Staff A-Z

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.

Dr Steven Sparling is teaching BA and MA Musical Theatre, including the Creative Entrepreneur and Developing a Portfolio modules, as well as supervision for research projects.

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.

Daniel has been on faculty at Trinity Laban since 2015. He also teaches internationally to various colleges and companies.

He studied dance at White Lodge and at the Rambert school, concurrent with working as a percussionist in several semi-professional orchestras in Yorkshire and London.

Dr Rebecca Stancliffe is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Arts and Community) at Trinity Laban where her evaluation and research activity focuses on participatory arts, arts and health, collaboration, and digital methods. Rebecca is currently working on the collaborative research project ‘Dance, Health and Well-being: Debating and moving forward methodologies’ with colleagues from Trinity Laban, Exeter University and Dance in Devon. Rebecca is also conducting a post-phenomenological study of music and dance to examine the transformation of practice and engagement through online delivery. She is also evaluating Trinity Laban’s Singing for Lung Health programme delivered in partnership with Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

Leanne graduated from the MSc Dance Science programme at Trinity Laban in 2018. During her studies she investigated relationships between hypermobility and proprioception among adolescent dancers’ as part of her thesis project. Before studying her master’s degree, Leanne completed a BA in Dance Performance at Middlesex University where her passion for dance science began through learning dance science modules and writing a dance science dissertation exploring the well-being of dancers with scoliosis.

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.

Previously Head of Musical Theatre and programme leader for the BA(Hons) in Musical Theatre, Victoria trained as a dancer at North London Dance Studios. Victoria’s professional career has enabled her to combine her passion for arts, education, management and psychology within specialist training environments. Holding a first-class degree in Professional Practice: Musical Theatre Education, and an MSc with Distinction in Psychology, Victoria is an experienced musical theatre specialist and educator with a successful history of working in further and higher education management within specialist training institutions.

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.

Dean Surtees joined Trinity Laban in 2017 from St George’s, University of London, where he was Academic Registrar. During his career he has also worked for a number of other universities including Imperial College London, the University of Greenwich and the University of Westminster. Dean studied history at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, graduating in 1995.

Dean provides the strategic leadership of academic administration at Trinity Laban including admissions, programme administration, quality assurance, scheduling, student services and planning; he is the Secretary and Clerk to the Board of Governors, and Company Secretary.

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