TUTORS

Aidan Chan

Aidan Chan is an Irish-Chinese pianist whose work explores identity and social structure through performance. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and across Europe and Asia, and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Budweis, and TUD Sinfonia. Aidan’s accolades include the RDS Music Bursary (2023), Trench Award (2019), and Fr Frank Maher Classical Music Award (2016).

Aidan is currently a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Music, London. His research examines the relationship between diasporic identity and artistic labour under capitalism.

Ben Lunn

Ben Lunn is an award-winning composer and conductor. His musical upbringing came from brass bands. He went to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where he studied composition with Peter Reynolds, and also got his initial training as conductor, before going to the Lietuvos Muzikos ir Teatro Akademija to study his masters. Ben is both composer in association with Drake Music Scotland, and Guest Artistic Director of the Hebrides Ensemble.

Since 2025, Ben has been musical director of Cappella Slavonica in Glasgow, showcasing his affinity and love of music from Eastern Europe.

Alongside his musical work, Ben Lunn contributes regularly to the Morning Star Newspaper. He runs the Disabled Artist Network, and is also an elected representative on the Musician’s Union Scotland and Northern Ireland Regional Committee and Secretary of the Workers’ Music Association.

David Martin

David Martin (MusB; BA; ATCL; DipTeach) is a composer, teacher, organist, singer and writer on music. In the last capacity he has been heard several times on Radios 3 and 4, and has had articles published in “Early Music” and the “Musical Times”. Composing is his main activity, and his music is heard regularly in public concerts. He is the President of the Workers’ Music Association.

Helen Thomas

Helen is an oboist with of Liverpool Bach Collective, Liverpool Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Arte, St John’s Festival Orchestra and Wirral Symphony Orchestra. She is the conductor of Chester Sinfonia and also regularly conducts Hope Metropolitan Orchestra. Helen is a Trustee of Mahogany Opera, a leading commissioner and producer of new opera and music theatre which aims to stretch the boundaries of what opera can be and who it is for.

Jane Scott

Jane holds a BA (Music) UCW Aberystwyth and PGCE London University School of Education. She has taught all aspects of music including A-level to students of all ages and is widely experienced in directing both choral and staged performances. Jane conducts Birmingham Clarion Singers, one of the UK’s longest-established socialist choirs.

Matt Neal

Matt Neal is an award-winning composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist with roots in the Romany tradition. Matt’s life and work are deeply informed by a passion for freedom, access, and cultural expression.
A believer in music as a universal right, Matt teaches for a charity that offers free music lessons to all. He plays in jazz bands and in a brass band, and composes for a variety of projects, always staying rooted in community, solidarity, activism, and the raw joy of music.

Neill Jackson

Neill is a viola and violin player, performing with several orchestras, including Chester Philharmonic, Metropolitan Orchestra and St John’s Festival Orchestra, as well as chamber music ensembles. He has worked with several Youth Orchestras around the country including Merseyside, Kent, York and Durham and the Anglo-German Youth Music Week. He played with the Rochford Ensemble in Hay-on-Wye and London’s All Souls Orchestra. He sings tenor and has sung with the English Haydn Festival Chorus and London School of Opera. He conducts the Liverpool String Orchestra and Wirral String Days as well as organising and conducting the Wirral String Orchestra and Wirral Orchestra and Chorus.

Phil Hargreaves

Phil Hargreaves is a saxophone & flute player, working mainly (though not exclusively) in free improvisation. In the past he has played with such names as Maggie Nicols, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Caroline Kraabel and others. He has recorded over twenty CDs, many of which are available on his own Whi Music label. He is also a member of ‘Grupo Luma’, a Nueva Cancion Chilena group led by Francisco and Oscar Carrasco, refugees from Pinochet’s Chile. He is a Vice President of the Workers’ Music Association.

Suzanne Hootsmans

Suzanne Hootsmans studied Musical Theatre at the Dutch Academy of Performing Arts, but has always been interested in many different genres of music. She has experience as a classical choral singer and has been singing, and sharing, folk music for many years. Besides that, she works as a music and theatre teacher with children of all ages and has taught at a folk summer school in Scotland.