SOUNDABOUT - Key Persons
Alice runs multi-sensory workshops for children and adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities and young refugee minors with Play for Progress. She is a composer for Bittersuite, alongside running the community outreach. Alice is an active performer, often performing in various London underground venues with her blues band and fronting new Orleans traditional gospel brass band 'The Percolators'.
Becca graduated from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2018 with a BMus Hons. Although the French horn was her primary focus, she had a developing interest in providing music for communities and people with additional needs. Becca has been part of the Soundabout team for just over a year and has loved every aspect of it so far.
Belle joined the Soundabout inclusive choir team in January 2020 & since November has been an intern. She co-runs the Emerging leaders group, where she has the privilege of supporting 6 members of the choir within small group sessions, helping to develop confidence, performance skills & leadership. Belle loves getting to know all of our choir members & having fun with everyone.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Trustee, Interim Chair
Ben Weston-Conway is a chartered marketer. He is the founder of Influx, a marketing and communications advisory supporting the education sector, and communications advisor to Radley College in Oxford. Ben studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and Durham University. Although his short career as a trumpet player was painfully unsuccessful, he made lifelong friends through music. He is proud to be a trustee of Soundabout.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Trustee, Safeguarding
Ceri graduated as a teacher from the University of Wales, Cardiff, and worked as a teacher for 25 years, holding roles of Head of Music, Director of Studies, Deputy Head and Head and teaching every age group from 3 -18 years old. She has also been a DSL for many years across various roles. She now works as a freelance educational consultant, offering bespoke guardianship advice and services for school age students and those at university, school placement and interview prep for entrance exams in boarding schools. She is also an inspector for AEGIS, the accredited body for guardianship companies in the UK, ensuring that the students receive the highest standards of care through guardianship services.
Job Titles:
- Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music
One of the UK's most successful music ambassadors, Debbie Wiseman is in great demand both as a composer and a conductor.
Throughout the past 20 years, there are probably few people in the UK who have not heard a theme from one of Debbie's films or television productions. Whether it is watching Stephen Fry bring to life Oscar Wilde for the big screen, hearing the latest political commentary on a Sunday morning with Andrew Marr, or revelling in the Tudor world of Thomas Cromwell in "Wolf Hall", Wiseman has gifted us iconic themes of beauty and passion, love and laughter.
Debbie is a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, and regularly gives masterclasses to schools and colleges about the art of composing music for picture.
As well as her composing work, Debbie appears in concert halls across the country conducting her film scores, and has been a regular guest conductor at the Royal Albert Hall's annual Filmharmonic concert as well as appearing at the 2014 Cordoba International Cinema Music Festival, becoming the first female conductor in the history of the event.
In the Queen's Birthday Honour's list, June 2018 Debbie Wiseman was awarded the OBE for services to music.
Brilliant pianist and musical savant Derek Paravicini was Soundabout's first official Patron.
Derek, who is blind, autistic and has learning disabilities, is one of the most remarkable musical entertainers of his generation. Derek has a repertoire of tens of thousands of pieces - all learnt just by listening. His astonishing improvisations and technique have wowed audiences all over the world.
Derek's extraordinary musical ability shows how enabling children with learning disabilities to enjoy music making from an early age is critical for learning, communication and creativity.
Ed has been a community music and arts practitioner since 2002. He began his career at renowned Theatre in education company Zip Theatre, where he worked for 11 years delivering bespoke music workshops for a wide variety of organisations in mainstream and S.E.N settings.
After co-delivering the successful Our Music project with Will Taggart, which bought together young people from mainstream and SEN schools to make music and break down barriers, he was asked to join the Soundabout team as a practitioner in 2019. He now teaches weekly sessions for Soundabout in Sherbourne fields school in Coventry, as well as online sessions for access to Music and Soundabout Live TV.
Eleanor has worked in schools for nearly 20 years using music to interact & communicate with children & young people who have complex needs, supporting staff as well as working across the age range from 3-19. She has worked on projects ranging from setting up ‘Soundbaths' to festivals of music and dance & more focused projects with musicians from organizations such as Britten Sinfonia and Beat This.
Eleanor is a freelance music practitioner based near Peterborough. She has recently joined Soundabout and co-leads the Peterborough based inclusive choir. Eleanor has a B.A. in Music and Education, an MA in the Creative Arts in education & a PGCE in Early Years.
Ella graduated with a music degree from the University of Birmingham in 2020. She began as an Inclusive Choir volunteer with Soundabout in 2020 and now works as an Inclusive Choir Assistant, mainly with the West Midlands choirs.
Ella also works as a Music Teacher in hospital settings across Birmingham, facilitating music sessions for young people with a wide range of support needs. Ella really enjoys helping to make music accessible for everyone.
Choir Development Assistant Ellen began volunteering with Soundabout in 2020 before becoming a choir intern later in the year. She started her current role as Choir Development Assistant in 2022. Ellen's role involves working with the inclusive choirs and the Emerging Leader's programme. She has a passion for inclusivity in music and has enjoyed making music in schools, hospitals, prisons and community settings over the past 5 years. As well as Soundabout, Ellen works with the National Open Youth Orchestra, Bristol Beacon, Preludes and Evolve Music. Ellen recently graduated with a masters from Oxford University (MSt Musicology) where she studied Music alongside working in community music settings.
Emily is a Disabled musician and works in the development at Open Up Music - an organisation opening up music to young Disabled musicians. She studied Music at Newcastle University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock, Germany. She has worked in events; supporting operational teams and stewards at music festivals across the UK, including Glastonbury festival. Emily worked as a Teacher in SEN schools for a number of years, before her passion for music and inclusion led her to where she is today. Emily is very happy to have joined the Soundabout team!
Emily is a Birmingham based music specialist who started her passion for music singing and performing in choirs and shows which led to her musical theatre degree.
With eight years experience teaching music to those with special educational needs in a large Birmingham school and privately, she believes "we are born musical". Emily develops ways to open musical worlds to those with a range of learning difficulties and disabilities in order to encourage pre-language skills; allowing pupils to express their creativity and develop their musicality.
Emily is passionate about nurturing the talents of others to create new stars!
Emma is a full qualified music therapist and multi-instrumentalist. She joined Soundabout in 2019 and now helps to co-ordinate and direct the inclusive choirs. She has a broad range of experiences using music and working with different groups of people such as adults with acute mental health difficulties, young people with cancer, children with SEMH & SEN, and elderly people diagnosed with dementia. She holds an MA in Music Therapy, BMus in Music Performance and a PGCert in Music and Special needs. Although a multi-instrumentalist, Emma is a bass guitarist at heart and has been lucky enough to travel the world playing the bass for other artists.
Emmie is a folk musician and is in a band called Tamesas. She is the lead tutor for the Inclusive Folk project at the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Emmie has worked in a variety of settings including FE colleges and schools where she has worked as a teacher for many years. Emmie specialises in a multi sensory approach to music and storytelling and has worked for Whippersnappers theatre company and London Wildlife Trust delivering bespoke sessions. She holds the PG cert in Sounds of Intent and is delighted to be working for Soundabout.
Fiona has over 25 years' experience of managing finance and operations in the voluntary sector. She has worked with a number of theatre and community arts organisations and most recently worked for a women's health charity in Leeds. Fiona joined Soundabout in 2022 and is responsible for the overview, management and reporting of the company's finances. She has a degree in Mathematics and Computational Science from Liverpool University.
Outside of numbers, Fiona has a passion for music both listening to and participating. She is a member of her local choir and also plays keyboards, flute and in the last 6 months, the violin.
Gennie is a music facilitator and freelance clarinettist and bass clarinettist. She currently works as the Assistant Curriculum Manager, Early Years and SEN/D Manager for Southwark Music Service, running and delivering Early Years Music programmes as well as co-ordinating the SEN/D provision across the borough. Alongside this, she works as a Music Practitioner for The Amber Trust. Gennie also works as a Little Soundabout and Soundabout Life Practitioner. She also runs workshops and other education programmes on a freelance basis, recently working with Yardarm Folk Orchestra and Under1Roof.
Georgie graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2019 with a music degree & a desire to work in music education and community music. During university, she volunteered with a playscheme for children with additional needs & wanted to combine this work with her love of music.
After graduation, she became a part of the Soundabout family as a music intern, and began the PGCert in Music and Special Needs (Sounds of Intent).
Holly is delighted to have joined Soundabout in 2022 following a lifelong interest in working with people with disabilities which began when growing up as a family carer and led to work in the care sector. Over the past 8 years, Holly has developed expertise in musical inclusion while working with professional orchestras and arts centres, and while on the board of Sound Sense. As Producer for ‘MAC Makes Music' at the Midlands Arts Centre, Holly supported Music Education Hubs and other organisations on their inclusion journeys. Key highlights included developing the Birmingham Centre for National Open Youth Orchestra (led by Disabled young people) and working with Soundabout to develop the West Midlands Inclusive Choir.
With over 20 years experience working within voluntary sector organisations, Jo began working for Soundabout in 2014. Jo's role is to manage all our community programmes where we work directly with families, schools and care providers to bring exciting musical experiences. Jo's previous work and volunteering have taken her around the world by way of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and inspired a degree in Anthropology followed by a Masters degree in Gender, Culture and Development.
Jo's interest in working with people with disabilities led to a career break to live in L'Arche, a community for people with and without learning disabilities.
Karen graduated as a mature student from the University of Birmingham on the flute in July 2018. During her time at university Karen volunteered for the Coventry Alzheimer's Society Singing for the Brain group & Melody Music Birmingham. During the end of her final year Karen gained an internship with the charity and joined the Soundabout family. She then went on to complete her PGCert in music and special needs in 2019. Her interest in music & disabilities comes from the love of her uncle who had additional learning needs and was quite the one man band with his keyboard and harmonica!
has been a part of Kathryn's life from a young age. Having studied music at Cardiff University she went on to work in the music industry supporting professional musicians and conductors to perform around the world. Kathryn now works at the University of Oxford and whilst music is no longer part of her day job she continues to sing and play the violin, occasionally with Soundabout.
Business Administator Katie is a Masters student at the Royal College of Music in London, where she is grateful to be a Headley Trust Scholar. Katie graduated from St Catherine's College, Oxford with a First Class BA (Hons) Music in 2021. She joined Soundabout as an Admin Intern in the same year, having volunteered with the organisation since 2020. Now the Business Administrator and Emerging Leader Co-Ordinator, Katie's role enables her to combine a love of music with a desire to make a difference in the charity and community music sectors.
Lauren graduated from Birmingham Conservatoire on the French horn & then completed her PGCert in Music and Special Needs: Sounds of intent in 2017. When studying for her A Levels it was suggested to Lauren that she volunteered with Y-Not Arts, a charity in Northampton that provide music, dance & drama to children and young people with additional needs. Lauren has since volunteered with other organisations to gain insight into this work & is very keen to learn all things Soundabout!
Martin grew up playing guitar, singing & dabbling with piano, bass & songwriting. Apart from a guitar teaching, Martin had not worked professionally with music until he became fascinated with the incredibly moving impact of familiar songs on a friend with dementia in 2018, when he was also looking for 'something more' in his career.
He discovered Soundabout and Sounds of Intent, completing the PG-Cert in Music and Special Needs 2018-19. Since, Martin has been working part-time with Soundabout in a school setting, loves the opportunity to bring 'sonic sunshine' into the lives of many amazing children & is very happy to be part of the brilliant Soundabout team!
Maryse studied Biochemistry in France and has worked in Clinical Research for approximately 12 years. After volunteering in Burma in 2018, Maryse decided to change career for a more meaningful and fulfilling job in the charity sector. Maryse took up an internship with Soundabout to get more experience in the charity sector and to try and make the world a better place.
Job Titles:
- Chartered Accountant
- Treasurer
- Trustee
Mike is a Chartered Accountant who held senior finance positions in not for profit and private sector businesses. He has an MBA from Ashridge and has served as a Board member for a Further Education College. Mike's interests include travelling, golf, tennis volunteering and of course music. He is kept on his toes by three grand children and loves to be active.
Pete Ord is a Producer, Musician and Educator based in the East of England. A Community musician for the over 5 years Pete trained with acclaimed arts company Whitewood and Fleming and has experience working with SEND, Looked After Children, Youth Offenders, PRU & Vulnerable Adults. Specialising in assistive music technologies & songwriting Pete uses aspects of both in all his creative work. Having completed a PGCert in Music and Special Needs in 2014 Pete delivers creative sessions, as well as training for Soundabout focused on creative pupil lead music making often incorporating Skoog, Soundbeam & iPads.
Family Support Coordinator Rebecca has worked with young people with learning difficulties for 15+ years. Alongside studying an MA in Music Therapy with the University of South Wales, Rebecca worked as Head of Music in one of the UK's largest special schools for children and young people with autism and communication needs. Rebecca devised her own virtual and live music project called ‘Sensory Sound' which combines tactile, kinesthetic activities with songs to help children with additional needs to meet educational, communication and personal targets. Sensory Sound has reached over 3000 people in its first few years. A long-term admirer of Soundabout, Rebecca is thrilled to have joined the team in 2022 and looks forward to connecting with Soundabout's amazing community and families.
Sadie is passionate about supporting development & unlocking potential through music, & recently completed the PGCert in Sounds of Intent.
Sadie works with organisations to facilitate interactive music sessions & residencies in special schools, family homes, hospitals, care homes & community settings. She also teaches piano & guitar & leads primary school choirs.
Sadie also has a Masters in Songwriting & has written, recorded & produced two albums & toured these at gigs and festivals across the UK. Her songs have been played on local, national & international radio stations, including BBC Radio 6 Music.
Steve has 30+ years experience of working with youngsters & adults with a range of abilities & disabilities. He was based at an all-age special school in Coventry for 22 years & has worked in many other special & mainstream schools, social education centres, care homes, colleges & private homes. His passion is connecting with the people behind their disability using song, movement, music technologies, sensory based activities, interactions with sound, sound stories & musical expression. He enjoys being flexible & adapting to the needs of the people he is working with - improvising where the moment & feel of the situation require it. He has been assessed as an Outstanding. teacher by Ofsted.
Steve has over 20 years experience of working in the areas of creativity, music and communication in Special Needs Education. He has been a Soundabout practitioner since its formation in 1998. Steve is also co-director of Flash of Splendour Arts, a community arts organisation which specialises in creating ground-breaking exhibitions with young people with autism and learning disabilities, and a trustee of the Exuberant Trust which assists young Oxfordshire musicians and creative artists. Steve undertook the PGCert in Music and Special Needs during 2016/17.
Wa is a sound enthusiast, who began as a grunge rock guitarist. With expertise in sound design and architectural acoustics, he has dedicated over 20 years to the performing arts, including major projects like Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District where he was Manager in Technical Development. Before relocating to the UK, he was the Associate Dean in the School of Theatre & Entertainment Arts at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.
Will has been working for 10 years as a music teacher in both Mainstream and Special Education and performing in professional bands on Bass Guitar and Saxophone. Currently working in a primary setting for children with Social Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties Will is the Creative Arts Lead providing 1 to 1 and group sessions. Will gained an internship with the charity in early 2015 working on the national launch of the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years project. He then received a sponsorship by Soundabout to complete the PGCert Music and Special Needs: ‘Sounds of Intent'. Now Will is part of the Sounds of Intent in the Early Years team and has developed the Sounds Modern project with Pete Ord.