Biography

My early interest in music stems from my childhood. Despite my parents’ scientific background, they are both great music lovers, and as such, I grew up listening to an eclectic mix of genres, from 70s rock to jazz to symphonic and operatic repertoire. My dad had briefly played the clarinet in his school years and kept an instrument in the house, so at the age of eight I gave it a go and immediately felt a great affinity for the instrument. From there, I was fortunate enough to be involved in a number of different youth ensembles, including the Cheshire Youth Orchestra, National Youth Wind Orchestra, and the Hallé Youth Orchestra, and it was with the Hallé, after finishing a performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 at Stoller Hall, that I made up my mind that this was what I wanted to do with my life.

After finishing school, I moved to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Despite COVID interrupting my time at the RCS, I learned a huge amount and was lucky enough to take part in several professional side-by-side schemes with the BBC SSO, RSNO, and SCO, which gave me my first real taste of life as a professional orchestral musician. From Glasgow, I moved south to London to study at the Royal College of Music. Despite being a shock at first—going from a department of three in Glasgow to twenty-five in London—I had a wonderful time at College, learned a huge amount from the amazing tutors, and made lots of lifelong friends (many of whom are now my colleagues at Sinfonia Smith Square!).

Outside of music, I love cooking, and you can often find me in the kitchen experimenting with new flavours, although I’m a very messy cook, so apologies to my flatmates for that. My other love in life is film photography, and I spend a lot of my time walking around London and taking photos of the people and things I come across.