Staff A-Z

Sue Addison was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, which is situated in the heart of England and also at the heart of the brass band movement. It was during her teenage years as a member of the Market Rasen Town Band that Sue fell in love with playing the trombone. She then went on to study the trombone seriously at the Sam Newsom Music School in Boston before receiving an Exhibition Scholarship at the Royal College of Music London. She studied the trombone at the Royal College for four years with Arthur Wilson and John Iverson, graduating with an Honours ARCM, and receiving the Brass prize. Shortly after completing her studies at the Royal College, Sue was offered a position in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the directorship of Sir Simon Rattle.

It was during this time that the growth of the Period Instrument movement was having a positive impact on the music business and Sue was increasingly offered the opportunity to be part of this exciting new development. For this reason, she moved back to London as a freelance player where she became principal of the newly–formed London Classical Players, The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Sixteen Choir and Orchestra, Academy Of Ancient Music and the Gabrieli Consort. She was a member of the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique for twenty-two years under the directorship of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Robert Alderson studied with the late Frederic Cox at the Royal Northern College of Music. After completing his studies he joined Scottish Opera for three years, then returned to Manchester and gained his Dip Ed Mus in Secondary Education (Distinction). Following this he gained a position as Head of Music in a large comprehensive school in Lancashire.

He returned to the RNCM as a Senior Lecturer in the School of Vocal Studies where he taught many young singers who are now enjoying successful, international careers. His teaching career has taken him across the world and he has been a vocal tutor, guest lecturer and has given masterclasses in many countries; Russia (Tchaikovsky Conservatoire Moscow and Krasnodar Conservatoire Krasnodar) England  (Trinity Laban London. Yorke Trust Opera Course Norfolk) Germany (Bayreuth Festspiehaus) Wiesbaden (Wiesbaden Opera house) Austria  (Bregenz Festspeile) Australia  (Australian National University Conservatoire of Music and Drama in Canberra  followed by an invitation to give classes at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Mount Lawley) America (Connecticut University’s Vocal Studies Department) Ireland  (TU Dublin Conservatoire) Belgium (The Singel and Ghent Opera Studi) Egypt (Cairo University Music Faculty, Cairo Opera House. A Member of the board for Egypt’s First International Conference on Music Education at the Helwan University In Cairo ) India (Neemrana Music Foundation and Lyric Ensemble of Delh. Professor Alderson has recently ( June 2024 ) returned from Mexico where he was invited to take vocal masterclasses with the students at the Mexico Opera Studio.

Ralph Allwood MBE DMus was Director of Music at Eton College for 26 years and is now a freelance choral director. He is the Director of the Eton (now Rodolfus) Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. 9000 8 to 21 year olds have been students on courses over the last 42 years. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012, and in recent years has launched courses in Texas, Shanghai and Shenzhen. The Rodolfus choir, made up of the best singers from the courses, has produced over 20 CDs since he founded it in 1982.

Ralph is co-founder and conductor of Inner Voices, a choir made up of singers from state schools in London. He is also Director of Chapel Music, and conducts the chapel choir, as well as serving as an academic supervisor at Queens’ College Chapel, Cambridge and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham.

Julie is a freelance bassoonist living In London. She leads a busy musical life playing with the London orchestras and chamber ensembles as well as teaching the bassoon and coaching ensembles at Trinity Laban, Goldsmiths College, Dulwich Prep School and James Allen’s Girls’ School.

As a freelance player, Julie plays regularly with London and regional orchestras, often as guest principal.

Born in Samara, Russia, Alexander Ardakov studied under the renowned pianist and professor Vera Gornostaeva at Moscow Conservatoire. Upon graduating, he joined the Moscow State Philharmonia as a performer.

Alexander won prizes at the Kabalevsky Piano Competition in Russia and the Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, Italy.

Moving to Britain and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where he has been teaching since 1991, have helped him develop as an international recitalist of exceptional versatility and musical integrity.

Alison has had a long career in music education, initially as a violin teacher and subsequently with 35 years of experience of teaching A-Level Music, thirty of which were at Wells Cathedral School, one of the four specialist music schools in the UK.

With a particular interest in encouraging and developing students’ listening and analysis skills, Alison is one of the teachers on the Trinity Laban A level course who delivers the Appraising component.

Joe Arnold was a chorister at Wells Cathedral School in Somerset where he learnt trombone with Alan Hutt, former trombonist of the Royal Opera House and RPO, for 10 years. Joe was principal bass trombone of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain from the age of 16, and went on to study bass trombone at the Royal Academy of Music with Bob Hughes (London Symphony Orchestra) and Keith McNicol (Royal Opera House), graduating in 2012 after a year in the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, a pan-European youth orchestra. He has performed with all of the major London Orchestras as well as several others around the UK, and has been Principal Bass Trombone of the Orchestra of English National Opera since 2012.

Dominic Ashworth studied guitar at the University of Toronto, Canada, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is an active freelance player who has worked with Carol Kidd, Jacqui Dankworth, Dave Cliff and Janette Mason. Dominic is also a composer, and has written and recorded many original works for radio and television and performs with orginal guitar trio Digtal Moves. He performs in London with groups such as Julian Stringle’s Pathfinder, the Mick Foster Group, Digby Fairweather’s Half Dozen and Michael Garrick’s Big Band & Quartet.

Much in demand as an accompanist, Eugene Asti has performed with many great artists including Dame Felicity Lott, Dame Margaret Price, Nancy Argenta and Elizabeth Connell, in places such as the Wigmore Hall, the Rome Opera House, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Düsseldorf, Vancouver, and New York. He devised recital series for St. John’s Smith Square and St. George’s Brandon Hill to mark the Brahms and Mendelssohn anniversaries in 1997, and in 1999 planned a series for St. John’s Smith Square to mark the Poulenc and Strauss anniversaries. For the 2002/3 season, he devised a recital series involving many high-profile musicians for St. John’s Smith Square to honour Robert Schumann.

In opera, Lynton made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in Fidelio and having created the role of Sir Ywain in Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain, became a contract principal artist. Since then he has sung the principal roles in L’elisir d’amore, La traviata, The Pearl Fishers, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and The Merry Widow, throughout the UK, Europe, including Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Turin, Trieste, Dublin, and Berlin. Lynton’s concert career has taken him to many major centres and european festivals including performances with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, the Hallé and Ulster Orchestras, the Göttingen Festival and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed in the Musikverein Vienna, with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Milan, and Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers in venues such as Westminster Abbey, Winchester and Norwich Cathedrals, Cologne’s Philharmonie, Berlin’s Neues Schauspielhaus, Disney Hall in Los Angeles and at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals. In the USA he sang the title roles in Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque to critical acclaim. He sang Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and The Apostles with the Bonn Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Haydn’s The Seasons in the Stresa Festival. With René Jacobs, Lynton performed the St. Matthew Passion and sang Benjamin Britten’s St Nicholas to acclaim in Berlin’s Konzerthaus. Having sung twice at the Three Choirs Festival, Lynton has performed Elijah both with Willard White and also with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Former Executive Director of Trinity Laban and Former Principal of Trinity College of Music, Professor Derek Aviss was educated at Trinity College of Music and his teachers included Vivian Joseph, Benjamin Zander and William Pleeth.

Subsequently Derek Aviss became known as the ‘Cellist of the Ariosti Piano Trio and the Cantilena Soloists Ensemble.

Appointed as a teacher of ‘Cello at Trinity College of Music, at the age of 28, he went on to hold many senior posts at the College including: Head of the String Department, Head of Performance Studies, Deputy Principal and, after the merger with Laban, Principal of Trinity and Joint Principal of Trinity Laban.

After retiring from the Conservatoire as Executive Director in 2012, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of Higher Education.

In 2013 Derek Aviss was awarded the OBE for services to Higher and Music Education.

David Baker is a trumpeter and Associate of the Royal College of Music, London. He taught brass instruments in primary and secondary schools for a Local Education Authority music service for over 10 years. In 1999, Peters Edition published Fast Track Trumpet, two volumes of his educational music for trumpet.

Neil Baker studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where he was the recipient of all the major song prizes. He continued his studies in London at the Royal College of Music and subsequently with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Neil began his professional singing career in the Glyndebourne Festival chorus and went on to make his international operatic debut with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre in the role of Harald in Wagner’s Die Feen at the Châtelet Theatre, Paris. Other performances with Maestro Minkowski include Le nozze di Figaro at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Baden Baden and Tokyo. His many operatic roles include Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Araspe (Tolomeo), Melisso (Alcina), Escamillo (Carmen), Marco (Gianni Schicchi) and Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro).

Gabriele Baldocci’s unique style, visionary programming and versatile artistic personality have garnered him worldwide critical acclaim and a wide following on the world stage.

Described by Jed Distler on Gramophone as a “A pianist of formidable capabilities”, Baldocci has given concerts at such distinguished venues as Tonhalle in Zürich, Musikverein in Vienna, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Ceramic Crystal Hall in Seoul, Teatro Sala Verdi in Milan, Teatro Ghione in Rome, Politeama Rossetti in Trieste, Teatro Comunale Ponchielli in Cremona, Parnassos Hall in Athens, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Poisson Rouge in New York.

Brigitte Beraha, improvising vocalist and composer, is one of the leading talents on the UK jazz scene. Embracing a wide variety of influences and genres, Beraha’s sound is free and spontaneous with an emphasis on exploration, expression and fearlessly testing the limits of the voice as instrument. Alongside original contemporary jazz and the core jazz and latin repertoires, she is increasingly involved in exciting cross-genre projects, such as the recreation of Basil Kirchin’s music as part of Hull City of Culture 2017 or Raising Hell with Henry Purcell led by Ethan Iverson at Kings Place in 2018.

Beraha has recorded a number of critically acclaimed albums, both as leader and as part of collaborative projects such as Babelfish, Solstice and Red Skies Trio. The latest under her name, Lucid Dreamers, introduced a new electronic dimension to her work proving once more the agility, adventurous spirit and limitless imagination that have marked her out as a truly exciting and versatile artist with a huge range of experience and creative scope.

‘One of the most adventurous vocalists around, a musical explorer…’  The Jazzmann

‘Brigitte is someone who concentrates on the music’s core values: imagination, individuality, improvisation.’ Jazz Review
‘Possessed of Norma Winstone-like subtlety and precision.’ The Guardian

‘Beraha scats with a daydreaming quality that is both engaging and never distracting.’ John Fordham