Graham Bennett

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Graham Bennett BMUS, LRAM, PGCE studied piano, theory and composition at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music in London where he was awarded the Associated Board Entrance Scholarship. During this time he won many prestigious prizes and performed extensively in the United Kingdom and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician. In 2001 Graham studied for a PGCE at the Institute of Education, University of London to obtain Qualified Teacher Status which enabled him to broaden his teaching experiences working with students in mainstream schools across North London and he is Head of Theory and Composition at the Youth Music Centre. Graham is also the author, composer and publisher of the ‘Music Master Series’, a collection of Educational Music Books specialising in composition, theory and performance.

Gill Cracknell

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Gillian Cracknell studied the piano with Marjorie Clementi as a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal Northern College of Music in her hometown of Manchester.  While still a student she gave recitals with the leader of the Hallé Orchestra, Martin Milner, who had been her violin teacher from the age of ten.

Gill continued her musical education at the Royal Academy of Music in London where she also studied singing, and since graduation she has worked as a chamber pianist, piano accompanist and recitalist, her concert engagements taking her to many European countries and the United States.

For the Independent Television series entitled “Will Shakespeare” she played in scenes with Tim Curry and Patience Collier, and she has performed in theatre as Clara Wieck in the duo “Schumannic” devised and played by the actor Michael Wilcox.  Gill collaborates with singers on the interpretation of French Classical Song and German Lieder, and she is deeply committed to working with young musicians preparing for scholarships, competitions and recitals.

She has taught at Harrow School, The King’s School Canterbury, King’s College Choir School Cambridge, St Paul’s Girls’ School, South Hampstead High School, The Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Gill has adjudicated piano prizes for the Worshipful Company of Musicians at the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican, for the North London Festival and post-graduate piano prizes at the Royal Academy of Music.  She was a Governor of the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain until 2019, she is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and she plays an active role in the work of the Friends of the Musicians’ Chapel.

Gill has been happily engaged as piano accompanist in residence for the Royal Free Music Society since 2000.  In any remaining spare moments she enjoys good red wine, the Restoration Comedies and summer cycling in the Outer Hebrides.

Linda Hirst

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Linda Hirst’s 40 year career began with the Monteverdi, Schutz and John Alldis Choirs, from which she became a soloist with John Eliot Gardiner and Roger Norrington in many concerts and recordings. From ’74-’78 she was a Swingle Singer, leaving to co-found Electric Phoenix in ’79. Both groups toured the world, leading to world premieres for Linda herself from composers Knussen, Holt, Muldowney, Weir, Henze, Osborne, Ficarra, Grange, with the Ensembles Modern, recherché, Intercontemporain, London Sinfonietta, Glyndebourne, ROH, and orchestras in Europe and America. She worked closely with Henze, Berio and Ligeti with London Sinfonietta and the Schoenberg Ensemble, with conductors Gielen, Howarth, Atherton, Rattle, Knott, Metzmacher, Nagano etc. Pierrot Lunaire has been a constant thread throughout, and in November this year she will perform it for Nuria Schoenberg’s 80th birthday at the Fenice.

Paul Hoskins

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Paul Hoskins studied French, German and Music at Cambridge University, and conducting at the Royal College of Music. He is now Director of Music at the Purcell School.

Until September 2018, he was Music Director of Rambert, a dance company that under his influence played an important role in the music world. In 2009 he devised the innovative and hugely successful Rambert Music Fellowship, to encourage young composers to write for dance. Recent Rambert projects have included Life is a Dream, set to symphonic works by Lutoslawski, at the 2018 Bergen International Festival; and a choreographed production of Haydn’s Creation at Sadler’s Wells with the BBC Singers that can still be viewed online. Paul has been responsible for dozens of commissions and world premieres, to regular acclaim in the national press.

As a guest conductor, Paul has worked with many major ballet companies and symphony orchestras in Europe and America. He has conducted Don Giovanni with Roderick Williams, The Magic Flute, the world premiere of Stephen McNeff’s Clockwork at the Royal Opera House, and works by Soler and Paisiello for Bampton Classical Opera and Buxton Festival. He has also assisted at Glyndebourne and English National Opera.

As a teacher Paul has helped a number of young conductors, players and composers. He works as a mentor for young musicians with the charity Future Talent, as an adjudicator at youth music festivals, and he regularly speaks and writes about music and dance. He has worked with several youth orchestras and choirs, and last year he conducted a concert at the Barbican in 2017 that brought young composers, dancers and choreographers together to work with the London Schools Symphony Orchestra.

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