Robert has worked in Music and Music Education for his entire career, holding posts as County Music Adviser for Hertfordshire and Associate Headteacher of Dame Alice Owen’s School.

Robert studied conducting with George Hurst and Sir Arthur Davison and was a finalist in the Hans Swarowsky conducting competition. He is founder and Musical Director of the English Schools’ Orchestra which is now in its 27th year. Robert has conducted professional, amateur and youth orchestras and choirs and has performed in major concert halls including the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican and Symphony Hall Birmingham. He has toured extensively in Europe and completed a sell out tour in Australia with the ESO and the Australian Youth Choir.

He has performed with a number of distinguished soloists including Nicola Benedetti, John Lill, Julian Lloyd Webber, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Guy Johnston and Alison Balsam. Robert is also Musical Director of the English Young Artists’ Sinfonia, a professional orchestra which performs regularly in London as well as leading innovative education projects in schools. He holds Consultancy posts for the Music in Secondary Schools’ Trust Andrew Lloyd Webber programme and the Orchestras for All Charity. Until 2021 he was conductor of Enfield Youth Symphony Orchestra. Robert is a Freeman of the City of London, an Honorary Fellow at Goldsmiths, London University and was awarded an MBE in 2006 and OBE in 2019 for services to Music.

Timothy Bowers   BMus (Lond), DPhil (York), ARCM, FRAM

Benjamin Ealovega

Tasmin Little OBE, FGSM, Hon RAM, ARCM (Hons)

“One of the supremely great violinists of our time” Music-Web International

“Little can justly be regarded as Britain’s  finest violinist” The Independent

For more than three decades, Tasmin Little enjoyed a multi-award winning and varied career as an international solo concert violinist, touring the globe as soloist with the most acclaimed international orchestras in the top venues of the world. She made 45 commercial recordings, gave many world premiere performances and received numerous accolades, including a Classic BRIT Award, Gramophone Award for Audience Innovation, BBC Music Magazine Personality of the Year Award, BBC Music Magazine Chamber Music Award, Gold Badge Award for Services to Music and a coveted Diapason d’Or.

Renowned for her gifts of communication and presentation, on and off the platform, during the early 1990s she pioneered verbal introductions during performance from the stage to audiences, and in 2008 her ground-breaking project “The Naked Violin” drew a global audience of half a million in a few weeks and resulted in The Southbank Show – the longest-running Arts show on British television – dedicating a full hour’s programme to following the project as she toured. She has appeared on, and made, many television and radio programmes; in February 2021, her 3-week series for BBC Radio 3, “Journeys with my Violin” was widely lauded and was ‘Pick of the Week’ in The Times newspaper. During her 30 year career, she performed 20 times at the BBC Proms, including two concerts at The Last Night of the Proms to a global audience of 100 million, and at Proms in the Park to a live audience of 40,000. She performed twice for HM the Queen and in 2012 was awarded an OBE for Services to Music.

During the pandemic in 2020, Tasmin gave numerous interviews on BBC Radio 4 and was vocal in highlighting the issues faced by freelance musicians, to the extent that she was recently cited as one of the top 10 Classical Music Thought Leaders. She has a consistent track record of advocating music education and has twice been invited to speak in the House of Commons to members of both the Lords and the Commons regarding the importance of education and the Arts in the UK. In 2019 she became Co-President of the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Tasmin is an Ambassador for many charities including Help Musicians UK, The Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts, Youth Music, Trees for Music, (helping to replant and sustain endangered Pernambuco wood, used for making violin bows, in the Brazilian rainforest), and she is Vice President of the Elgar Society.

In 2020 she stepped down from the concert platform in order to devote her time to her other passions: broadcasting, presenting, writing, teaching, mentoring, education and charity work. She gained her Certificate in Mentoring and Coaching from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in January 2021, and has a particular interest in communication, presentation and self-development skills in addition to supporting increased diversity in the workplace.

Tasmin Little can be followed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tasminlittle

July 2021

Katrina Mulvihill studied at The Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama and feels privileged to have been part of the unique three year Actor/Teacher Course. Having Graduated with Honours, she won a Scholarship to The Guildhall School of Music and Drama and went on to study Opera, Musical Theatre, Acting and Piano for a further two years. Katrina, as professional Soloist and Principle, has appeared at many prestigious venues over the years performing in Plays, Operas, Recitals and Concerts at The Drury Lane Theatre, The Shaw Theatre, Sadler’s Wells, The Purcell Room and the QEH. She is an experienced Director, as well as performer, and has enjoyed producing and directing plays, concerts and shows with adults through to young children in a variety of styles ranging from Pantomime and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Light Operettas through to Shakespeare and Grand Opera. A longstanding member of LAMDA’s Examining Board, for over 30 years, she has also regularly lectured and given Master classes for LAMDA and other multiple agencies in Mime, Improvisation, Acting, Voice Production and Musical Theatre to name but a few. Katrina is Headteacher of a large Independent School and Nursery in Gidea Park, Essex and an Adjudicator with the British and International Federation of Festivals.

Born in Pembrokeshire, David began his musical studies as a violinist, and within a few months was awarded a full scholarship to the Purcell School.

He was the last student of Leon Barzin, and as a result has a direct link to the great conductors of the early twentieth century, notably Toscanini, Furtwängler and Erich Kleiber – a unique training for a conductor of his generation.

His critically acclaimed Royal Festival Hall debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra included a groundbreaking performance of Sibelius 2^nd Symphony utilising the original manuscript sources. He returned to the Royal Festival Hall, this time with the London Philharmonic Orchestra to conduct the World Premiere of the Symphony by Ravi Shankar alongside minimalist milestones by Adams and Glass. This was released on the LPO live label (“a resounding triumph” the Independent 5*)

In addition to Barzin, two other legendary mentors were central to his development as a musician: the conductor Sir Charles Mackerras and the sitar maestro and composer Pandit Ravi Shankar. David’s music- making contains a unique blend of these very potent influences. He is currently at the forefront of the development of a new “Indo-Classic” musical genre which aims to tap into the common roots of both traditions. His career spans four continents and has included concerts, recordings and broadcasts with the Philharmonia, Residentie Orkest, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia ViVA, Britten Sinfonia and the London Sinfonietta. He recently completed Ravi Shankar’s opera Sukanya, and, in a co-production with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted the World Premiere tour of the work.

Graeme Humphrey has been a teacher of piano all his professional life, both at the Royal Academy of Music for thirty-six years from 1974 – 2010, and privately.  He has also been very actively involved in festival adjudicating and examining – work which has taken him all over the world.

He was awarded an Associated Board Scholarship on the piano from New Zealand to study at the Royal Academy of Music.  He regularly teaches in Hong Kong and China, and was external examiner at National Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore from 2009 – 2011.  In 1988 he founded the Blackheath Music Festival in London.  From 1993 – 2010 he tutored at the Shrewsbury International Summer School and was Music Director of the Summer School from 2004 – 2010.  In 1997 he was elected Warden of the Private Teachers’ Section of the Incorporated Society of Musicians, and in 2002 was elected President of the Royal Academy of Music Club.  He has recently been involved in the selecting and editing of a major new piano duet project that is republishing long out-of-print beginner and intermediate level duet material, primarily for the pupil/teacher.  This can be seen at www.fourhandsplus.com  Graeme Humphrey is an Adjudicator member of the British and Internal Federation of Festivals and in 2013 was made a Fellow of British and International Federation of Festivals.

Darren is a professional TV Presenter and Broadcast Media Trainer, working with many organisations. Darren successfully launched Aspire TV Presenter Training over 14 years ago, offering high quality media presentation training courses around the UK and worldwide and is also based at 3 Mills Studios in London, running TV Presenter Masterclasses every month – Aspire have also provided training for BBC, ITV and many Sky TV Channels.

After accumulating around 9,000 hours of live TV, Darren is still extremely passionate about presenting on screen and has done so for over 16 years.

Recently, Darren and his team had the pleasure of working with ITV Productions, and assisting in the presentation rehearsals of their daytime TV shows such as This Morning with Philip & Holly and Good Morning Britain as they moved to their new studios at London’s Television Centre.

The past few years have seen a great number of Nimrod Borenstein’s works being premiered across the globe. His compositions are performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, the Far East, Israel, South America, Russia and the U.S.A. His music is receiving hugely enthusiastic reviews and becoming part of the repertoire of many ensembles and orchestras.

Among his high-profile supporters, Vladimir Ashkenazy has conducted several of Nimrod’s compositions, culminating in his recently recording an entire album of Nimrod’s orchestral works for Chandos, released during September 2017.

Nimrod Borenstein is a Laureat of the Cziffra Foundation and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. His substantial catalogue continues to develop and currently numbers more than eighty works, including orchestral and chamber music as well as vocal and solo instrumental pieces.

As a scholarship student at the Royal Academy of music Emma studied with Daphne Boden and Skaila Kanga.  During her studies she gained sponsorship and prizes from many organisations including The Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition, The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Foundation for Sports and the Arts and The Royal Academy of music.

Emma has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the UK and abroad, giving solo recitals, concertos and chamber performances at venues including The Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall as well as for many festivals and music societies here and abroad. Emma has also made solo recordings for Radio 3 and live solo recitals for Classic FM.

In recent years Emma has split her time between a busy orchestral schedule, teaching, examining for ABRSM and her two children.

Since leaving college, Emma has worked regularly with all London’s major Symphony Orchestras, Ballet and Opera orchestras. She has toured across the globe and had the amazing experience of working with many of the world’s finest musicians and conductors.

Emma loves seeing students progress and flourish as musicians and  has taught at The Junior Guildhall and for many schools during her career. These include St. Paul’s Girls School, Eton College, City of London School for Girls and Blackheath Conservatoire. She is now teaching at Wycombe Abbey school in Berkshire which is close to home and has private pupils from beginners to diploma standard.

For about five years Emma has been a diploma examiner for ABRSM.