Steve Watts has been playing jazz on the British scene for over 25 years, during which time he has worked with many musicians of international stature, incuding: Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Julian Arguelles, Kenny Wheeler, Stan Sulzman, Jim Mullen, Joe Lovano, Kirk Lightsey, Richard Rodney Bennett and many more. He is a member of the influential Loose Tubes jazz orchestra and “The Printmakers “- a band featuring Norma Winstone, Nikki Iles and Mike Walker. He has made numerous broadcasts for radio and television and has recorded widely. Live work has taken him all over the world and his playing can be heard on the soundtracks of many films.
He is a committed educator and currently teaches at Trinity Laban and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has previously taught at the Royal Academy of Music and for the National Youth Jazz Collective as well as teaching and leading workshops in schools across the country.
Helen is a specialist in massage for dancers, having trained at the London School of Sports Massage in 1996. She has previously been a company massage therapist with the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet.
Biography
Helen is a specialist in massage for dancers, having trained at the London School of Sports Massage in 1996. She has previously been a company massage therapist with the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet. At Trinity Laban Health, where she has worked since 2003, Helen utilises the AIM (Anatomy in Motion) technique to identify restricted or missing movements and apply corrective methods to re-educate the body, relieving pain by redistributing pressure. Within her sessions, Helen focuses on achieving muscular balance to enhance movement and function. Passionate about understanding the body’s design, Helen is also developing new techniques to teach dancers about their bodies, with an emphasis on injury prevention and self-care.
Robert is an internationally experienced arts educationalist. He has worked across a broad range of formal and non-formal settings: primary schools to higher education, dementia centres to prisons, even leading arts education across an entire country. Some of the UK’s most respected ensembles, orchestras and venues (Royal Festival Hall, Barbican Centre, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Brodsky Quartet) have used him as a leader or advisor for their education projects.
Biography
Robert has been Programme Leader for Professional Studies at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Module Leader and professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Subject Leader for Creative Art for the Ministry of Education in the United Arab Emirates. He helped develop the first joint international Masters programme in music, working with other conservatoires across Europe. He has created, managed and been consultant for numerous innovative projects across the UK, most notably the development of the non-formal strand of Musical Futures, and helped to develop the arts curriculum and specialist arts schools across the UAE. His work has been the focus of research for institutions and organisations including the Institute of Education, NESTA, and Youth Music. He is currently working for the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts in their iHub team as a Senior Education Designer.
Chris West is one of the few double bass players in the country to have reached the highest levels both as a soloist/chamber musician as well as in chamber orchestras, symphony orchestras, opera and film & TV sessions. This breadth of experience enables him to help students achieve their goals in whichever area of the profession they lie. His book Reaching The Heights – A Guide To Thumb Position on the Double Bass has been described as ‘an important contribution to the Double Bass technique repertoire’.
For over thirty years, Chris has appeared regularly as guest principal with many major UK orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Academy of St.Martin-in-the-fields and Britten Sinfonia and he can be heard on iconic soundtracks such as Downton Abbey, and Harry Potter films. His chamber music recordings have appeared on the RCA/BMG, Hyperion, Naxos and Somm labels.
Esmee West-Agboola
Practice as Research Specialist, Academic Supervisor
Esmee (she/her) is a London based dancer, visual artist, theatre practitioner and creative researcher. Her PhD research predominately engages with expressions of femininity, Black-Mixed Race identity, sexuality and mental health.
Biography
Since graduating from Bird College in 2016 and Royal Central School of Speech & Drama in 2018, she has held various producing and creative roles across productions at tiata fahodzi, Southbank Centre, Young Vic, Camden People’s Theatre and China Plate Theatre Company, and completed her first public-facing art commission in 2022.
Esmee currently trains and performs with the first London season of Waacking dance collective House of Suraj, led by choreographer Kumari Suraj. Alongside this, she also teaches across various performance degrees at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama and at Performers College. Finally, she is currently in the process of creating her first portrait collection which brings to life the grounding ideas of her PhD.
Paul Michael Westwood
Professorial Staff - Jazz Electric Bass, Bass Guitar (BA Music Performance and Industry)
Paul joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra at 16, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with James Merritt (principal bass, London Philharmonic Orchestra), and at the Royal Academy of Music with John Dankworth and Graham Collier.
Biography
Lecturing and teaching
Paul’s teaching career includes:
London College of Music at the University of West London (2008 to date)
Jazz and Popular Music: bass guitar BMus (Hons), MMus Performance
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (2002 to date)
Jazz: bass guitar BMus (Hons), MMus Performance
Morley College (1997 to date)
Bass guitar and Jazz workshops: beginners to advanced level.
Royal Academy of Music (1994-2007)
Jazz: bass guitar BMus (Hons) Performance.
Media & Applied Music: recording, composition & performance BMus.
Research projects
Elizabethan music: Experiments with early 17th century English melodies, melding with Turkish rhythm and harmony of the times.
Henry Purcell: Late 17th century songs and their influence on 20th century jazz and Motown.
Turkish music: The Maqam harmonic system and ethnic percussion influences on European music.
Moroccan and Andalusian music: A journey through regional variations of the music.
Sir Thomas Brown: The relevance of 17th century numerology, cosmology and alchemy in contemporary music.
John Coltrane: Spirituality, symbolism and structure used in 20th century ‘free-form’ jazz.
World Music: Contemporary developments in digital and analogue bass guitars and their use in performance.
Composition and Performance
Jazz
Paul Westwood’s Jazz FX.
Compositions for his own group include: Jaguarisms, The Earth Born, El Rif, Storm Watcher, The Art of Snake Charming, Arabethan Tales, The Garden of Cyrus, Musical Souls.
Performance
Commercial recording, composition and studio work (1978 to date)
Paul has composed, arranged and recorded 16 albums of media music, which have been used extensively by KPM Ltd, De Wolfe Ltd, ITV, BBC and Sky for signature tunes, incidental music and advertising jingles.
Albums
Paul has been a top London session musician, working on albums for many artists including Warren Bernhardt, David Bowie, Jose Carreras, Larry Coryell, Steve Gadd, Peter Green, Elton John, Nik Kershaw, Leiber & Stoller, Andrew Lloyd Webber, London Symphony Orchestra, Madonna, George Martin, George Michael, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Phil Ramone, Tim Rice, Cliff Richard, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shadows, Wayne Shorter, Rod Stewart, Barbara Thompson and John Williams (gtr).
Film Soundtracks
He has performed on numerous film soundtracks for composers who include John Altman, John Barry, David Bowie, Carl Davis, George Fenton, Ron Goodwin, Trevor Jones, Peter Knight, Michel Le Grand, Henry Mancini, Paul McCartney, The Sex Pistols, Debbie Wiseman and Hans Zimmer. In 2018, Paul was bass guitar coach to actor Joe Mazzello, who played the part of John Deacon in the Academy Award-winning movie Bohemian Rhapsody.
Television Shows
Paul has performed on many TV shows with artists such as George Benson, Chuck Berry, Joe Cocker, Randy Crawford, Gloria Estefan, James Galway, Janet Jackson, Al Jarreau, Tom Jones, Luciano Pavarotti, The Temptations, Dionne Warwick and Barry White.
International Tours and Concerts
Paul has also toured in over 25 countries worldwide.
(Forthcoming publication Autumn 2020) ‘Bass and Korean Percussion Bible’, AMA Verlag, Germany.
Bass guitar and percussion tuition book: Asian traditional percussion and its influences on contemporary western bass lines. Suitable for beginners to advanced level. Styles featured compliment rock, pop, funk, jazz and Latin music. Includes 3 CDs of examples of playing styles.
(Forthcoming publication Spring 2020) ‘Bass Bible 2’, AMA Verlag, Germany.
Bass guitar tuition book: a world history of traditional and contemporary bass lines. Suitable for beginners to advanced level. A sequel to the original Bass Bible, BB2 explores further examples of rock, pop, funk, jazz and world music. Includes 3 CDs of examples of playing styles.
‘A-Z of Bass Guitar’, Music Sales Ltd. 2011, ISBN 978-1-84938-865-8
Tuition and demonstration DVD of contemporary bass guitar styles and techniques.
‘Bass Bible’, AMA Verlag, Germany, revised 3rd edition, 2011.
English, ISBN 3-927190-67-5; French, ISBN 3-932587-30-8; German, ISBN 3-927190-84-5; Japanese, ISBN 4-7549-3481-4; Chinese, ISRC CN-Q06-04-0031-0/A.G4.
‘Bass Bible’, AMA Verlag, Germany, revised 2nd edition, 2004.
‘The Bassist’, Bass Player Magazine, 2002.
A series of magazine articles about the music business.
‘Bass Bible’, AMA Verlag, Germany, 1st edition, 1997.
Bass guitar tuition book: a world history of traditional and contemporary bass lines, featuring styles that include rock, pop, funk, jazz Latin and world music. Suitable for beginners to advanced level. Translations in English, French and German. Includes 2 CDs of examples of playing styles.
‘The Complete Bass Guitar Player’, Music Sales Ltd. 1991. Omnibus OV10267.
Tuition and demonstration video of contemporary bass guitar styles and techniques.
Born in London but brought up in Kent, Philip started playing the trombone aged 8. At 13 he became a founder member of the National Children’s Orchestra and at 14 entered the junior department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Here he studied with Leon Taylor and two years later won the coveted brass prize. Upon leaving school, Philip went to the Royal College of Music, where he spent four years studying with John Iveson and Arthur Wilson. He graduated with a GRM Hons degree and a ARCM performing diploma.
Biography
Throughout Philip’s career, he has worked with many diverse groups and ensembles. Earlier in his career, he worked on cruise ships and in touring and West End shows such as Chess, Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, The Lion King, Cats, Starlight Express and The Wizard of Oz. He is a regular performer with cutting edge contemporary music ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern and the Britten Sinfonia. His orchestral work has been where Philip has spent the most part of his career so far. He has freelanced with most of the leading UK orchestras such as the London Symphony, BBC Symphony, BBC Concert, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Welsh Opera, English National Opera and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2001 he was appointed 2nd Trombone in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 2010 when he moved to the same position in the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Mary Wiegold is known for her committed performances of new music and has given over two hundred premieres. She has had many works written for her and in 1989 she started collecting a songbook of works by composers ranging from Sir Harrison Birtwistle and Milton Babbitt to Elvis Costello and Keith Tippett. She has sung in the festivals at Aldeburgh, the Almeida, Bratislava, Brighton, Cheltenham, Glasgow Musica Nova, Huddersfield, Montepulciano and many others.
Biography
Opera appearances include the Royal Opera House’s Garden Venture and the first performances of Birtwistle’s opera Yan Tan Tethera with Opera Factory/London Sinfonietta. In 1989 she founded the Composers Ensemble with the composer John Woolrich. With them she has given concerts throughout Britain and overseas (including an Arts Council Contemporary Music Network Tour of her Songbook), set up and led numerous creative education project and made many recordings.
Throughout her career she has been deeply involved in educational work in Britain and abroad. Her work with Gemini in the 1980’s included major projects in Merseyside, East Anglia, for the Arts Council Contemporary Music Network and the Regional Contemporary Network. She has also worked for many other major organisations including Kent Opera, English National Opera’s Baylis Programme, the English Sinfonia and La Caixa Summer School in Barcelona as well as many visits to Dartington International Summer School.
Since 1990 Sioned Williams has combined her position as Principal Harpist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with recitals, concertos, broadcasting, recording, researching and teaching both in the UK and abroad. As a soloist, Sioned has performed all the major concertos, as well as more unusual repertoire in major concert halls, on radio live and television, with orchestras such as the City of London Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Biography
As an orchestral musician, Sioned has appeared with every major UK orchestra, as well as West End theatre and film orchestras.
Sioned is also well-known for her work with choirs. These include the Liszt Choir in Hungary, the choir of Christchurch, Oxford, the BBC Singers, Bernstein with Westminster Abbey and The Bach Choir. She has also given recitals with many singers and instrumentalists including Michael Chance, Martyn Hill, Steven Isserlis, Neil Mackie, Aurèle Nicolet, Mark Padmore, Andrew Watts, Jeremy Huw Williams, and Roderick Williams. Many of Sioned’s commercial recordings on Hyperion, EMI Classics, Collins Classics, Meridian and Proudsound have won awards and accolades. Apart from her solo CDs, she has partnered with James Galway, The Holst Singers, Lisa Milne, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, Frederica von Stade, The Choir of Kings College Cambridge, The Sixteen, Westminster Cathedral Choir, and Winchester Quiristers on disc.
Sioned devised the renowned Professional Studies Course for Harpists at Trinity Laban, where she now holds the position of Senior Fellow in Harp Studies. In 2003, Sioned received her fourth fellowship, from the Royal Academy of Music, for her contribution to music. In 2005, Sioned was a consultant for the Geneva Conservatoire of Music in setting up a comprehensive harp department there.
Greg began his professional performance training at New College Lanarkshire, graduating in 2018 with a First-Class degree in Musical Theatre. Additionally, he was awarded the Transitions 20/40 Scholarship from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland which supported his early training in the arts. He has over five years of experience as a freelance production coordinator in the television industry, working on high-profile productions for the major UK/streaming broadcasters.
Most recently, Greg’s play was long-listed for the David McLennan 2024 Prize by ‘A Play, A Pie, A Pint’. As an actor, his professional credits include Jack at the Harlow Playhouse and King Rollo Barollo at the Hamilton Townhouse.
Richard Hartley Wilson trained at Middlesex University, gaining a BA (Hons 1st Class) in Performing Arts. He went on to study a Post Graduate Diploma in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, where he was awarded the Mary Hammond award for acting through song. He also holds a PGCLTHE from Rose Bruford. Since graduating he has worked consistently as a singer and actor both in the UK and overseas. As a teacher Richard works at drama schools and conservatories across London.
Ian Wilson is a member of The Burney Players and plays with The Flautadors, a recorder quartet particularly active in the commissioning of exciting new works for recorder from young British composers. He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in many prestigious venues in the UK such as the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room and Barbican Hall in London and has played in several international festivals in Europe including the Innsbruck Early Music Festival and the Ancient Nesvizh Festival, Belarus.
Biography
Ian Wilson studied recorders and clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he won the woodwind prize twice (once on each instrument) and gained the Principal’s Prize upon graduation. Other prizes include the Skene Award, a LASMO Staffa Music Award and the 2002 Van Wassenaer Competition’s Musica Antica Prize for best individual musician.
Ian Wilson studied recorders and clarinet at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama where he won the woodwind prize twice (once on each instrument) and gained the Principal’s Prize upon graduation. Other prizes include the Skene Award, a LASMO Staffa Music Award and the 2002 Van Wassenaer Competition’s Musica Antica Prize for best individual musician.
In addition to Trinity Laban, Ian teaches at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Eton College and the Campion School in Essex.
Ian is featured as a solo artist on the recording of the complete works for recorder by Edmund Rubbra and Benjamin Britten released on the Dutton Digital label.
Eva Woloshyn joined Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance as Director of Development and Corporate Affairs in 2006. Eva came to Trinity Laban from the arts sector in London where she had worked at a senior level for over 15 years. She led the Unicorn Children’s Centre capital campaign to build a new theatre for children next to City Hall in Southwark which opened in December 2005. She previously worked in the visual arts as Director of SPACE Studios, a leading provider of studios and other services for fine artists. She has provided consultancy and mentoring services on an independent basis, and is a member of the Institute of Fundraising, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Adrian Woodward completed a DIP TCL in trumpet in 1995. He has a wide and varied career playing both early and modern music and improvisation. Adrian has played and recorded with many period instrument orchestras including the Gabrieli Consort and Players, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the King’s Consort. He plays chamber music regularly with award winning trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom OBE, has performed for the Royal Family on numerous occasions, recorded for music and film and worked with Sir Paul McCartney and Giles Martin at Abbey Road Studios. Adrian has been a Musical Director and multi-instrumentalist performer at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre since 1997. He has played period and modern scores in over 30 productions at the Globe Theatre including Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale and King Lear.
Sebastian regularly performs with many of the UKs most eminent singers including Dame Felictiy Lott, Christopher Maltman and Iestyn Davies and has given recitals at Wigmore hall with Sophie Bevan, Het Concertgebouw with Ian Bostridge and major festivals throughout Europe and the UK.
Biography
He regularly teaches and coaches at the Royal College of Music and Trinity Music Academy and works with Felicity Lott and François Le Roux for the Wigmore Hall’s French Song Exchange. He has given masterclasses for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Edward Said Conservatory, Palestine and the Fondation Royaumont, France.
He has been broadcast live on BBC radio and television and recordings include Songs of Vain Glory with Sophie Bevan for Wigmore Live, Robert Franz Osterwald Leider and An English Trumpeter with Simon Cheney.
With a firm belief that high quality music making should be accessible to all, Sebastian was a founder member of Painting Music, is the accompanist for Music Masters and regularly works with community choirs, young people and schools.
Critically acclaimed as an edgy and dynamic interpreter, the pianist Helen Yorke performed with Renée Fleming throughout America and Europe for over a decade. Helen trained as a soloist at the RNCM, and then specialised in ensemble playing on scholarships at the RAM and thereafter in Germany, at the Frankfurt and Cologne conservatoires, with Hartmut Hoell, Rainer Hoffmann, and the late Leonard Hokanson. She then lived and worked in New York for a decade, teaching at the Juilliard School, Westminster Choir College in Princeton, and at the Manhattan School of Music.
Biography
Helen leads a varied career as a performer and teacher. Her appearances as soloist, and chamber music pianist have taken her to distinguished venues worldwide; such as festivals in Salzburg, Tanglewood, Edinburgh, Buxton and Bayreuth, and to many leading concert hall venues in Oslo, Seoul, Amsterdam, Washington D.C. New York, Paris, Prague, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Brussels, performing a broad and varied repertoire. She has collaborated with several foremost artists, such as Gerald Finley, Sally Burgess, Hilary Hahn, Raphael Wallfisch, Tom Randle, Hans-Peter Blochwitz and Cornelius Hauptmann.
Helen has recorded with the BBC London and Scotland, as well as with the Tanglewood Festival. Her solo concert programmes are created around an innovative, conversational idea, originating from her training as a professional speaker. In these concerts, she re-creates the story of composer’s lives through journals and contemporary accounts, alongside playing performances of their solo compositions. Helen has taken this programme to Japan, the U.SA and to venues around the U.K, including Fairfield Halls, London.
Helen has held teaching positions at the Julliard School, NY, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, the Manhattan School, NY and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow. In addition she has led numerous master classes throughout the United States, Canada, the UK, Hong Kong, and Australia, and directed her own course of coaching for singers and pianist called “The Energy and Dynamics of Performance”.
Helen is a recipient of the ARAM, a diploma awarded by the Royal Academy of Music for the achievemnt of distinction in the music profession.
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