Visiting Music Staff

Alan studied at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he gained the GRSM (Hons) degree and the LRAM and ARCO diplomas. He was the recipient of the CH Trevor Prize and the Frederick Keene Prize for Organ and the Peter Latham Prize for Musicology. As an organist Alan has held various posts, including Organist and Master of the Choristers at the Episcopal Cathedral in Perth, Scotland, Perth City Organist and is currently Director of Music at St Mary’s Church, Hitchin. Alan spent many years as a Prep School Director of Music and is now employed as a Visiting Music Instructor here at St Paul’s Cathedral School and Bedford School. In addition to his teaching commitments, Alan is also Musical Director of the Ampthill and District Choral Society and an Examiner and Trainer for ABRSM.
achilds@spcs.london.sch.uk

Having held the position of principal clarinet with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta (2006-08), Massimo returned to the UK to pursue a busy schedule of orchestral, chamber and solo engagements. A stalwart in the West End, he balances his portfolio with his position as the clarinettist on the Phantom of the Opera.
Commercial work has included tours with the RPCO to the USA (Star Wars – In Concert) and Stings’ Symphonicities world tour.

Often recording for video games, TV and film he can most recently be heard on scores for Bugonia (release 2025), South of Midnight (release 2024/25), Holland Michigan (2024), A Haunting in Venice (2023), LEGO Super Mario Bros (2023), The Whale (2022), Cyrano (2022) and The Responder (2022).

As a keen educator, he is a Visiting Clarinet and Saxophone tutor at Highgate School and Visiting Clarinet tutor at Westminster Abbey Choir School.

Massimo is an international D’Addario Woodwind Artist.
mditrolio@spcs.london.sch.uk

Niel du Preez has inspired live and radio/television audiences in the UK, continental Europe, the Far East and his native South Africa with his expressive and poetic solo playing, performances with leading orchestras and collaborations with chamber musicians. He is the Artistic Director and Founder of the newly established International ArtePiano Festival & Piano Competition with residencies in Italy, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Niel regularly gets invited to give piano master classes across the globe. Previous such engagements took him to China, Colombia, South Africa and Germany.

Recent solo appearances include performances in Tbilisi Georgia, Rieti Italy, Latymer in the United Kingdom, a series of 3 concerts for the London-based CityMusic Live platform, a recital for the University of Stellenbosch Foundation in London, solo and duo recitals in Perth Australia, Beijing China, Frankfurt Germany and St. Martin-in-the-Field and St. John’s Smith Square in London. Other past performances include recitals for the London based Blüthner Piano Concert Series, the Schubert Society, Winchelsea Arts, a concert tour in South Africa, as well as performances of Saint Saëns’s Piano Concerto no. 5 and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in central London.

Today, Niel teaches piano at St. Paul’s Cathedral School and at King’s College School in Wimbledon.
ndupreez@spcs.london.sch.uk

James teaches music to students at all levels, from those taking their very first steps in primary school Wider Opportunities programmes to Grade 8 students hoping to be the next generation of professional musicians.

His first instrument is percussion, having graduated from Trinity College of Music with 1st Class Honours in 2008. He performs regularly as a professional timpanist and percussionist with London’s orchestras including the English National Ballet, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
He also performs with world percussion group Talking Drum, who perform music from Africa, Brazil and Cuba, and is a former member of Rhythms of the City, a carnival samba band led by Barak Schmool, co-founder of the F-ire Collective and one of Britain’s leading ‘World’ and African dance music experts.

James has many years of whole class primary school tuition experience, having taught for Greenwich Music Service and Newham Music Service, where he teaches samba and African drumming to whole classes of primary school children.
jgreen@spcs.london.sch.uk

rharrold@spcs.london.sch.uk

nhutching@spcs.london.sch.uk

Karen studied violin and piano at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Following this, Karen toured extensively – Europe, USA and Asia – with the renowned Guildhall Strings, winning awards along the way. Alongside work as a professional musician playing in West End shows and with both Glyndebourne Touring Opera and Garsington Opera, Karen has also studied at SOAS gaining a BA in Religious Studies & Music. Karen has a PGCE in Primary Education and an MA in Psychosynthesis Psychology.

Throughout, violin teaching has been a constant interest and joy, helping children develop into accomplished musicians.
kjames@spcs.london.sch.uk

Georgina Lewis (nee Leach) is a violinist, teacher (PGCE), composer and the creator of the beginner tutor book series Dynamite Strings. Based in London, UK, she has toured internationally with artists such as Ramin Karimloo, Ethan Johns and Seasick Steve and shared the stage with Robert Plant, Mumford and Sons and Paloma Faith as a fiddle player. She trained classically at the RNCM.
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For the last fifteen years, Georgina has taught class Music at both primary and secondary level and run strings projects in schools across London. Georgina was invited to present papers at the ESTA International Conference and the Music and Drama Expo in 2024 and has written articles and resources for Music Teacher and JESTA magazines. She has delivered CPD sessions for Music Masters teachers and recently contributed a strings specialist chapter to a book due to be published by Harper Collins later this year.

glewis@spcs.london.sch.uk

Miranda Lewis-Brown is a London based musician who performs and composes predominantly as a jazz musician. She performs and composes frequently with jazz string group J.A.M. String Collective (2024 Peter Whittingham Awardee), Soli Strings and has toured with larger ensembles such as The Nu Civilisation Orchestra, Jazz Jamaica All Stars and with artists such as Courtney Pine, Chaka Khan and Steve Williamson. She has performed in venues such as Ronnie Scott’s (supporting Nubya Garcia), The Royal Festival Hall, The Queen Elizabeth Hall with BBC Concert Orchestra, Jazz Live at the Crypt, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, at Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris as part of The Nu Civilisation Orchestra tour of Marvin Gaye’s album ‘What’s Going On?’ and on Jamie Cullum’s BBC 2 radio show. 

Miranda is also a musical storyteller and has written and composed her first children’s puppetry show ‘The Pigeon and the Peacock’ which was supported by The Arts Council and had its first tour this summer. 

mlewisbrown@spcs.london.sch.uk

Ksenia is a Latvian-born pianist, teacher, and practitioner-researcher in music education. She attended a specialist boarding music school for young musicians in Latvia before moving to the UK to continue her studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and Homerton and Wolfson Colleges at the University of Cambridge, where she qualified both as a performer and educator.

Ksenia teaches piano, music theory and ensembles at St Paul’s Cathedral School, St Olave’s Prep, Colfe’s School, and the James Allen’s Saturday School for the Performing Arts (JASSPA). Alongside her teaching, she runs KOVA ED studio, works internationally as an examiner, and serves as a Trustee of the European Piano Teachers Association UK.

Her current career combines performance, research, and pedagogy: she has appeared as a soloist performing Dorothy Howell’s Piano Concerto with Goldsmiths Sinfonia, collaborated with leading contemporary musicians, and is active in advancing inclusive, research-informed approaches to piano and instrumental teaching by engaging in collaborative research projects and presenting at BERA’s and the University of Cambridge annual conferences. Ksenia also contributes to the wider music education community as a selected advisor to the Music & Drama Education Expo 2026.

Miss Chi-Ling Lok was born in Germany and received her music education both in Germany and the UK. She holds a Master and Bachelor Degree in Piano Performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London. She studied piano performance with leading professors in the UK and in Germany, such as Philip Fowke, Peter Feuchtwanger and Roland Pröll.

As a pianist, she has curated and performed concerts in leading venues in Europe such as in Kings Place, Bridgewater Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, Blackheath Halls, Institute for Contemporary Arts (ICA), London’s Tete-A-Tete Festival, Steinway House, Koblenz, Stadthalle Unna, Dortmund, Ibach-Haus Schwelm and the Feuchtwangen Piano Festival, Germany. She is a regular guest speaker on BBC Radio Manchester, Resonance FM, Spectrum Radio and also broadcasts both her piano solo and Chamber music performances through these networks. As a commissioner and performer of contemporary music, she has collaborated with leading composers has won grants including from the Arts Council England.

Piano teaching takes a special place in her work, as she loves sharing the joy of music making with young children and teenagers. She has been working as a piano teacher in London primary, secondary and music schools for over 13 years. Currently, she is a piano teacher at SPCS and at Bromley Youth Music Trust.
chilinglok@spcs.london.sch.uk

Grace Mo is a Taiwanese-Canadian pianist based in the UK. She received her Master of Music Degree in piano performance at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Having been awarded Canada Council for the Arts Grant, Grace went on to obtain the Postgraduate Artist Diploma at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. There she also held the Leverhulme Chamber Music Fellowship and Postgraduate Piano Fellowship, sponsored by the Leathersellers’ Company and the Cutlers’ Company.

Internationally, she has been awarded ‘The Best Concertmaster’ at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in St. Petersburg for her outstanding chamber music work and musical interpretations.

As a musician, Grace believes in sharing her passion, knowledge, and skills through lessons, creative projects, and live performances.
gmo@spcs.london.sch.uk

Miriam Monaghan has a varied career as a recorder player: performing internationally with Palisander recorder quartet, composing, and teaching across London for over 10 years. Miriam tutors for the National Youth Recorder Orchestra and has recently worked with music education organisation Sing Up, as a recorder consultant and composer, to devise a new whole class recorder teaching scheme, for national release.
Miriam is a passionate ambassador for the recorder, and has recorded for Disney at Abbey Road, appeared on BBC2 Newsnight promoting the use of recorder in education, and given numerous live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.
mmonoghan@spcs.london.sch.uk

Gavin Morrison studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music. Since graduating he has pursued a career as a freelance flute player and teacher, touring extensively throughout the UK, Europe and further afield. His interest in contemporary and Avant-Garde music has led him to take part in many UK, European and world premieres and to broadcast on BBC Radio 3, RTE, and German radio.

Gavin is an experienced teacher who has taught the flute at SPCS for more than twenty years.
gmorrison@spcs.london.sch.uk

Patrick Naylor has performed extensively as a guitarist and bandleader. He has released 4 critically acclaimed albums of original compositions and completed numerous tours of the UK playing in venues from Ronnie Scott’s to Glastonbury with many leading UK jazz musicians. Patrick’s debut album was CD of the week in the London Evening Standard. His 2015 CD, Days of Blue, was included in the Daily Telegraph best CDs of the year and has had over 1.5 million streams on Spotify.

Patrick has worked extensively as a composer and session musician and has written and recorded a number of pieces for film, TV and radio including Things to do Before You’re 30, a film starring Billie Piper, and numerous TV Programmes and adverts. He has won praise from many critics including at The Daily Telegraph, Jazzwise, The London Evening Standard, BBC Music Magazine, Jazz Journal Musician Magazine and Time Out.

He qualified to teach in the noughties and has taught in several schools and colleges including teaching guitar at SPCS since 2008.
pnaylor@spcs.london.sch.uk

Emily Newman is a freelance Bassoonist and Bassoon teacher.
She has guested with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, Ulster Orchestra and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Cadogan Hall and Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms.

As a historical bassoonist, Emily has performed with the Hanover Band, Armonico Consort, Consort of Twelve as well as with the Academy of Ancient Music and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment as part of their educational schemes.

Emily graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2019 with an MA Distinction. Prior to the Academy Emily studied at the Royal College of Music where she received BMus First Class Honours. She began her Bassoon studies at Chetham’s School of Music where she studied with Graham Salvage.

Emily has been teaching at SPCS since 2018 and also teaches at City of London School for Boys.
enewman@spcs.london.sch.uk

Inge-Lise Nygaard grew up in Denmark. From an early age she was a chorister at Haderslev Cathedral. Then followed studies at The Danish National Academy of Music and The Royal Danish Academy of Music, graduating as a singer and organist. During her studies Inge-Lise was a soloist and did recordings and life performances with South Denmark Philharmonic, Ensemble 415 and vocal ensemble, Musica ficta. She then moved to London to continue her vocal studies with Jessica Cash and Emma Kirkby.

Inge-Lise works as a concert singer and is the director of Music and organist at St. Katherine’s Church in Regent’s Park. Jazz is also a big passion of Inge-Lise’s, and she regularly performs with a jazz quartet.

Inge-Lise has been working at SPCS since 2021 and she also teaches at Bancroft’s School in North London.
inygaard@spcs.london.sch.uk

Originally from The Netherlands, Jean-Claude Ohms has been teaching for more then 25 years. He started teaching in Brussels at the Music Academy Schaarbeek and Muziekhumaniora, a secondary school specalising in the Performing Arts.

Jean-Claude currently teaches at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and at St Paul’s Cathedral School. He also teaches privately in London.
Jean-Claude graduated from the Lemmensinstituut Leuven (Belgium), where he also gained a PGCE in Music, which is also recognised as a QTS in the UK. He went on to receive a Chamber Music Diploma from The Royal Conservatoire Gent (Belgium), a Vocal Pedagogy Diploma from The Royal Conservatoire Brussels, and BA(Hons) Degree in Opera Studies at Rose Bruford College, Sidcup. He also studied singing at the Sweelinck Conservatoire in Amsterdam.

As a singer, Jean-Claude has performed both as an ensemble singer and soloist throughout Europe, performing repertoire from early Baroque to Contemporary Music. He sang with companies such as the Flemish Opera (Antwerp), Chapelle Royale (Paris), Flemish Radio and Television Choir (Brussels) and The Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam), Opera Holland Park, Grange Park Opera and English Bach Festival.He also has extensive experience in both Lied and Oratorio.

Jean-Claude has always been passionate about teaching with particular focus in body allignment and breathing and the effect these have on both singing and our well-being, to create a rounded and technically confident performance. He is a member of both the BVA (British Voice Association) and AOTOS (The Association of Teachers of Singing UK) which helps ensure he keeps up to date with the latest developments.
jcohms@spcs.london.sch.uk

Jamie Pringle was born in North London and started playing the cello at three years old. He attended the Purcell school of Music where he studied with William Pleeth. Jamie did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music where he was awarded a DipRAM for his postgraduate degree.
Jamie enjoys a busy free-lance career playing with orchestras, chamber groups, theatre groups, giving solo recitals and teaching.
jpringle@spcs.london.sch.uk

Jane enjoys a vibrant career as a performer and an educator.
She is in demand in both orchestral and theatre ensembles, regularly playing with London Contemporary Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Senbla Concert Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, Multi-Story Orchestra and many more. She recently featured in the National Theatre’s Nye and London’s Newsies. Previous shows include South Pacific, Legally Blonde, Carousel, Flowers for Mrs Harris, Me & My Girl, Barnum and She Loves Me. Deputy experience includes the West End’s Cabaret, A Night With Janis Joplin, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof and Pericles (RSC) Oklahoma! and Follies/Follies Revival.

She has recorded at studios including Abbey Road, AIR Studios, Angel Studios, Air Edel and RAK for releases including Bring Me The Horizon’s Grammy-award-winning album ‘amo’ and the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning film, The Whale (2022).

Jane is an Associate Performer for the Gender and the Large and Shiny Instruments (GALSI) and regularly tutors the low brass of the National Children’s Orchestra. She also works with Aldeburgh Young Musicians, Orchestras for All and the outreach departments of the Royal Opera House, London Symphony Orchestra and Academy of St Martin the Fields. She is a graduate and twice Artistic Fellow of the Guildhall School.
jsalmon@spcs.london.sch.uk

Robin Smith is the third generation of their family to be a brass player: their grandfather was a renowned cornetist with the Gloucester Salvation Army and their father, Malcolm ‘Smudge’ Smith was Principal Trumpet with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

Robin studied the trumpet at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Today, they are a professional trumpeter, conductor, and educator in London having performed or recorded with most of the major London symphony orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Further afield they have performed in most European counties, Abu Dhabi, and with The Ulster Orchestra and Orquesta Symphonica de Tenerife. Robin features as principal trumpet and flugelhorn on the Divine Comedy album Casanova and is Co-Principal trumpet in London’s Elgar Sinfonia.

As well as teaching at St. Paul’s Cathedral School Robin is Head of Brass at Dulwich College and teaches at Alleyn’s School in Dulwich. Living in South East London, Robin has taught the fourth and fifth generations of Smiths to play the trumpet, their sister Katie and children, Erin & Toby.
rsmith@spcs.london.sch.uk

Sachika Taniyama is a Japanese UK based Pianist and Piano Teacher. She has performed internationally; her global appearances range from places such as Belgium, Italy, Turkey, USA, China and Japan. Sachika has performed in major concert venues such as the Royal Festival Hall, the Purcell Room and the Wigmore Hall and has performed in numerous international music festivals.

Sachika has worked extensively with Singers and is the winner of the Oxford Lieder Young Artists Platform Competition 2013 with Kangmin Justin Kim (countertenor) and the Jean Meikle Prize for Best Duo with Kate Howden (Mezzo Soprano) at the Wigmore Hall / Kohn Foundation International Song Competition 2015. Sachika was awarded both an Undergraduate degree and a Master’s degree in Solo Piano from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and was taught by Charles Owen. She has studied Piano Accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated with Distinction and she was commended for Christian Carpenter Piano Prize for her final recital.

Sachika has been working at the SPCS since 2006.
staniyama@spcs.london.sch.uk