SE Music Conference 2022

Session Leaders

choir broadcast on BBC1, Radio 4 and World Service Radio, and over 20 choristers gained choral scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge. Since 2015, he has been Executive Director of Music of the David Ross Education Trust, where he is responsible for the development of a music programme for over 13,000 children across 34 state primary and secondary schools in the East Midlands. His work at DRET has included the award- winning Singing Schools programme for primary schools, developing a Trust-wide primary and secondary music curriculum, fostering a network of partner organisations, including Gabrieli Roar, Nevill Holt Opera, Sing Up, the Royal Opera House and the Voices Foundation, creating a team of professional musicians in residence, and establishing a talent development programme. He was a member of the Government’s Expert Panel for developing a model music curriculum, and was the most recent President of the Music Teachers’ Association (2019- 21). His chapter on curriculum music in the recent book What Should Schools Teach? was published in January 2021 and is available as an open access pdf from UCL Press. He is currently serving on the Expert Panel to oversee the new National Plan for Music Education. He is a Director of the Rodolfus Foundation Choral Courses and conducted their most recent broadcast of Choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3.

Industry and the UK government, Mark created The BRIT School near London, with its fresh, institute-wide curriculum. Mark went on to become the Founder of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and served as its Principal/CEO from its inception to 2021. During this time, he created the LIPA Primary School and then the LIPA Sixth Form College. The LIPA Primary School has since become the LIPA Primary and High School.

Bob Chilcott Described by the

Observer in London as ‘a contemporary hero of British Choral Music,’ composer and conductor Bob Chilcott has spent his working life dedicated to the art and joy of choral music and what it means to sing together. His catalogue of works, published by Oxford University Press, reflects his broad view of musical styles and genres, ranging from his ‘St John Passion’ to ‘A Little Jazz Mass,’ a large catalogue of music for young choirs, Christmas music and more recently ‘Sky Pictures’ for the distinguished British mezzo soprano, Dame Sarah Connolly. Bob has been Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Singers since 2002. He was also Conductor of the Chorus of the Royal College of Music in London between 1997 and 2004 and since 2019 he has been Principal Conductor of the Birmingham University Singers. OSE is a composer, working in film TV and theatre, for which he’s won multiple awards including five Oscar nominations. His films include Gandhi , Cry Freedom , Dangerous Liaisons , The Fisher King , Groundhog Day , You’ve Got Mail , Hitch , The Lady In the Van , The Wind that Shakes the Barley and most recently The Duke . TV work includes The Jewel in the Crown , Newsnight , Bergerac and The Blue Planet , Planet Earth and Frozen Planet , which he conducts in concerts worldwide. His current theatre project is Straight Line Crazy at the Bridge Theatre. He teaches at the RCM and Nottingham University. www.georgefenton.com. George Fenton George Fenton

Alex Aitken

Alex Aitken is the Children’s

Musical Director and Cover Conductor for

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Mary Poppins in London, and is also a teacher, A level examiner, writer, pianist, and organist. A former Head of Academic Music, he contributed to Edexcel’s GCSE specification, and occasionally appears in music departments around the UK to work with students and teachers (sometimes by invitation). Alex regularly works with the National Youth Music Theatre, the National Children’s Choir and CBSO Youth Chorus, and strongly dislikes C major. www.alexaitken.co.uk

Caroline Robinson Caroline has been Director of Music at Warminster School for seven

years. Prior to that she has led Music departments in an Independent prep school and a community college. Since taking on the Music Department at Warminster School, both the choice of groups on offer and the numbers Warminster’s Concert Orchestra and various Bands are about to embark on their third concert tour this June. Having toured Europe extensively as a member of the Berkshire Young Musicians Trust in her teens, Caroline is passionate about giving her pupils similar life-affirming experiences and memories to hold dear. of pupils taking part in music have grown beyond recognition.

Sir Mark Featherstone- Witty

With the support of Richard Branson, the British Phonographic

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