SE Music Conference 2022

Speaker Biographies

Keynote and after dinner speakers

board of the National Plan for Music Education. YolanDa released a book The ABCs of Music with Hal Leonard and also released four play-along books showcasing black composers with Faber Music in 2021. She is a broadcaster working across TV and Radio, including her eponymous series for CBeebies, YolanDa’s Band Jam , which recently won the Royal Television Society Awards as Best Children’s Programme. She presented the Ella and Dizzy Centenary for BBC Proms, Gospel Choir of the Year and BBC Young Jazz Musician of the year. YolanDa has also appeared on TV shows including Celebrity Mastermind , Sunday Brunch , House of Games , The Hitlist , Celebrity Antiques Roadtrip and more. On BBC Radio 4, she co-presents Loose Ends with Clive Anderson and covers for Trevor Nelson and Vanessa Feltz on BBC Radio 2 and presents YolanDa Brown on Saturday on Jazz FM. YolanDa loves to drive fast cars around race tracks in her spare time and can even rattle off a Rubik’s Cube in around five minutes (on a good day). A real renaissance woman, set to reach new heights. www.yolandabrown.co.uk musical family, Caius’ journey started at Bradford Cathedral, aged 11. He became Organ Scholar there at the age of 15 before moving to Leeds Cathedral at 17. A year later, he was appointed Assistant Organist and worked as a Choral Assistant in Chapeltown. He read Music at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, as the Neville Burston Organ Scholar and was the President of the College Music Society, the Student Representative on the Faculty of Music’s Outreach Committee, and was a trustee for Awards for Young Musicians - a charity that supports musicians from low-income families. Caius’ passion for opportunities to young people started aged 15 when he formed a children’s choir, which won Caius Lee Not from a

its class at the 2016 Mrs Sunderland Music Festival. He is currently a Choral Director for the Diocese of Leeds, working in schools throughout Bradford, a Sing for Pleasure Conducting scholar and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Caius enjoys travelling and athletics, having previously represented his county at the English Schools’ National Championships.

YolanDa Brown

For some, world- wide touring and critically acclaimed albums would be

satisfaction enough. Not for YolanDa Brown who has garnered praise for her delicious fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. YolanDa has worked with The Temptations, Diana Krall, Billy Ocean and features on Jools Holland’s new album. She is currently composing music for the iconic Sesame Street and an animated series called Bea’s Block due for release in 2023. A champion for the importance of music education, YolanDa is chair of Youth Music (one of the largest music education charities in the UK) and an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and London Music Fund. She graduated with a first class degree in Operations Management from the University of Kent, followed by two Masters Degrees and studied for a PhD for four years, before taking a break from her thesis to pursue her music career. Brown was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts by the University of East London. In 2018 along with philanthropist James JP Drake, she launched the Drake YolanDa Award offering grants for emerging musicians. November 2020 saw YolanDa roll out her bespoke online music lesson plans for teachers, parents and pupils nationwide as she continues to promote music education in primary schools. The resources, produced with Sony Music UK’s Magic Star, kids creative-media agency SUPER and one of the world’s largest provider of online education resources, Twinkl, were launched on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show , and have now been used by an estimated 30 000 children. An entrepreneur, YolanDa launched The London Saxophone Festival in 2018, currently in its third edition. YolanDa has been invited to sit on panels for the PRS Foundation, The IVORs and delivered Keynotes for Music Mark, ABRSM and music hubs across the country. In 2021, she was invited by the Department for Education to sit on the advisory

Sir Andrew Parmley Andrew Parmley was born in Lancashire, grew up in Blackpool and

was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, Manchester and London Universities and Jesus College, Cambridge. He has had a career in education and music. In 2016- 17 he was the 689th Lord Mayor of London and was knighted in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to music, education and civic engagement. Andrew Parmley is the Director of the Royal College of Organists, past Chairman and Visiting Professor of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, International Ambassador and Honorary Member of the London Symphony Orchestra, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and, in addition to a doctorate in 17th- century French opera, holds honorary doctorates from City and Strathclyde Universities. He is also Principal of the Harrodian School, Chairman of the Blackpool National Advisory Board, Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, Fellow of Trinity College of Music, Fellow of Goodenough College, Hon. Fellow of Royal Holloway College and an Hon. Bencher of Middle Temple. Andrew is a keen liveryman and is a member or honorary member of some twenty Livery Companies. He is Past Master of the Parish Clerks, the Musicians, the Glass Sellers and the Vintners Companies. Last month he celebrated forty years as honorary organist at St James Garlickhythe in his own Ward of Vintry.

16