Adults

Tom qualified from the Royal Academy of Music as a Graduate of the Royal Schools of Music and an Associate of the Royal College of Music. He subsequently did a Certificate of Education at Edinburgh University. After 18 years of school teaching he left to become a freelance Choral Animateur for the British Federation of Young Choirs where he worked extensively in London and Kent. Following on from this in 1996 he set up his own 'Very Moving Festival Company' which does a festival each year. For over 5 years this intrepid group of performers walk prepared routes doing inter-active singing events in churches and schools along the way. They have covered over 700 miles and involved several hundred schools and churches. Tom specialises in Choral direction and at present rehearses 5 choirs in London and Sussex. His Most recent appointment is as conductor of the newly formed Bromley Youth Boys Choir.

Elsa Bradley is a London-based freelance percussionist and timpanist, born and raised in Yorkshire. She graduated from King's College, London and the Royal College of Music with first-class degrees and has gone on to play in a variety of orchestral and chamber ensembles across the UK, Europe and Canada.

As an orchestral musician, Elsa has freelanced in many of the UK's main orchestras including regular work with the BBC Symphony and Concert orchestras, the Royal Philharmonic orchestras, Opera North, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Both period and contemporary music feature heavily in Elsa's life and she runs her own contemporary percussion collective, Abstruckt, who play theatrical and experimental repertoire in car parks, galleries, churches, schools, a strawdetorium and clubs. She plays in regular projects with the award-winning Multi-Storey Orchestra and new-music collective Plus Minus Ensemble, and has collaborated with the Suisse percussion group, We Spoke: New Music.

Elsa also plays the hammered dulcimer and cimbalom professionally, with the latter (and larger!) instrument taking her to the BBC Proms with the London Sinfonietta and across to Montréal, Canada to play with Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. Folk music, both traditional and modern, is a genre Elsa really enjoys exploring on the hammered dulcimer and is part of a new, percussion-heavy project called Caldera Folk.

In her free time, Elsa likes to be outdoors, mostly cycling and exploring new places.

https://twitter.com/abstruckt

Hollie Macdonald is a professional freelance flautist and flute tutor. Hollie joined the Young Music Makers team in September 2015 and teaches 2 small recorder groups, the adult flute group as well as individual tuition for mixed ages and abilities.

Hollie has over 12 years of teaching experience and also teaches at Blackheath Conservatoire and Putney High School. Hollie is a deeply committed and enthusiastic teacher and also enjoys a varied freelance career playing with orchestras such as the BBC Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and British Sinfonietta.

www.holliemacdonaldflute.com

Variety has always been the spice in Malcolm’s musical life.  Singing, clarinet and guitar playing feature in his performances – in concert halls, theatres, cabaret, radio and TV.  His choral compositions have been performed by the King's Singers, The Chapel Royal, the Highgate Choral Society and the City Glee Club, and featured on BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Week. Six of his children’s songs are published by A & C Black.   

As a teacher, Malcolm encourages his students to adopt an open-minded approach to music-making so that they can always find something they really enjoy.

Originally from Ipswich in Suffolk, Owen Dawson is now a London based trombonist with a career including work on the West End (Sinatra: The Man And His Music), performances with some of the country's finest Big Bands (Hermeto Pascoal, BBC Big Band, Syd Lawrence Orchestra, London Jazz Orchestra) and appearances at festivals with artists such as Jimmy Somerville and Bellowhead. Educated on the prestigious Royal Academy of Music Jazz programme, Owen is also an active composer, pianist and exponent of the electric trombone in situations ranging from free, improvised music to his own collectively run band, Big Bad Wolf.

www.bigbadwolf.london

Layil’s playing has been described as ‘unforgettable’ and ‘stupendous’. She has become renowned for her dynamic interpretations of music from all ages and has been hailed as one of the most virtuosic recorder players of the times.

Layil studied at the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music, London with Philip Thorby, where she was introduced to the viol by Alison Crum. During this time she made broadcasts for the Jerusalem Music Centre and won several awards including the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Award, the Dorothy Stone Award and the TCM Silver Medal for Early Music. As a soloist Layil has performed with various orchestras including The Royal Artillery Orchestra and The Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and has toured the USA, China, Korea, Israel, Egypt, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland and the UK.
Layil is the founder and director of Mi Luna and is co-director of Eclipse, creating programmes that include fusions of different musical styles and dance.
She also plays with many Early and World Music groups including La Concert Des Nations, under the direction of Jordi Savall, Charivari Agreable, Minerva and Siena, with whom she has performed in the Purcell Room, and made recordings of music by Salamone Rossi for the Classical Recording Company. She has recorded for different early music ensembles and world music projects including singer Mor Kabasi.

www.milunamusic.com
https://www.youtube.com/channe...

Layil Barr - YouTube
www.youtube.com

Martin has had a wide and varied playing and teaching career spanning 20 years. His playing ranges in style from classical to rock though blues and jazz. Martin studied at the London College of Music, achieving an ALCM and LLCM. Since then his playing has taken him to the Greenwich, Cheltenham and Saddleworth Festivals.

Martin has also played on BBC Radio, Shanghai Television, the Amsterdam Hilton and for various West End shows. He has also been involved in producing tapes for education.

Dina works across a variety of genres ranging from Jazz to Contemporary Music. She holds a master’s degree in Jazz Vocals from the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden in Germany, specialising in methodology and didactics of the voice. She has over 15 years of teaching experience and is currently teaching Jazz courses at the City Lit Institute in London, has taught at the Vocational College for the blind and visually disabled in Nuremberg and was head of the ‘Freie Musikschule Music Loft’, Aachen.

She has worked with students of all ages and levels in a variety of musical genres. Dina’s main focus is giving the necessary technical and musical tools to sing with confidence and ease.

Dina teaches the Junior Choirs, Adult Beginner Choir and is available for individual lessons.

DinaAzzam.co.uk