Our wind, brass, percussion, Keyboard & voice team
Harpist Deian studied at Wells Cathedral School and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was awarded scholarships by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Arts Council of Wales, Craxton Memorial Fund, Leverhulme Trust, S4C, GSMD Orchestral & Ensemble Award 2002, and the Open Instrumental Blue Ribbon at the 2002 National Eisteddfod of Wales.
He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2002 and plays with orchestras including the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC Concert, Royal Philharmonic and CBSO, and has played in the West End productions South Pacific and 42nd Street.
Deian was a member of Live Music Now! which included performances for royalty at Windsor Castle and at the Queen’s 80th Birthday at Kew Palace.
Martin (Harpsichord) has a freelance career in historical performance of music of the 17th and 18th centuries with period instrument groups and modern orchestras across the UK. As a keyboardist Martin specialises in continuo playing on harpsichord, organ and fortepiano but has often appeared as concerto soloist, performing works by Handel, Bach, Haydn and Graun. As a director, he has performed music from Gabrieli to Britten, including staged operas by Handel, Mozart and Purcell. Until 2007, he was Director of Music at the University of Leicester where he directed the University’s orchestras and choirs & he is currently Head of Historical Performance and the Instrument Curator at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he lectures on early music, teaches harpsichord, continuo and chamber music, and directs projects and concerts. As a musicologist he has published a number of critical editions of early music, including 18th century English cello music he discovered in 2013. He has contributed to the prestigious Grove Music dictionary and has recently published a book on music-making in late eighteenth-century England.
Peter (Clarinet) studied at Cambridge University & at the Royal Academy of Music, and has performed as guest Principal Clarinet with most of the leading symphony, chamber and opera orchestras in the UK with concerts, broadcasts and recordings at home and abroad - he is Co-Principal Clarinet at English National Opera.
A busy chamber musician, Peter performs with a number of different ensembles & has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms as well as at International Festivals. He also records as a session musician for a variety of TV shows and films, including ‘The Crown’, and teaches clarinet at the Royal College of Music, London.
Flautist Eliza studied at the Royal Academy of Music and plays with orchestras including BBC Concert, The Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia including touring India with sarod guru Amjad Ali Khan.
Eliza played Indian bansuri flutes onstage at The Royal Opera House and premiered 'The Informer’ at London's Film Festival at BFI. She has also been principal flute on recordings for Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams and Peter Gabriel, and on the soundtracks of The Lord Of The Rings, Kung Fu Panda, The Great Gatsby & Sherlock Holmes. She records on flutes, ethnic flutes and whistles for screen – heard on Hidden Kingdoms, The Musketeers, Robin Hood and Prometheus.
Eliza worked with an NGO in Cameroon on Aids Awareness through music and drama and has a deep love for crossing boundaries and bringing together musicians and music from all over the world.
Trombone player Rob studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst a student he played with the European Union Youth Orchestra and Verbier Festival Orchestra before moving to Osaka to take up a position with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra. Rob then took a position with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra before coming back to the UK to trial and guest with many of the top UK orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. After taking a part time position in the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria for three years he then settled in Edinburgh and regularly plays with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Rob is also a successful music teacher and currently teaches at two of Edinburgh’s top private schools. He has also taught at many state and private schools across London teaching individual brass lessons, leading projects for Yamaha and Classic FM and taking outreach group activities for disadvantaged children.
Kuljit is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents. One of the most inspiring musicians in the British Asian music scene, Kuljit has composed and produced over 2000 songs and is responsible for the rise to fame of numerous Bhangra and Bollywood stars.
Kuljit has worked, both independently and collaboratively, on film scores for over ten years, including the soundtrack for the award winning Bhaji on the Beach, A Winter of Love, Bend it Like Beckham and appearances on The Guru, The Four Feathers and more recently Alexander, Brick Lane and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.
Regularly performing throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and further afield, pianist Michael has given concerto performances with the New London Soloists Orchestra at St Martin in the Fields and worked with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain conducted by Daniel Barenboim and Gustavo Dudamel (BBC Proms). Michael has collaborated with popular choirmaster Gareth Malone and appeared on the Queen’s Christmas Message in 2012, accompanying the Military Wives Choir, filmed at Buckingham Palace. He has also toured New Zealand with Léonie performing recitals and presenting masterclasses, choral sessions and musical workshops across the country. Michael studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.
As a composer and arranger Michael has written for the Stay at Home Choir, The Dionysus Ensemble's United Commonwealth Covid Music Project & the National Children's Choir of Great Britain, as well as music for television, corporate films and commercials including the Waitrose Christmas advert 2014. He is published by the Royal School of Church Music, Novello and Oxford University Press.
Emily (Trumpet) studied at the Royal Academy of Music supported by the Ian Fleming Award from Help Musicians UK, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Craxton Memorial Trust.
Emily has performed with orchestras incuding the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She is currently on trial for the position of Associate Principal Trumpet with the BBC Philharmonic.
Emily has worked on educational outreach projects with the Philharmonia Orchestra including the 'Virtual Orchestra' and 'Orchestra Unwrapped'. In addition, Emily has taken part in several chamber music outreach projects with London Metropolitan Brass, and Onyx Brass.
Jonathan Fa'afetai, a New Zealand born Samoan, graduated from the London Royal Schools Opera Course at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier award and the recipient of the 2002 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Young Artist of the Year. He has performed at the Munich, Edinburgh, Ravinia and Tanglewood Festivals and at the BBC Proms. He is in great demand from the major opera houses, orchestras and recital venues of the world. He released a debut recital disc on EMI with Roger Vignoles to great critical acclaim and which won a Gramophone Debut Disc of the Year award. Other recordings include an operatic arias disc with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and a disc of English and American songs with Malcolm Martineau. Jonathan is a professor of voice at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Bassoonist Laura grew up in Cornwall & was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Whilst in New York she worked as an animateur for the New York Philharmonic and the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall and held an outreach performance residency at the 92nd St Y with the Aeros Quintet. Since moving back to the UK Laura has worked with various orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Welsh National Opera, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, English National Opera, Hallé Orchestra and been active in the outreach departments of the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2015 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and holds teaching positions at Dulwich College and Coloma Convent School in London.
He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2002 and plays with orchestras including the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC Concert, Royal Philharmonic and CBSO, and has played in the West End productions South Pacific and 42nd Street.
Deian was a member of Live Music Now! which included performances for royalty at Windsor Castle and at the Queen’s 80th Birthday at Kew Palace.
Martin (Harpsichord) has a freelance career in historical performance of music of the 17th and 18th centuries with period instrument groups and modern orchestras across the UK. As a keyboardist Martin specialises in continuo playing on harpsichord, organ and fortepiano but has often appeared as concerto soloist, performing works by Handel, Bach, Haydn and Graun. As a director, he has performed music from Gabrieli to Britten, including staged operas by Handel, Mozart and Purcell. Until 2007, he was Director of Music at the University of Leicester where he directed the University’s orchestras and choirs & he is currently Head of Historical Performance and the Instrument Curator at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire where he lectures on early music, teaches harpsichord, continuo and chamber music, and directs projects and concerts. As a musicologist he has published a number of critical editions of early music, including 18th century English cello music he discovered in 2013. He has contributed to the prestigious Grove Music dictionary and has recently published a book on music-making in late eighteenth-century England.
Peter (Clarinet) studied at Cambridge University & at the Royal Academy of Music, and has performed as guest Principal Clarinet with most of the leading symphony, chamber and opera orchestras in the UK with concerts, broadcasts and recordings at home and abroad - he is Co-Principal Clarinet at English National Opera.
A busy chamber musician, Peter performs with a number of different ensembles & has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, BBC Proms as well as at International Festivals. He also records as a session musician for a variety of TV shows and films, including ‘The Crown’, and teaches clarinet at the Royal College of Music, London.
Flautist Eliza studied at the Royal Academy of Music and plays with orchestras including BBC Concert, The Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, London Sinfonietta and Britten Sinfonia including touring India with sarod guru Amjad Ali Khan.
Eliza played Indian bansuri flutes onstage at The Royal Opera House and premiered 'The Informer’ at London's Film Festival at BFI. She has also been principal flute on recordings for Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams and Peter Gabriel, and on the soundtracks of The Lord Of The Rings, Kung Fu Panda, The Great Gatsby & Sherlock Holmes. She records on flutes, ethnic flutes and whistles for screen – heard on Hidden Kingdoms, The Musketeers, Robin Hood and Prometheus.
Eliza worked with an NGO in Cameroon on Aids Awareness through music and drama and has a deep love for crossing boundaries and bringing together musicians and music from all over the world.
Trombone player Rob studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst a student he played with the European Union Youth Orchestra and Verbier Festival Orchestra before moving to Osaka to take up a position with the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra. Rob then took a position with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra before coming back to the UK to trial and guest with many of the top UK orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. After taking a part time position in the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria for three years he then settled in Edinburgh and regularly plays with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Rob is also a successful music teacher and currently teaches at two of Edinburgh’s top private schools. He has also taught at many state and private schools across London teaching individual brass lessons, leading projects for Yamaha and Classic FM and taking outreach group activities for disadvantaged children.
Kuljit is a British composer, record producer and musician whose main instrument is the tabla. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents. One of the most inspiring musicians in the British Asian music scene, Kuljit has composed and produced over 2000 songs and is responsible for the rise to fame of numerous Bhangra and Bollywood stars.
Kuljit has worked, both independently and collaboratively, on film scores for over ten years, including the soundtrack for the award winning Bhaji on the Beach, A Winter of Love, Bend it Like Beckham and appearances on The Guru, The Four Feathers and more recently Alexander, Brick Lane and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.
Regularly performing throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and further afield, pianist Michael has given concerto performances with the New London Soloists Orchestra at St Martin in the Fields and worked with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain conducted by Daniel Barenboim and Gustavo Dudamel (BBC Proms). Michael has collaborated with popular choirmaster Gareth Malone and appeared on the Queen’s Christmas Message in 2012, accompanying the Military Wives Choir, filmed at Buckingham Palace. He has also toured New Zealand with Léonie performing recitals and presenting masterclasses, choral sessions and musical workshops across the country. Michael studied at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest.
As a composer and arranger Michael has written for the Stay at Home Choir, The Dionysus Ensemble's United Commonwealth Covid Music Project & the National Children's Choir of Great Britain, as well as music for television, corporate films and commercials including the Waitrose Christmas advert 2014. He is published by the Royal School of Church Music, Novello and Oxford University Press.
Emily (Trumpet) studied at the Royal Academy of Music supported by the Ian Fleming Award from Help Musicians UK, the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and Craxton Memorial Trust.
Emily has performed with orchestras incuding the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She is currently on trial for the position of Associate Principal Trumpet with the BBC Philharmonic.
Emily has worked on educational outreach projects with the Philharmonia Orchestra including the 'Virtual Orchestra' and 'Orchestra Unwrapped'. In addition, Emily has taken part in several chamber music outreach projects with London Metropolitan Brass, and Onyx Brass.
Jonathan Fa'afetai, a New Zealand born Samoan, graduated from the London Royal Schools Opera Course at the Royal College of Music and was awarded the prestigious Tagore Gold Medal. He is a joint winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier award and the recipient of the 2002 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Award for Young Artist of the Year. He has performed at the Munich, Edinburgh, Ravinia and Tanglewood Festivals and at the BBC Proms. He is in great demand from the major opera houses, orchestras and recital venues of the world. He released a debut recital disc on EMI with Roger Vignoles to great critical acclaim and which won a Gramophone Debut Disc of the Year award. Other recordings include an operatic arias disc with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and a disc of English and American songs with Malcolm Martineau. Jonathan is a professor of voice at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Bassoonist Laura grew up in Cornwall & was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. She studied at the Royal Academy of Music and at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Whilst in New York she worked as an animateur for the New York Philharmonic and the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall and held an outreach performance residency at the 92nd St Y with the Aeros Quintet. Since moving back to the UK Laura has worked with various orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Welsh National Opera, Royal Ballet Sinfonia, English National Opera, Hallé Orchestra and been active in the outreach departments of the Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2015 she was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and holds teaching positions at Dulwich College and Coloma Convent School in London.
