Mentors

Caroline Diffley lives and works in Exeter, where she runs a private piano teaching practice. Her pupils have achieved many successes, including being awarded the ABRSM Gold Medal, and the Sheila Mossman Memorial Prize for the highest mark in local examinations.

Dean is a private composition and piano teacher and has worked as a band leader, composer, arranger, fixer, engineer and producer in the music industry since 1978. He writes music for all and any combinations of instruments and particularly enjoys collaborative song-writing.

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.

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.

Jill has spent her working life as a professional musician, mentor and advocate for young people. She studied piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, before going on to study World Music at Dartington College of Arts.

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.

Kate Graham was born in 1972 and grew up in South London. She sang and danced on stage from a young age and had a classical upbringing in piano, flute and singing. During her childhood she performed a wide range of repertoire… solo / ensembles / choirs / orchestras / productions and in competitions and on camera.

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.

Lindsay has been part of the music industry for 20 years now, playing in professional orchestras and chamber groups, working on educational projects and teaching private pupils of all levels and abilities. Lindsay has extensive experience of the professional, classical music scene from recording and performing chamber music to orchestral playing and she feels very grateful for the help she received as a youngster which enabled her to access the profession. Lindsay has always felt very drawn towards helping young people find their way in music.

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.

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.

Nick has been Artistic Director of Actiontrack Performance Company since co-founding the music-theatre charity in the mid-80s. Prior to that he was Specialist Lecturer in Popular and Community Music at Dartington College of Arts where he developed skill and passion for music making as a catalyst for change and as an equal partner in the devising of theatre, dance and experimental performance.

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.

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.

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.

Stuart Clayton studied Popular Music at Leeds College of Music and has since performed all over the world as a bass guitarist. He has been Head of Bass at BIMM Bristol for ten years. Stuart has worked on cruise ships, theatre shows, function groups and played on many sessions. He has also worked for Rockschool as their Bass Technical Specialist (2012-2018) and worked as a session musician on the current syllabus.

Thomas Brooman was born in Bristol in the west of England in 1954. After attending schools in Bristol and in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thomas went to Oxford University, reading English Language and Literature, graduating in 1976.

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.