Mentors

Carole Jenner-Timms studied at the Royal College of Music with Christopher Hyde-Smith for three years. Since leaving the RCM in 1970, Carole has played and taught the flute extensively in the South West and directed “Flutes Galore” for twenty years. She has worked with many choral societies, operatic companies and orchestras including the London Mozart Players, the Academy of the BBC, the Royal Ballet, Travelling Opera, Gilbert and Sullivan For All and the Philharmonia of Bristol.

Eddie has been central to some of the most important British jazz in recent years. He was a founder member of and an important composer for Loose Tubes, the legendary UK 1980s big band. He was a key member of the headlining Bheki Mseleku Band, featuring drummer Marvin ‘Smitty’ Smith. He also featured as a soloist and composer in Django Bates’ Delightful Precipice.

Edward graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with a Masters Degree in Music Performance having studied with Richard Addison, Martin Speake and Duncan Lamont. Since then, Edward has built an enviable reputation as a freelance saxophonist and educator.

Elfyn was born and brought up in North Wales and trained at University of Wales College of Cardiff and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he was also on attachment to London Sinfonietta Education. Since then he has worked across the UK and beyond for Opera Circus, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, ENO Baylis, Welsh National Opera and Opera North.

Graham Lynch was born in London. He has a PhD in composition from King’s College London, and he also spent a year at the Royal College of Music, as well as studying privately with Oliver Knussen. Graham’s music has been commissioned and performed in over thirty countries, as well as being frequently recorded to CD and featured on radio and television.

In her youth, Griselda Sanderson was a member of the Junior department of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow, and a member of the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland.

Originally from Devon, Harriet studied Orchestral Percussion at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She has experience in a range of genres from jazz-funk band Tezeta to orchestral playing with BBC NOW, studying gamelan in Bali to contemporary opera with Operasonic.

Jacquelyn Bevan learned the piano ‘by ear’ at a very young age and was a church organist (where she learned to read music) and ballet school pianist (where she learned to improvise!) before beginning formal piano studies with Caroline Diffley at Kent Music School and, later, Dennis Dance at the Guildhall.

James is a professional guitarist, singer, songwriter, and tutor with over a decade of experience working as a professional musician and educator across the South-West Region.

Over the last decade Jim Aitchison has been recognised for creating responses in music to visual art and for his visual score work. He has initiated encounters with many artists, including Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley, Doris Salcedo, Peter Randall-Page, Anish Kapoor, Richard Deacon, John Hoyland, Terry Frost and Jeremy Annear.

Jon Sterckx is a versatile percussionist with 30+ years playing experience. He studied tabla in the UK and in India between 1994 – 2006.

Lewis Riley has been a jazz musician and piano teacher based in Totnes for more than 35 years. He was born and grew up in Lancashire, coming to Devon in 1970 to study at Dartington College of Arts and Rolle College Exmouth where he qualified as a secondary teacher and, apart from a six -year period teaching music at Droitwich High School in Worcestershire, has remained in the area.

Liv-Marie is a highly acclaimed violinist who performs as a soloist and chamber musician at major international festivals and concert halls throughout the UK and Europe.

Mara is classically trained in composition, piano and guitar as well as fine art. She has performed over 300 shows, both on festival stages and intimate concerts.

Marc’s professional career started as a busker in Paris, in the summer of 1986. Tenor sax legend Dexter Gordon was around for the production of the film “Round Midnight”, and encounters with him profoundly influenced the direction that Marc’s playing subsequently took. In 1987 he returned to London to take a diploma in Jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied under Don Rendell, Jean Toussaint and John Harle.

Mark has 25 years in the business under his belt and is a very busy man, currently conducting Heathers the Musical in the West End.

He works as a Music Supervisor, Director, Composer, Arranger and Vocal Coach, taking on projects such as the hit musicals ‘Bring It On’, and ‘Footloose’ for their UK tours. He has also supervised and arranged ‘9 to 5’ and ‘We Will Rock You’ on their world tours.

Matt was born in Cornwall, and after trying out a variety of musical instruments, he eventually settled on the trombone as he realised he had quite long arms! Matt was a member of the prestigious Bodmin College Jazz Orchestra (which won many national awards), Cornwall Youth Orchestra and Cornwall Youth Jazz Orchestra.

Matthew Ker aka MaJiKer is an award-winning, platinum-selling beatboxer, producer & songwriter based between London & Paris. He has produced two platinum selling albums and his work has earned three French Grammy’s, the BBC Radio 3 European Album of the Year, Critics’ & Press Prizes at the Sanremo Song Festival and the French Mercury Music Prize.

Nicola Smith is a viola player, educator and arts administrator. She studied Viola with Oliver Butterworth, and composition with Bob Hanson at Dartington College of Arts. She has a broad and eclectic taste in music, and has worked as a viola player with a range of musicians including the Zimbabwean master musician Chartwell Dutiro, and jazz musicians including Cennet Jonnson, Brian Abrahams and Scott Stroman, as well as ‘classical’ musicians.

As a composer, workshop leader and presenter, Patrick has led projects and written and presented concerts for BBC orchestras, BBC Proms, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Royal Opera House, Trinity-Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Music for Youth.  He held the roles of Learning Manager for the BBC Concert Orchestra and Education & Community Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He was appointed a Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra Associate in 2015 leading their participation work in Cornwall where he now lives. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Kevos, a group of Cornwall-based musicians dedicated to performing contemporary music.

Paul is a singer, oboist, fiddler, member of Belshazzar’s Feast, Faustus (Preis der Deustchen Schallplattenkritik 2017) and the late BBC award-winning Bellowhead. He was a Choral Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, then subsequently a Lay Clerk at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and preferred Bass Deputy in Winchester Cathedral Choir.

Penelope Price Jones was a scholarship holder at the Royal Academy of Music in London, studying with Marjorie Thomas, following a degree in sociology at the L.S.E.. Her performing career was mainly on the concert platform in oratorio and recital work, including BBC broadcasts and an interest in new works for voice. In 1998 Penelope was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

Preston Prince is originally from New Zealand, but is now residing in Ashburton, Devon. Preston has been involved in music education now for over 20 years. He is Deputy Head of Drums at BIMM, Brighton, the largest provider of higher and further education in the UK, where he has been involved in helping young musicians realise their potential.

Richard was born in South Africa. At the age of 14 he went to live in Israel, graduating from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem in 1982 where he studied flute, conducting with Mendi Rodan and theory, harmony and counterpoint with Yitzhak Sadai.

Sadie is a composer and performer based in Dorset. She is particularly well known for the socio-political aspects of her music-making with several works challenging stereotypes of marginalised peoples – refugees, Afghan women, the deaf, the homeless – celebrating their creativity and individuality with powerful expressions of musical solidarity.

Tim Boulton learnt the most important lessons about musical language from Sandor Végh and other senior musicians at the International Musicians Seminars at Prussia Cove, Cornwall.  Drawn to the region by the beauty of the sea and granite cliffs, he and his family have been living in West Cornwall since 2003.

Dr. Trevor Wiggins studied piano and trumpet at University and continues to perform on piano, mostly as an accompanist. He taught in schools for 7 years, then moved in to Higher Education, training teachers and teaching music to undergraduate and postgraduate students.