EARLY BIOGRAPHY:

•  Aged ten, awarded a place at Royal College of Music (RCM) (Junior Conservatoire): ‘cello – first study, piano – second study.
• Music scholar at Putney High School.
• Choral singer – All Saints church choir, East Sheen, Diocese of Southwark; Chamber and Mixed Choir at the Royal College of Music; Putney High School (PHS) Choir, Chamber choir, and Barber shop choir.
• Toured South Africa with PHS Choir. Performance at Grahamstown Festival.
• Entered and won various competitions on the ‘cello whilst in school, e.g. Ealing, Richmond, Kingston Music Festival, leading to a performance at the Fairfield Halls.
• Member of National Children’s Orchestra, Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, performing at Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall.
• TV appearance playing ‘cello on Bergerac.

SCHOLARSHIPS AND TRAINING:

Undergraduate Years

• Studied Dhrupad (classical Indian style of singing) for two months with Ritwik Sanyal in Varanasi, India (1998).
• Recipient of Sir Adrian Boult Scholarship funding weekly ‘cello lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Selma Gokcen, Phd (Julliard), for the duration of degree.
• 1^st class Honours degree B.A.(Hons) at Sussex University in Twentieth Century Music Studies – Composition with Martin Butler and Julian Johnson; Performance (Cello) with Selma Gokcen (GSMD); Independent Study on Music Education mentored by David Osmond-Smith.
• Alongside her musical training Emma received Alexander Technique lessons at conservatoire for twelve years (John Crawford, Ted McNamara, Selma Gokcen).

Music Pedagogy

Emma explored the creative and cognitive processes intrinsic to music pedagogy from an early age.

• Orff-Schulwerk Institute Summer School, Salzburg, Austria (1997)
• Kodaly Institute Summer School, Kecskemet, Hungary (2000).
• Regular attendance at Orff and Kodaly workshops and summer schools  (continuing professional development).
• Emma was informed of the work of Dr. Edwin Gordon and began independently applying it to her teaching practice (2000)
• Awarded Qualified Teachers Status in 2007 – qualifying her to teach the whole primary/elementary curriculum in the United Kingdom.
• Walter Hines Page Scholar (2010) (awarded by the English Speaking Union and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers). The scholarship funded a tour to USA to study applications of Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT) (2011). Observed outstanding MLT teachers in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Michigan and South Carolina in a variety of settings: Early Years, Elementary and Children’s Choirs. Observed and connected with Play On Philly (POP) program directed by Stanford Thompson, an El-Sistema-based out-of-school music education program which uses music as a vehicle for social innovation.
• Inspired by her trip, particularly the Temple Early Years Music Program, she returned to the USA (2011) to complete her Level 1 in Early Years Music Education using MLT with the Gordon Institute of Music Learning (University of South Carolina).

MUSICAL DIRECTION

Educational Settings

Emma has extensive experience as a general and choral music specialist in a range of settings over the last ten years.

• Artistic Director of YoSal – Youth Orchestra Salinas – an El Sistema-inspired youth music education program in California.
•  Head of Early Years Music (two – five years) in an independent London school.
• Workshop leader – devising and delivering bespoke choral / music-dance-drama workshops for individual schools and international music festivals, to complement their creative/thematic curriculum or particular interests.
• Private teaching: singing, ‘cello, piano and music literacy to children and adults, one to one and in small groups throughout this period.
• Weekly general and choral music teacher in a number of state funded elementary schools.
• ‘Singing for the Terrified’ – teaching singing to reluctant adults at Arts and Retreat Centres. Transforming nervous singers’ fears into harmonious confident singing.
• Training specialist music and non-specialist teachers in applications of Gordon’s Music Learning Theory through the British national government initiative, ‘Sing Up’.
• Director of Music in an independent school for children aged two to fourteen years of age.

Choirs

Emma’s passion is choral conducting. Some highlights of her choral conducting experience:

• Offered a teaching assistantship for the Masters in Music Education program with a choral conducting specialism at Temple University, Philadelphia. Tutor: Rollo Dilworth (Director of Choral Methods, Chicago Childrens Choir).
• The Tockington Choir became an award-winning choir during her tenure, winning ‘Best Choir’ at the Thornbury Eisteddfod 2009 after two terms in post.
• After one year in post as Director of Music, she produced a CD, ‘Winter Blessing’ (2009).
• Studied conducting in Hungary at the Kodaly Institute during a summer intensive and likewise with the British Kodaly Academy.
• Directed two church choirs in London: All Saints, East Sheen and St. Mary’s Waltham, Lambeth.
• Has arranged a variety of songs for her choirs. Her arrangement of Rutter’s ‘Gaelic Blessing’ was complimented by Robert Latham at the Thornbury Eisteddffod.

Dance and Theatre

Emma draws on her training in dance and physical theatre to enrich her music teaching practice.

• Currently leading French and Breton folk dance workshops in schools and in community centres. Dancing French and Breton since 1998.
• Shortlisted by DV8 (2010) as a singer and mover for world tour of Strange Fish.
• Studied theatre at L’Ecole de  Philippe Gaulier, Paris during the day, and contemporary dance and contact improvisation with Association Choreos in the evenings for four months (2006).
• Organized international dance workshops in the UK in conjunction with the Axis Syllabus Research Community (2005).
• Began studying contemporary dance, mind-body centering, physical theatre and contact improvisation in 2004, influenced by DV8 – a leading international physical theatre and dance company.
• Attended various classes, workshops and retreats in the UK and abroad (e.g. London Contemporary School of Dance, University of Bristol, Axis Syllabus Research Community, Swindon Dance)
• Studied Mime and Physical Theatre for three months intensively at the Desmond Jones school of Mime and Physical Theatre (2002) culminating in end of year show organised entirely by company of students.
• Week intensive: Theatre of the Oppressed, London – Cardboard Citizens.

PERFORMANCE / FESTIVALS / FUNDRAISERS

Emma performed a great deal during her music degree as a soloist, chamber musician (‘cellist and vocalist) and as an orchestral player. Since graduating she has performed on an ad hoc basis as a solo artist and with a range of artists. She has directed and coordinated a number of fundraising arts events. See CV for more information.

SPECIAL NEEDS/THERAPEUTIC

Emma is qualified to work therapeutically with children, adolescents and adults using the creative arts. Her ongoing therapeutic training and practice informs and enhances her work as a teacher and conductor.

• Emma is a qualified Play and Creative Arts Therapist. She has also studied at the Tavistock Clinic in London on the MA course in Psychoanalytic Observation Studies – the foundation/pre-clinical training to Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy.
• Holds a certificate in Counselling, and a primary certificate in CBT.
• Regularly attends workshops and further training in the field of coaching and psychotherapy.
• Attends annual supervision and training with Stephen Gilligan, Phd.
• Taught and assisted in schools, outdoor / land-based education centres, and Pupil Referral Units (transitional schools for children who have been excluded from school due to behavioural problems) in both desirable and deprived areas of towns and cities, rural settings, and with children from a wide range of ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.

PUBLICATIONS

• Emma has contributed to the publication of Music Play II, GIA publications (due 2016), an Early Childhood Music Curriculum including a large variety of music and suggested activities that support tenets of A Music Learning Theory for Newborn and Young Children (Gordon, 2003).

LANGUAGES

• Fluent conversational French
• Basic Spanish