Music

Anmol Mohara is a freelance drummer originally from Nepal but based in London. Anmol was the “UK Young Drummer Of The Year 2017” and “Yamaha Future Beat 2018” winner. He has played with variety of people and bands such as Nicolas Meier, Antoine Fafard, Nepalese Folk Symphony Orchestra, Ben Waters, Phil Meadows, Gareth Lockrane, Loz Speyer, Leoni Jane Kennedy and many more. Anmol has performed at the U.K Drum Show 2017 and the London Drum Show 2018 along with other various well-established venues in Nepal and the UK. Anmol graduated from the prestigious Guildhall School Of Music & Drama in 2023 where he studied jazz drums. Anmol also plays Tabla and Nepali folk percussion instruments.

Having graduated top of her class from the Cork School of Music (B.Mus), Caoimhe moved to London, where she gained a distinction in her Masters in Performance from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She was also awarded the school’s Concert Recital Diploma (for outstanding recital performance). Caoimhe went on to become an Artist Fellow at the conservatoire and was also invited to take part in the Handel House Talent Scheme (2014-15).

She has studied with Ian Wilson, Robert Ehrlich, Pamela Thorby (GSMD) and Elizabeth Jones (CSM), as well as pariticipating in masterclasses with Kees Boeke, Karl van Steenhoven, Piers Adams, Sebastien Marq, Dan Laurin, Drora Bruck and Eric Bosgraaf.

Caoimhe has achieved a number of competition successes in Ireland and the UK. She was a semi-finalist in the Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year for two consecutive years, a finalist in the Worshipful Company of Needlemaker’s competition, a finalist in the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarships and won first prize in the Recorder Conservatoire competition at the North London Festival of Music.

Caoimhe has performed as a chamber musician and soloist in prominent events and venues, including Wigmore Hall (Chamber Tots series), Wilton’s Music Hall, Handel and Hendrix Museum, Crypt of Mont St. Michel, Royal Greenwich International Early Music Festival, East Cork Early Music Festival, St. Barrahane’s Festival of Music, Tel-Aviv Early Music Seminar (Israel), World Forum on Music (Brisbane) and London Handel Festival. She has also appeared alongside the Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra and the Academy of Ancient Music, as part of their AMMplify scheme. Most recently, she has given the Irish premiere of Richard Harvey’s Concerto Incantato with the UL orchestra, recorded for The New York Times Conception series, performed live on BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ with her quartet Palisander, and is a member of the opera chamber ensemble, Insieme, an Ensemble-in-Residence at Lauderdale House in London.

A dynamic young cellist who plays with “full-blooded commitment” and “delicious dancing grace”, Leo Popplewell studied at Clare College, Cambridge, and later at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Louise Hopkins.

Leo has performed in many of the world’s leading concert halls, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall, Barbican Hall and Southbank Centre. His festival appearances include the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Barnes Music Festival, Newbury Spring Festival, Cambridge Summer Music Festival, Lake District Summer Music Festival, Highgate International Chamber Music Festival and Arcadia. He has played in masterclasses for Adrian Brendel, Pierre Doumenge and Alexander Baillie at the International Cello Gathering, Brian O’Kane at the Machynlleth Festival, and for Steven Isserlis at Wigmore Hall. In 2019 he won the Coro Nuovo Young Musician of the Year Competition, and is on the Countess of Munster Recital Scheme for the 2022/23 season.

In 2017 he formed the Mithras Piano Trio, winning first prize at the 10th Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, 67th Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition, Cavatina Intercollegiate Chamber Music Competition 2019 and St. James Chamber Music Competition 2018. They were selected as Kirckman Concert Society Young Artists for the 2019/2020 season, and have performed in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Milton Court Concert Hall among others. In 2019 they won the Royal Philharmonic Society Henderson Award, and were named as YCAT 2020 finalists. They were selected as BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists for the 2021-23 seasons.

He also enjoys orchestral playing, and in 2022 was appointed co-principal cellist with the London Mozart Players.

His studies were generously supported by awards from the Guildhall School, Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Help Musicians UK, and the Craxton Memorial Trust.

Previously a member of indie band Stereolab, Joe is horn player with Ensemble Pygmalion, Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, the English Baroque Soloists, the Dunedin Consort and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. As a guest he appears regularly with the Australian Chamber Orchestra but probably the stand out memory of his career was opening Live 8 with Paul McCartney and U2 dressed as one of the Beatles. In 2009 Joe produced HBO documentary film The Sound of Mumbai. This inspired him to set up the charity, Songbound, that today runs 20 choirs for slum children in Mumbai. As a composer and song writer he has released his music under his writing name Hollow Ponds.

Nick has held teaching positions (clarinet, flute and saxophone) at the Lyceum School, More House School and acted as a deputy at King’s College School Wimbledon, Sussex House Boys and Frances Holland School.

Outside of his work in the school, Nick is a freelance musician performing with many different groups, spanning varied genres. Following his studies at The Royal Academy of Music and the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Nick was awarded a Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music and position of artist-in-residence at the Purcell School of Music.

Orchestral playing has taken Nicholas across the world with orchestras such as the Britten Sinfonia, New Professionals and English Session Orchestra and he has been a guest principal of the National Orchestra of Malta and the Kazakhstan Philharmonic. Nick is a founder member of the Symphony Orchestra of India and travels twice a year to perform with them. As a chamber musician Nicholas won first prize in the Royal Overseas League Chamber Music Competition with his acclaimed quintet, Camarilla Ensemble and has since performed a number of times at the Wigmore Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and at Edinburgh Festival. He has played with the Nash Ensemble and is a member of the Catrin Finch Ensemble.

No stranger to the world of commercial music, Nicholas has performed on television shows such as Jonathan Ross and MTV unplugged. He was the first bass clarinettist to perform in the 23 year history of the Jools Holland Show and has also performed and recorded with a host of other artists such as Little Simz, Sir Elton John, Katherine Jenkins, Idina Menzal, Placebo, Mike Oldfield, Wolf Alice, Andrea Bocelli and Karl Jenkins and has even performed at Glastonbury Festival.

Born and raised in Tehran, Ali Rafiee moved to London in 2002 to pursue his studies. He attended the Centre for Young Musicians where he studied with Vincent Lindsey-Clark and Tom Dupré, before going on to pursue his musical education at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he completed my Bachelor with Honours in 2010 and obtained a Masters in 2011. At Guildhall, Ali was trained in classical guitar by Robert Brightmore and also the studied lute and theorbo with David Miller. He was awarded a Guildhall Artist Fellowship to support his work on a contemporary guitar repertoire twice, first for 2012-13 academic year and subsequently for the 2014-15 year. Ali has collaborated with and commissioned pieces for guitar from composers such as Julian Philips, Paul Newland and Alexis Bennett. After six years of focusing on performance at Guildhall, Ali decided to turn his attention to musicology, undertaking a second Masters at the University of Oxford, during which time he took a particular interest in medieval Middle-Eastern music. Alongside his musical activities, Ali also pursued a degree in Law which he completed in 2020.

Ali is a versatile performer, who plays both solo and in ensembles, has an equal interest in contemporary and medieval music, and complement his expertise in classical guitar with a range of historical string instruments. He has played the oud, gittern, and medieval lute with the Medieval and Renaissance collective The Fellowshippe of Musickers, classical guitar, ranging from Bach to Reich, with Finbarr Malafronte in the Nocturnal Guitar Duo, and folk/jazz guitar with Thomas Abela. When performing solo, Ali is particularly interested in building the classical guitar repertoire with new compositions that combine influences from Middle-Eastern and Western traditions.

Jay Davis is an award-winning drummer and composer based in London. A proud recipient of the Yamaha Jazz Scholar prize, Jay studied with drummers Dave Walsh, Jeff Williams and Martin France at Leeds College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music respectively.

Jay has performed throughout the UK, Europe and Asia at festivals and venues including Umbria Jazz Festival, Jimmy Glass (Valencia), Jazzwerkstatt (Graz), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), Die Nato (Leipzig), Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street (London) and Paradox (Tilburg).

Jay performs with many creative projects as well as leading his own band BadTrad and contributing as co-leader to big bad wolf alongside Owen Dawson and Mike De Souza.

Katina studied Music at The University of York, going on to study for a Postgraduate Diploma in Performance at Trinity College of Music where she was awarded the Beatrice Taylor Scholarship.

She worked as a singer with various theatre companies including DV8 Physical Theatre, Almeida Opera, ENO Baylis as well as many contemporary dance companies.
As a singer songwriter Katina released her own EP, Shine, arranging and producing as well as performing on the record.

Mavrika was the band she formed with guitarist/producer Chris Morphitis and their eponymous album is available on all streaming services. Their contemporary reworking of 1930s Rembetika music from Asia Minor was critically acclaimed and took them to perform at Womad and gigs at top London venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

She has worked with hip hop crews, composed music TV documentary music, sung on Hollywood film soundtracks and put on recitals of early 20th Century Art Song and it’s all come in very useful for her teaching practice.

After studying with a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music as a Junior Exhibitioner Sarah Hudson graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in violin, piano and film composition. She then qualified as a teacher at The Roehampton Institute.

She has taught both violin and piano students from beginner to Grade 8 with numerous pupils passing at distinction level and been an active strings group coach at the Finchley Music Centre and award winning Strings Club Holiday Courses. As a former Head of Primary Music at St. Nicholas Preparatory School, Kensington she received complementary Ofsted reports.

She has composed and had performed musicals for schools, Christmas carols recorded and sung by professional soloists and her children’s song books published. Some of this music was included by the Rotary Club in Thailand fund raising for orphanages and also by the Red Cross in Bangkok as part of their Annual Bazaar.

Sarah is currently concentrating on her instrumental teaching, performing and more recent composition commissions for both film and solo performance.