music ever since.

Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE was born in London of Nigerian and Irish parents. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with Franco Petracchi in Rome. She is now Principal Bass with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and plays a lot of chamber music with various artists internationally. She is an Honorary Fellow of both Trinity Laban and the Royal Academy of Music. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2001 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2017, both for services to music.

Christopher O’Neal has been established as a leading freelance Principal Oboe for over 25 years. He currently holds Principal Oboe positions in the Orchestra of St Johns, the London Mozart Players and the New Queens Hall Orchestra. Previous positions have included the Mercury Ensemble of Ballet Rambert, Kent Opera under Roger Norrington and Ivan Fischer, and the English Sinfonia with whom he recorded Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Sir Charles Groves. He now appears as guest Principal Oboe in symphony and chamber orchestras all over the country and with many other smaller ensembles such as Endymion, the Composers Ensemble and the Albion Ensemble.

Tim Palmer studied at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, the National Centre for Orchestral Studies, Cambridge University and the Guidhall School of Music and Drama. He is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Head of Music Education at Trinity Laban, where he leads teaching and research into the role of the musician in education settings, and into creative teaching in music in Higher Education. His work crosses traditional boundaries between classroom teaching, instrumental/vocal teaching and workshop leading.

Dr Vanio Papadelli is a movement and theatre artist and educator. Her practice fuses elements from Eastern European Laboratory theatre and dance-theatre; yoga; somatic movement; postmodern dance; Laban/Bartenieff; Contact Improvisation; and experimental theatre. Key inspirations and interests include feminist theories, ecological philosophies, surrealism, ritual and phenomenology of performance.

Sara Louisa Parry studied singing at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Her first professional job was in the cast of Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre, Manchester and toured with the show to Dublin and Edinburgh. She was also a member of the cast in the 10th Anniversary concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1995.

Other credits include Phantom of the Opera (Ensemble) London. Evita (Ensemble) Spektrum Theater Oslo, Grease (Miss Lynch) UK tour.
Oliver! (Widow Corney), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Fairy Godmother), Wind in The Willows (Mrs Otter) Trinity Theatre,
Tunbridge Wells. Sara Louisa is based in London, regularly touring the UK as lead vocalist with the Neil Sedaka tribute show ‘Oh! Carol’.
Alongside a busy teaching practice Sara Louisa also works for Headliners as a Vocal MD aboard the P&O and Cunard cruise lines

Nye Parry’s work encompasses sound installation, multimedia, concert works and numerous scores for contemporary dance. He has made sound installations for major museums including the National Maritime Museum, the Science Museum and the British Museum.

Much of his work focuses on musical structures, which can be navigated by the listener. The Exploded Sound, created during a period as research fellow at CRiSAP, University of the Arts, allows visitors to explore the inner structure (harmonics) of sound by walking among 60 small suspended loudspeakers and was premiered in Ljubljana in September 2012. The installation Significant Birds, exploring similar ideas, was created for the exhibition ILLUSION and has been shown in Dublin, San Diego, North Carolina and Kuala Lumpur. As a guest artist at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, has recently been developing this strand of work for multi-speaker concert performance.

Since graduating from Bretton Hall in the late 90s where she trained in Lighting Design, Fay has toured nationally and internationally as production manager for Shobana Jeyasingh, Carol Brown Dances, Edge, and for festivals like Skin Shakers (Southbank) and What Now (ID).

Well known as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher, Natalia has established one of the finest cello classes in Russia. She also taught at the conservatoires in USA, Australia and New Zealand. Since 1999 Natalia lives in London, where she is a Professor of Cello at the Trinity Laban and at the Specialist Purcell School. There are a number of prizewinners of International competitions among her students. Natalia is in constant demand for masterclasses (UK, USA, Australia, Russia, Taiwan, Belgium, Greece, New Zealand). She has been a judge at many international contests, including the Adam cello festival/competition, and the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition.Natalia performs in UK, Russia, Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand and makes recordings on ‘Chandos’ label.

Alex (1990), ”highly innovative…of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy, packed with life force unlike anything else” (BBC Magazine/Ivor Novello British Composer Awards.) is an award-winning composer & jazz-trombonist. His scores are published by Ricordi (Berlin)

As Director of Strategy and Business Operations, Jonathan’s role encompasses and oversees many of the operational functions of Trinity Laban. In addition, he is also the strategic lead for Health and Safety, Data Protection and Safeguarding. Jonathan has worked in the higher education sector for over 30 years and brings a wealth of experience to Trinity Laban. Outside Trinity Laban, Jonathan enjoys life as a semi-professional musician, song writer and record producer.

Jonathan was awarded an MBE in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Higher Education.