Who’s Who

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Office Staff

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Artistic Personnel

Angela Kay studied at Nottingham College of Education, now Nottingham Trent University, and has been involved with the choral life of Nottinghamshire for most of her professional life. After giving up her post as head of music at a comprehensive school in 1980 to raise a family, Angela formed the Nottingham Choral Trust (now Music for Everyone) and continued to develop it by working with enthusiasm and imagination as its Artistic Director. Originally known in Nottingham as a mezzo soprano soloist, Angela’s career developed first into choral and then into orchestral conducting. She has conducted many of the major works from the choral repertoire to critical acclaim, including Brahms’ Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Bach’s St Matthew Passion. In July 2003, Angela received an honorary Masters degree from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of her services to Music Education.

Most recently, Angela was awarded an MBE in the 2014 New Year Honours list for services to music in Nottinghamshire and in 2015 was awarded the Lady Hilary Groves Prize by the national music organisation, Making Music.  This prize is awarded to one individual each year for their outstanding contribution to music making in their local community.

Angela also conducts the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall ‘Drivetime Choir’ and Newark based community choir, the ‘Palace Singers’.

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Rachel was a founder member of the internationally successful a cappella ensemble Voces8 with whom she performed and toured extensively. As an active member of the London choral scene for 10 years, she performed at the highest level with Tenebrae, London Voices and the Eric Whitacre Singers. Her repertoire ranges from the classical tradition to Hollywood movie scores, contemporary opera, and classical-pop crossover. Following five years working in the USA as a soloist, choral singer, vocal coach and singing teacher, Rachel moved to Nottingham in 2020. Since then, she has been committed to empowering people and communities to sing.

In addition to her work training the University of Nottingham’s choirs, she is a conductor of the auditioned Nottingham Chamber Singers and chorus master of the Nottingham Festival Chorus. As Artistic Director of the charity Music for Everyone, she runs several weekly choirs in the Nottingham area, weekend music courses for adults and children, Come-and-Sing concerts and community events. She also runs music groups in public libraries for Inspire, and singing initiatives for health and wellbeing.

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Alex is an experienced conductor and harpsichordist. He graduated from the University of Manchester with a first-class degree in Music (MusB) and the Royal Northern College of Music with an MMus in Performance at Distinction level (Conducting). He studied at Manchester University with Mark Heron & Justin Doyle (RIAS Kammerchor) and later with Clark Rundell at the RNCM.

He is the Music Director of the Lake District’s Furness Bach Choir and the Music Director of Haffner Orchestra in Lancaster, the Amaretti Chamber Orchestra in Stockport, and Nottingham Youth Orchestra.

He has worked with a number of British orchestras as conductor and assistant conductor, including the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé, Liverpool Philharmonic, Northern Chamber Orchestra, The Old Street Band, Manchester Camerata, Psappha, as well as a number of opera companies as conductor and as a harpishordist/repetiteur including Radius Opera and English Touring Opera.

On the international stage, Alex has worked with the Allegra Festival Orchestra in Bulgaria, the Prague Philharmonia, CR and Spokane Symphony in Washington, USA. He has worked as assistant conductor for a number of internationally renowned conductors including Sir Mark Elder, Sir Andrew Davies, Vassily Petrenko, James Lowe, Nicolas Collon, Juanjo Mena and Gerry Cornelius.

Other notable highlights include working as Assistant Conductor for Heritage Opera and the BBC Philharmonic’s joint world premiere of Alan Williams’’ The Arsonists’. He was Music Director for Manchester International Festival 2017’s ‘One of Two Stories or Both’ a live broadcast radio drama which appeared on Unity Radio and BBC iPlayer.

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Matt has over ten years experience, teaching whole class ensemble strings, guitars and flutes in primary schools across Nottingham City as well as smaller, multi-instrument twilight ensembles.

As a conductor, Matt has led groups of various sizes and instrumentations. From concert bands to brass bands, string orchestras, saxophone choirs, big bands and guitar ensembles. He has even, just recently, been able to conduct Holst’s “Mars” and Hans Zimmer’s “Wonder Woman 1984”, with a joint Nottingham-Karlsruhe youth orchestra of over 100 musicians.

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Pip has sung in a number of chamber choirs, performing in and around the Nottingham area.  She has taught in Nottingham for over 35 years, rehearsing Senior School choirs and vocal ensembles.  In the early days of Music for Everyone, Pip also worked with the under 18s on their weekend Choral Trust courses.

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A chemistry graduate from Yorkshire, Lynda has been a choral singer from the age of 9, a valued member of the Royal School of Church Music.  A church worship leader since 19, she trained with Chris Bowater and Andy Bromley at the Worship Academy.  She brought music to Faith and Light and the Larche community in West Bridgford, whilst bringing up 5 daughters. More recently she has enjoyed bringing the life enhancing benefits of the therapeutic power of music to improve the health and wellbeing of all members of society through sing-alongs with The Joyful Jukebox.  She is delighted to be continuing this work with Open Voices Beeston and Ruddington.

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Angela graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London in 1982, having studied piano, piano accompaniment and singing. After a Music PGCE year at the London Institute of Education, she spent several years teaching music to A-level, before concentrating on private piano and singing teaching, while her daughters were young.

Angela is now a freelance accompanist. She has been a singing member of MfE for over 30 years and a member of Nottingham Chamber Singers for nearly all of those years. She has also accompanied the chamber choir for more than 10 years. Angela is accompanist to MfE’s Nottingham Festival Chorus and plays for several of the Daytime Voices choirs too. She is also a member of St. Peter’s Church Choir, Nottingham.

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After starting her professional life as a metallurgical engineer, Claire read music at Nottingham University specialising in Renaissance and Baroque Music. On graduation she completed a dual PGCE in instrumental and classroom music teaching at the University of Central England, Birmingham. For the last 20+ years she has taught music in local secondary schools, where she fosters a passion for instrumental study and performance. 

As a trumpet player Claire has toured extensively with orchestras, wind bands, brass quintets and brass bands, and has played in some of the world’s finest venues, including Montserrat Basilica, the Belarus National Opera House, and Carnegie Hall in New York. She is currently co-lead trumpet of the Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra and also plays trumpet with Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra. Claire also has a wealth of conducting experience with both wind bands and brass bands at all ability levels and across the age spectrum. She also MDs an annual musical.

Claire is passionate about performance, education, and ensuring that generations of future musicians enjoy our rich cultural heritage. 

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Japanese violinist Tamaki Higashi is a passionate chamber musician and the founding member of the Villiers Quartet, the resident quartet at the University of Oxford. With the Villiers Quartet, she performs regularly in the UK, Europe and USA, and have released numbers of discs of British music from major labels.

Tamaki’s chamber music career started with the Degas Quartet in the USA, and she performed and toured across the nation. With the Degas Quartet, Tamaki has appeared at Aspen Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Festival as a guest artist. The Degas Quartet served as a resident quartet with Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, NC and worked closely to bring the music into the community. She had studied string quartet with members of Juilliard, Cleveland, Takacs, Fine Arts, Colorado Quartets.

Tamaki genuinely enjoys all the aspect of collaboration. She has worked with many distinguished musicians such as Jazz bassist Christian McBride, Indian Tabla specialist Kuljit Bhamra, amongst many other finest musicians within the chamber music scene. Tamaki studied violin with Lewis Kaplan and Muneko Otani, and viola with Jerry Horner, and has graduated from Mannes College of Music in New York.

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John has loved music since his early teens. At school he learned piano and trumpet and spent all his free time exploring records and sight-reading pieces from the music library. 

After much resistance he followed advice to join the school choirs and found he enjoyed it and that it benefitted his musicianship.

John has sung with The Nottingham Chamber Singers for over 30 years where he has learned lots about singing, music and life.

John worked in software development for Boots and Royal Mail for over 20 years before following his heart into music.

He has now retired from teaching the piano but is a regular accompanist for choirs and instrumentalists.

John is immensely grateful to all those who support and encourage him and enable him to do so much music, both listening and participating.

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Phil is a freelance conductor, violist and violinist, and received his initial musical training in Leicestershire. After graduating from Trinity College of Music, London, he has had a varied career of playing, teaching and conducting in many styles and genres. He currently conducts LSU Classical in Loughborough, and the Bedworth Symphony Orchestra, and regularly works with other orchestras including The Stratford upon Avon Symphony Orchestra and The Charnwood Orchestra. He was also previously the conductor of the Leicestershire Schools Concert Orchestra.

Phil had his first conducting lessons as a teenager with Robert Mandell, in return for managing the library of his Melachrino Strings Orchestra! He has also had tuition from Peter Stark, who is Professor of Conducting at The Royal College of Music. Phil lives in South Leicestershire with his wife Rebecca and their 3 children.

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Originally from Hampshire, Owen moved to the Midlands in 2013 to study Music at the University of Nottingham. After graduating with First Class Honours, he was offered a scholarship to study an MA in Music, specialising in contemporary composition. He is currently in the process of writing a new musical, and a Christmas album…!

Owen is delighted to be conducting Wollaton Daytime Voices. Though primarily a professional guitarist, Owen has been singing in choirs since early childhood. This has played a big part in his work with bands, as he insists on singing backing vocals and he enjoys seeking harmony parts where possible. He also teaches guitar and bass at Nottingham Girls’ High School, and is regularly involved with the charity Musicworks.

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James was appointed as our Principal Guest Conductor in September 2009. Prizewinner in international conducting competitions, James Lowe’s work as Artistic Director of the Hallé Harmony Youth Orchestra featured in Orchestra United, a four-part documentary shown on Channel 4 last year. Lowe is Artistic Director of the New Bristol Sinfonia, Principal Conductor of the Edinburgh Contemporary Music Ensemble, Principal Guest Conductor of Music for Everyone, and held the position of Associate Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Educated at the University of Edinburgh, Lowe continued his development as Benjamin Zander Conducting Fellow with the Boston Philharmonic, and has studied with leading conductors in master classes, including Jorma Panula, Neeme Järvi, with Valery Gergiev and with Bernard Haitink, who has recently invited him to work as his assistant with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam this May.

One of two prizewinners in the Tokyo International Competition for Conductors and special prize winner in the Jorma Panula International Competition, he has appeared in performance with the Osaka and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestras, the Residentie Orkest Den Haag, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, Scottish Ballet, the orchestra of Welsh National Opera and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, as well as working with numerous other ensembles in many European countries, South Africa and the USA.

In addition to Orchestra United, James Lowe will feature in The Interpreters, a German film following three young conductors.  He lives in Edinburgh and Berlin.

 www.james-lowe.co.uk

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Cliff graduated as a teacher in 1991 and taught in London and Notts for the next 20-something years! Music was always a big part of his younger life (playing trombone and euphonium in the Salvation Army) and his teaching life, seeing the establishment and development of choirs, bands and creative groups, which often performed works, songs and musicals that Cliff had composed.

Since 2012, he has been far more involved in music-making and composing than a full-time teaching career allowed. Cliff is currently involved with a number of choirs, sometimes composing, arranging, accompanying and leading their music making. He has also performed with an amateur choir in Paris at UNESCO and Notre-Dame.

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Growing up in the South of Germany, traditional alpine music was an integral part of Annette’s formative years. She performed in her parents’ Stubenmusik ensemble from an early age on several recorders before persuading them to get her flute lessons where the real love for the instrument began.

As a flautist and Piccolo player, Annette was part of the Stadtkapelle in her hometown, Memmingen, several chamber orchestras in the area as well as Die Rosenkavaliere, a virtuoso Salon Orchestra.

After graduating from the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Annette moved to the UK to further her career as an educator and performer. She regularly performed in local Flute and Wind Ensembles, played in several chamber orchestras in the area before settling on a seat in the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra (NPO) flute section.

During the early 2000s, Annette toured the UK with her guitarist duo partner as Reflections, playing at weddings, corporate events and giving recitals all over the country.

In 2017, Annette moved away from peripatetic music education but her love for performing as an orchestral musician and as a soloist is still strong. She leads the Music for Everyone Sunday Afternoon Music Flute Ensemble, performs regularly with the NPO as well as the Limelight Orchestra, and is equally at home at classical recitals as well as popular music stages and festivals.

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At the age of 6 Phil started to reach up and play notes on his parents piano. Keyboard lessons began, shortly followed by clarinet lessons at school.

Having gained his two grade 8’s and music A level Phil set of to music college and then teacher training. He moved to Nottingham in 1985 to become a woodwind teacher and a career that saw him be head of music in three Nottinghamshire schools followed by a Teaching Fellow at Warwick University. During that time he also became musical director of the Nottinghamshire Education Big Band (The Brassery) and founder and MD of Nottingham Youth Jazz Orchestra.

He also conducted many other ensembles for the authority and was the MD for the Nottingham Youth Theatre Company. He also conducts for the Nottingham based Music for Everyone .

Whether performing in local orchstras, theatre bands, singing in chamber choirs or conducting classical or jazz, Phil has been emersed in the music in the local area since moving here. Amongst his favourite performances must be an appearance on Blue Peter (yes he has the badge!) numerous gigs at the Edinburgh Festival as well of course as all those local concerts which keep us all enjoying music so much.

When not performing or conducting he can be found snowboarding down the Alps or pottering in his garden!

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Helen has over 30 years experience leading interactive sing-along music sessions, catering for all ages from 6 months to 90 years, working in schools, nurseries, care homes and community groups.  She is passionate about bringing the life-enhancing benefits of music to others, believing that music has the power to awaken hidden memories, ease physical and emotional distress, and generally improve everyone’s quality of life by bringing joy and positivity.

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Sarah is an enthusiastic singer and has been part of MFE for many years. She currently leads the West Bridgford Open Voices where she enjoys encouraging the members to get involved, be that singing, shaking a shaker, dancing or jumping!  Sarah also plays the violin and leads the Nottingham Daytime Orchestra.

In addition to being involved in these community groups, Sarah is also a Soprano in Nottingham Chamber Singers, plays her violin in Nottingham Symphony Orchestra and teaches both singing and violin.

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Music for Everyone Board of Trustees

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