Staff A-Z

Dominic Ashworth studied guitar at the University of Toronto, Canada, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is an active freelance player who has worked with Carol Kidd, Jacqui Dankworth, Dave Cliff and Janette Mason. Dominic is also a composer, and has written and recorded many original works for radio and television and performs with orginal guitar trio Digtal Moves. He performs in London with groups such as Julian Stringle’s Pathfinder, the Mick Foster Group, Digby Fairweather’s Half Dozen and Michael Garrick’s Big Band & Quartet.

Much in demand as an accompanist, Eugene Asti has performed with many great artists including Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Margaret Price, Nancy Argenta and Elizabeth Connell, in places such as the Wigmore Hall, the Rome Opera House, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Vancouver, and New York. He devised recital series for St. John’s Smith Square and St. George’s Brandon Hill to mark the Brahms and Mendelssohn anniversaries in 1997, and in 1999 planned a series for St. John’s Smith Square to mark the Poulenc and Strauss anniversaries. For the 2002/3 season, he devised a recital series involving many high-profile musicians for St. John’s Smith Square to honour Robert Schumann.

In opera, Lynton made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Fidelio and having created the role of Sir Ywain in Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain, became a contract principal artist. Since then he has sung the principal roles in L’elisir d’amore, La traviata, The Pearl Fishers, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and The Merry Widow, throughout the UK, Europe, including Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Turin, Trieste, Dublin, and Berlin. Lynton’s concert career has taken him to many major centres and european festivals including performances with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, the Hallé and Ulster Orchestras, the Göttingen Festival and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed in the Musikverein Vienna, with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Milan, and Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers in venues such as Westminster Abbey, Winchester and Norwich Cathedrals, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Berlin’s Neues Schauspielhaus, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals. In the USA he sang the title roles in Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque to critical acclaim. He sang Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles with the Bonn Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Haydn’s The Seasons in the Stresa Festival. With René Jacobs, Lynton performed the St. Matthew Passion and sang Benjamin Britten’s St Nicholas to acclaim in Berlin’s Konzerthaus. Having sung twice at the Three Choirs Festival, Lynton has performed Elijah both with Willard White and also with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Former Executive Director of Trinity Laban and Former Principal of Trinity College of Music, Professor Derek Aviss was educated at Trinity College of Music and his teachers included Vivian Joseph, Benjamin Zander and William Pleeth.

Subsequently Derek Aviss became known as the ‘Cellist of the Ariosti Piano Trio and the Cantilena Soloists Ensemble.

Appointed as a teacher of ‘Cello at Trinity College of Music, at the age of 28, he went on to hold many senior posts at the College including: Head of the String Department, Head of Performance Studies, Deputy Principal and, after the merger with Laban, Principal of Trinity and Joint Principal of Trinity Laban.

After retiring from the Conservatoire as Executive Director in 2012, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of Higher Education.

In 2013 Derek Aviss was awarded the OBE for services to Higher and Music Education.

Neil Baker studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was the recipient of all the major song prizes. He continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Music and subsequently with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Neil began his professional singing career in the Glyndebourne Festival chorus and went on to make his international operatic debut with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in the role of Harald in Wagner’s Die Feen at the Châtelet Theatre, Paris. Other performances with Maestro Minkowski include Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Baden Baden and Tokyo. His many operatic roles include Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Araspe (Tolomeo), Melisso (Alcina), Escamillo (Carmen), Marco (Gianni Schicchi) and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro).

Clare has taught widely throughout Europe, Asia, and South Africa, as well as on the independent circuit in London.

Clare holds a BA in Dance Theatre and has an Advanced Performance Diploma from Laban.

Tom Baker (he/him) is a London-based theatre-maker, practitioner, and facilitator. He has taught and directed at some of the UK’s top drama schools, including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Performance Preparation Academy (PPA), ArtsEd, Trinity Laban, and the University of Worcester.

Tom specialises in the approaches of Viewpoints and Composition, as well as Viola Spolin and Active Analysis. His teaching and research are focused on how actor-training can foster agency and autonomy through devised and participant-led creative practices.

David Baker is a trumpeter and Associate of the Royal College of Music, London. He taught brass instruments in primary and secondary schools for a Local Education Authority music service for over 10 years. In 1999, Peters Edition published Fast Track Trumpet, two volumes of his educational music for trumpet.

Gabriele Baldocci’s unique style, visionary programming and versatile artistic personality have garnered him worldwide critical acclaim and a wide following on the world stage.

Described by Jed Distler on Gramophone as a “A pianist of formidable capabilities”, Baldocci has given concerts at such distinguished venues as Tonhalle in Zürich, Musikverein in Vienna, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Ceramic Crystal Hall in Seoul, Teatro Sala Verdi in Milan, Teatro Ghione in Rome, Politeama Rossetti in Trieste, Teatro Comunale Ponchielli in Cremona, Parnassos Hall in Athens, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Poisson Rouge in New York.

Research interests and areas of supervision:

• Children’s theatre/theatre for young audiences 
• Arts education and musical theatre 

Brigitte Beraha, improvising vocalist and composer, is one of the leading talents on the UK jazz scene. Embracing a wide variety of influences and genres, Beraha’s sound is free and spontaneous with an emphasis on exploration, expression and fearlessly testing the limits of the voice as instrument. Alongside original contemporary jazz and the core jazz and latin repertoires, she is increasingly involved in exciting cross-genre projects, such as the recreation of Basil Kirchin’s music as part of Hull City of Culture 2017 or Raising Hell with Henry Purcell led by Ethan Iverson at Kings Place in 2018.

Beraha has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums, both as leader and as part of collaborative projects such as Babelfish, Solstice and Red Skies Trio. The latest under her name, Lucid Dreamers, introduced a new electronic dimension to her work proving once more the agility, adventurous spirit and limitless imagination that have marked her out as a truly exciting and versatile artist with a huge range of experience and creative scope.

‘One of the most adventurous vocalists around, a musical explorer…’  The Jazzmann

‘Brigitte is someone who concentrates on the music’s core values: imagination, individuality, improvisation.’ Jazz Review
‘Possessed of Norma Winstone-like subtlety and precision.’ The Guardian

‘Beraha scats with a daydreaming quality that is both engaging and never distracting.’ John Fordham

Stephen trained at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and began his professional career before graduation, working with choreographer’s Lloyd Newson and David Massingham.

After graduation, Stephen began an apprenticeship with Rambert Dance Company before joining Diversions, (now National Dance Company Wales).

From there he joined Mark Bruce Company, who he has worked with on many productions, Company Wayne McGregor, Red Rain, V-Tol, English National Ballet, Irish Modern Dance Theatre and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures (Swan Lake and Car Man).

Luke Birch is a lecturer on the BA(Hons) Contemporary Dance programme.

Michael Bochmann is leader of the Bochmann String Quartet, concertmaster of the English String Orchestra and English Symphony Orchestra, soloist and teacher. As a student with Frederick Grinke at the Royal Academy of Music, Michael was a finalist and winner of the British Prize in the 1972 Carl Flesch International Violin Competition. A year later, he was a prizewinner in the Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris. Soon after this he made his first solo broadcasts for the BBC. At this time he also received lessons from Henryk Szeryng and Sandor Vegh. In 1977 he founded the Bochmann String Quartet, which made over 50 BBC Radio and Television broadcasts. In February 1990 Michael partnered Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the Bach Double Violin Concerto in a tour of 16 concerts throughout the USA and Canada. Michael’s services to music were recognised with an MBE awarded in 2015.