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Brian Cope Director Brian Cope BMus (Hons) Director Originally a rock band drummer, Brian Cope went on to gain an honours degree in music from the University of Edinburgh. He is a composer, music educator, animateur and consultant with a particular interest in creativity and the human condition. He was recently appointed as a Specialist Music Advisor to the Scottish Arts Council and has worked extensively as a music consultant for the international humanitarian organisation, War Child Holland on projects in the Balkans, Caucasus and Sierra Leone delivering training on the use of music in the psychosocial rehabilitation of children affected by war. He is currently working as the Artistic Director for Drake Music Scotland, a national music organisation that uses innovative music technology to enable disabled people to play and compose music independently. His composition work spans a wide range of activities including composing for film, multi-media installation and theatre. He recently studied with two-time Emmy Award-winning composer, Hummie Mann and last year scored the award-winning animation Nocturne in Sea Shark by artist David Swift and filmmaker, Jonathan Charles which was premiered at last year’s St Magnus Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival. He works regularly with video artist Michael Windle. Recent collaborations include: Pilgrim, a non-linear video journey premiered at Polarcap’s inaugural exhibition You DoVooDoo and a video installation entitled Beginning Ending now resident on the Threshold Wave at the new Perth Concert Hall. He enjoys facilitating young people in music making and the art of musical composition. He has worked with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Education Department and has delivered composition projects to children in schools in the UK and abroad. < top Monica Wilkinson BMus (Hons) PGCE Violin and Cello Teacher A native of Edinburgh, Monica read music at Manchester University where she studied violin and chamber music with Peter Cropper and the Lindsay String Quartet. She is a passionate believer in the broader benefits of music education. Upon her return to Edinburgh she built up a practice of private teaching. In 1991 she was invited to join the instrumental staff at St Mary’s Music School, teaching in the main school and at Saturday Morning Classes. From 1998-2003 she ran Saturday Morning Classes and the school’s Summer Courses. In December 2003 Monica was delighted to take up a post as Education Director with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In this role she worked with people aged 2-80 all over Scotland, but missed regular contact with pupils. In 2005 she enrolled on the award-winning 2 year PGCE with Specialist String Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University and Royal Northern College of Music where, after a gap of 23 years, she had regular violin lessons! A major part of this course was the study of Dalcroze Eurythmics, a method of music education based on movement and aural training. From September 2007 she plans to run Dalcroze classes for adults and children, work in primary schools through NYOS, and teach the violin. She also plans to continue her Dalcroze training in London and Geneva. Monica lives in Edinburgh with her husband and children who between them play piano, organ, violin, viola, cello, clarinet and bassoon. Pity the neighbours! < top Renata Lockhart Children’s Choir Director Renata Lockhart studied choir direction and music teaching at the Lithuanian Academy of Music, gaining Bachelors and Masters Degrees. She qualified in primary music teaching and worked for 7 years in Lithuania as a classroom music teacher with children aged 3 to 18. In Lithuania, she specialised in singing and conducted school choirs in national and international competitions. She also led professional development workshops for music teachers at city and national level. As a singer, she sang in the Lithuania student choir Ave Verum, winning the Llangollen Festival in 1997. In Edinburgh, she is heavily involved in developing NYCoS’ Mini Music Makers project for pre-school children and also works with NYCoS’ primary school choirs in East Lothian. She has run music classes for pre-school children as part of the Sure Start programme in East Lothian. She has taught singing, piano and keyboard privately in Lithuania and Scotland. < top Louise Martin MMus, PGCE, BA (Hons) Teacher of Primary 2 & 3 Music Classes
Following a degree in Music and English Literature from Sheffield University and a year of volunteering on adult literacy and community projects, Louise went on to spent eight years teaching in the very active music department of a large Sheffield comprehensive school. Returning to Edinburgh in 1998, she was awarded a postgraduate MMus from the University of Edinburgh, specialising in Ethnomusicology. Her subsidiary studies in Music in the Community led to work in prisons, with adults with special learning needs and people with disabilities, at the Edinburgh Royal Blind School, and for the Pavarotti Music Centre (Mostar) in Bosnia-Herzigovina and Croatia. Louise now works as a freelance musician in a variety of contexts, including creative music residencies for the Highlands Council, sessions with Artlink, music workshops with primary school children, and as musical director of the Stockbridge & New Town Community Orchestra. Playing piano and cello, she works with a piano trio and other small ensembles; and on keyboards, electric cello, musical saw and theremin performs as a musician (and stilt-walker) with Swamp Circus Theatre, with whom she has toured the UK, France, Holland and Spain. She also works part-time managing music education projects for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. < top Peter Sparkes BA (Hons) Teacher of Primary 1 Music Classes After studying Music at Leeds University, Pete moved up to Scotland and embarked on a varied career in music education. In 2001 he won a Scottish Arts Council bursary to work with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra education departments. From 2002-2005 he was full time Education Officer with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Since embarking on a freelance career in 2005 he has worked with children and adults all over Scotland and the North of England. He specializes in working with primary children both mainstream and Special Educational Needs and has delivered creative projects for Drake Music Scotland, Jessie’s Fund, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Artlink and West Lothian Council. Pete is the Scottish Chamber Orchestra Education Fellow for 2007 – this post involves devising and delivering a range of projects throughout the year with musicians from the orchestra. Pete plays piano and trombone and loves to sing fun songs! < top Niroshini Thambar BSc (Hons), MSc (Dist) Teacher of Preschool Music Classes Niroshini Thambar started playing music from an early age, studying western classical piano with Martin Roscoe and violin with Josephine Whitfield. After completing a postgraduate degree in Human Ecology at Edinburgh University, researching music, identity and social/ecological justice, she started working as a freelance musician. Her work covers both live and studio sessions on violin, keyboards, melodica and vocals. She has played at various festivals and venues across the UK and also appears on a number of album releases as both performer and co-writer. In 2000 she co-founded the electronica project Puchi receiving a creative artists bursary from the Scottish Arts Council to develop new work. She continues to enjoy collaborating on live projects and can currently be found out and about with the Armchair Orkestra. She has also created music for theatre, short film and dance projects and in 2007-8 will be embarking on an exciting collaboration with puppeteer and director Ailie Cohen (Jazz Mouse, Rumpelstiltskin at the Fairytale Laundry, The Man Who Planted Trees). Supported by funding from Puppet Animation Scotland, they will be developing original work using music, sound, puppetry and storytelling. Alongside performance and composition, Niroshini has worked as a community musician with both adults and young people in a variety of settings and is currently Associate Musician with Drake Music Scotland, delivering creative music projects in a number of schools. A Fellow of the independent Centre for Human Ecology, Scotland she believes that music is both within and around us and is committed to supporting individuals in nurturing their own artistic and musical expression. < top Alistair Justice BMus MMus Teacher of Young Composers After living in various parts of England, and studying in London, Alistair moved to Scotland in 1997 and has been here ever since. He describes himself as being musically gregarious, but is particularly into minimalism, folk music from around the world, opera and almost any orchestral music using bass trombone. As a composer he has collaborated with a number of artists and performers, including the Mairi Mhor song fellow, Fiona MacKenzie, and visual artists such as George Wyllie and Colin Lawson. His music has been performed by a number of musicians and ensembles, including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, The Co-Opera-tive, Ensemble Aleph, The Emperor Quartet, the singer Mark Williams, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. More recently he has been experimenting with music created using computer software and sound manipulation. In addition to composing, Alistair also works as a conductor and trombonist. In these capacities he is working as one part of the Edinburgh based electronica band EBV and with the Edinburgh based Indian Street/Scottish Folk Fusion band Ronak Baja, for whom he has arranged a number of tracks. Previous to this he worked with Rory Campbell and Malcolm Stitt on Nusa, the Chinese Yang-qin player, Kim-Ho Ip in experimental and improvisatory music and with the Edinburgh based InterCultural Ensemble, for whom he wrote his Integration/Unification. Over the years, Alistair has been involved in a number of music education projects around Scotland. These have included working with The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s education department on the 2006 Masterworks project in Kilmarnock, The National Youth Music Theatre Company, and P7 pupils from Craigmillar for The Time Machine project at Our Dynamic Earth. Alistair’s music is published on http://www.scotchsnap.com/ < top Gary Craig Bmus Guitar Teacher Gary Craig is a recent arrival to Edinburgh from his hometown of Cape Town. After a short stint on the electric guitar at the age of fourteen, Gary was soon taken in by the charms of the classical guitar, though never loosing his interest in playing other styles. He went on to complete a degree in music at The University of Cape Town, majoring in guitar and ethnomusicology. Since graduating, he has taught for a number of years at both a primary and a senior school back in South Africa. Gary has a passion for traditional and folk music from all corners of the globe, and in particular the role that music plays in these cultures. This interest has led Gary to trying his hand at any instrument he can lay his hands on, usually to his neighbour’s dismay. < top Barry Smith BSc (Hons) PgDip PGCE Adult African Drumming Barry started drumming in a bugle band as a youngster but left it behind after going off to complete a Statistics degree at University. His passion for rhythm was re-ignited after visiting several African countries and experiencing the rich musical and drumming tradition. For several years, Barry has been concentrating on learning the traditional rhythms of West Africa. His teachers include Stuart Dinwoodie of Waa Sylla, probably the most accomplished djembe player of non-African origin in the UK; Mockolo Sawane, Senegalese master drummer and Nansady Keita from Guinea, nephew of the world renowned Famoudou Konate. Barry has performed with Waa Sylla all over Scotland, including the Edinburgh Festival, and with Mockolo Sawane at this year’s Kilsyth International Festival. Barry also teaches and performs under the guise of Babo Rhythms, facilitating one-off workshops and corporate events throughout the country. His teaching is rooted in the philosophy that every person has innate rhythm waiting to be released, and that West African drumming is one of the most effective (and fun!) ways for people to come together and re-connect with this fundamental human trait. < top Mockoulo Sawane Adult African Drumming Moctar `Mockoulo` Sawane was born in the Casamance region of Senegal. His style and range of musicianship is thrilling to hear and watch. Mockoulo learned his craft as a drummer in Les Ballets Africaines. He is an outstanding soloist and performer who has a vast repertoire of traditional rhythms and songs from Mali and Guinea as well as Senegal. As director of the band Tamala he has performed throughout Senegal and has released two CDs, with his third album due out this year. For the past 5 years he has also been performing and teaching across the UK at all the major drumming festivals. < top
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