“I have worked as a performing musician since the age of 9 when I started as a chorister in St Albans Cathedral where I trained my ear, sense of rhythm, and skills performing in large ensembles until I was 14.

When I was 10, I decided to start playing the trombone, which is when my passion for brass playing really began. I did several grades including Jazz Grade 5 and played in orchestras, big bands and soul bands until I was about 14 when I auditioned for the Purcell School of Music. I auditioned as a singer so turned my attention away from brass playing for about a year but took up the Tuba as a secondary study at the school. I made fast progress with the Tuba due to regular performing opportunities with the award-winning youth brass band Youth Brass 2000, so I made it my main study when I was 16, my teacher was Steve Wick of Denis Wick Mutes and Mouthpieces. 

As Youth Brass 2000, we won 4 consecutive National Youth Brass Band Championships, 1 European Youth Brass Band Championship, 4 consecutive British Youth Open Brass Band Competitions, 1 Action Medical Research National Entertainment Championships of Great Britain and 4 Butlins Mineworkers’ titles. 

After I grew too old for this band, I tried my hand at a solo performance competition and won the St Albans Young Musician of the Year Award, I also received an offer for a place at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance to study Tuba with Oren Marshall of London Brass. During my second year of study and the COVID-19 Pandemic, I also started receiving online 1-2-1 lessons from Robin Haggart of the Royal Northern College of Music and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In my final year of study, I started getting lessons from esteemed solo tuba player, Les Neish, who is still my teacher in my post-graduate studies which will end in 2024. I have been very lucky with Tuba teachers.

As well as banding and solo competitions, I’ve had many opportunities to play with orchestras, in venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Cadogan Hall, Blackheath Halls and Watford Colosseum, giving me a wealth of experience performing well-known repertoire in large venues. I would say my best performing opportunity came in May 2022 when I was asked to play for the Platinum Jubilee Special of ‘Songs of Praise’ in the King Charles Court Chapel in Greenwich, accompanying Katherine Jenkins.

I started playing the guitar when I was 16 and entirely taught myself by learning chords and songs. I have refined my guitar playing in recent years with online courses, such as ‘52 Week Guitar Player’, with lots of pointers from friends at college and school, as well as a lot of practice of course. 

I like all genres of music, I am especially interested in Metal, Jazz, Hip-Hop, Alternative R&B, Cuban Rumba, Brazilian Samba, Acoustic West African, Western Germanic/Celtic Folk and Classical music but couldn’t pick a favourite.”