SE Music Conference 2022

MTA CONFERENCE 2022 | ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

Panel Discussions Leaders

of England Academy in Lancaster, previously having been Director of Music there, establishing a large department with a national reputation for excellence in choral singing. Don is a Lead Practitioner and accredited Specialist Leader in Education, supporting music departments in other schools and leading a school-centred Music PGCE course. Outside of school, Don is Director of Music at Lancaster Priory, and a choral conducting tutor and Head of Publications for the national choral organisation, Sing for Pleasure. As a singing teacher specialising in boys’ changing voices, and a choral conductor with a great deal of experience working with teenage singers, Don is in demand as a speaker, workshop leader, conductor and adjudicator, and has led courses and events for organisations such as ABCD, RSCM and the Morland Choristers’ Camp. Association. He is the Director of Music at Westminster School and a trustee of Musical Boroughs Trust, the charitable arm of the Tri-borough Music Hub, which works across three West London boroughs to help transform young lives through the power of music. Tim read Music at Cambridge, where he was the senior choral scholar of the Choir of King’s College and the recipient of the College’s Gollin Prize. Prior to his appointment at Westminster in 2011, he taught at Eltham College before taking up the post of Head of Academic Music at Trinity School, Croydon. In 2019, Tim directed the Choir of Westminster School in its debut recording on the Signum international record label. Now may we singen: Music for Advent and Christmas was included in BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Top 10 Playlist for Christmas 2019’ and was album of the week on John Brunning’s Drive on Classic FM. As MTA Partnerships Lead, Tim has worked with Music Mark and ISM as Tim Garrard Tim Garrard is Partnerships Lead for the Music Teachers’

part of the CanDoMusic campaign, and he co-established HMC’s first ever official partnership with another association with the HMC-MTA partnership. Tim’s new project is Joining the Dots , an innovative new way of connecting everyone within the world of music education.

Catherine Barker Catherine Barker is the Head of Music and Performing Arts in

United Learning, the largest national schools’ group. Alongside supporting teachers with training and group-wide curriculum, she also leads national performance events and the Singing Champions programme. Alongside her work in the trust she is a school LGB Chair, a member of the Sheffield Music Hub advisory board and a curriculum lead with the Music Teachers’ Association. Prior to joining United Learning, Catherine led faculties in outstanding inner London schools, where she began her career in the inaugural Teach First cohort. Follow Catherine: @United_Music1

Catherine Beddison Catherine Beddison is an expert in musical education, with

an impressive track record of setting high standards, enthusing children and adults, and encouraging them to fully develop their skills. Catherine specialises in choral work and conducts Cranleigh Prep School Chamber Choir and Cranleigh Choral Society. She has a long-standing involvement with Sing for Pleasure, currently serving as a member of the Trustee board and working as a tutor. As Deputy Head (Operational) at Cranleigh Prep School, she oversees the day-to-day running of the school, which provides daily creative challenges of problem solving and innovative thinking!

David McKee David McKee

was educated at Oakham School and Exeter University

where he was a Choral Scholar in Exeter Cathedral Choir. He joined Cheltenham College as Director of Music in September 2014 from Milton Abbey School in Dorset, where among other things he founded and directed the Milton Abbey International Music Festival and Summer School. He has sung with a number of cathedral and professional choirs and is well known as a baritone soloist. He is a passionate advocate of EDI and of Partnership work, particularly in education. He is also a huge supporter of Irish rugby, and in 2016 ran the London Marathon in aid of the MS Society, for whom he will be raising money again by running the Berlin and London Marathons in September 2022.

Simon Toyne Born in Exeter, Simon Toyne received his musical training as a chorister in

Exeter Cathedral Choir, a music scholar at Eton College, and as Organ Scholar of University College, Oxford. For 24 years, he was Director of Tiffin Boys’ Choir, preparing them for projects with the major conductors in the world, including Pappano, Rattle, Gergiev, Maazel, Elder, Masur and Salonen, leading the choir on over twenty foreign tours, including to Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Russia, and conducting the choir in concert with the Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Sinfonia Britannica and Philharmonia Orchestra. As Director of Music at All Saints’ Church, Kingston, a post he held concurrently with that of Assistant Head & Director of Music at Tiffin School, the

Don Gillthorpe

Don Gillthorpe is the current President of the MTA. He is Assistant Principal at Ripley St Thomas Church

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