Tutors

Dominic Grier is widely acknowledged as being among the most versatile conductors of his generation, equally at home in opera, ballet and symphonic work as well as contemporary music and orchestral training. He has served as a frequent guest conductor with The Royal Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, OperaBallet Vlaanderen, Northern Ballet, Scottish Ballet and many others

He has been Tutor in Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music since 2016 and teaches at the RAM's Junior Department where he is also conductor of the Symphony and Classical orchestras

Denise Ham taught conducting at the Royal Academy of Music from 1986-2009 and in 2006 established the Conducting Course at Blackheath Conservatoire, London. In 2016 she became Director of London Conducting Academy. For many years she has been on the staff of the George Hurst Conductors’ Course at Sherborne Summer School of Music

She has held principal conductorships with the the Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra, Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Conservatoire Junior School, Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra and currently the Bournemouth Rehearsal Orchestra

Cathal Garvey teaches postgraduate Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music

He regularly conducts orchestras and choirs across London and the South East of England, and is currently Musical Director of Reading Symphony Orchestra and Wokingham Choral Society. He has previously conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, London International Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, London Medical Orchestra, Orchestra of the Reform, and Leicester Symphony Orchestra, and many others

Leif Tse was recently music director of Streatham St. Bart’s Chamber Orchestra and South London String Orchestra and has conducted the Lithuanian State and the Hungarian National Szeged Symphony Orchestras. He is currently pursuing a Master of Performance in Conducting at the Royal College of Music as a Christopher Hogwood Scholar where he has assisted Sir Antonio Pappano and Vasily Petrenko. Leif has also participated in masterclasses led by Sir Andrew Davis, Martyn Brabbins, Colin Metters, Sian Edwards and Rüdiger Bohn.

Principal Accompanist John Longstaff was appointed Musical Director of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra in 1993, becoming Artistic Director in September 2001-2011. He has held full time posts as rehearsal pianist and conductor at the Opera House in Kiel, Germany, and with Northern Ballet Theatre, in addition to guest engagements for Opera North, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and Opera Lirica. He is currently Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church, Harrogate

Course Administrator Laura Kjærgaard-Grier holds a BMus in Classical Saxophone from the Royal Danish Academy and a PGDip from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she also studied Performance Psychology and Music Management. She works full time as Project Leader for Music Inter Alia in London, representing world renowned conductors and instrumentalists. In January 2023 she founded her own agency, AriseEnsembles.

She studied conducting at the prestigious Malko Academy for Young Conductors, working with musicians from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, with tutors including Fabio Luisi, Manfred Honeck, Juanjo Mena, Thomas Søndergård, and Michael Schønwandt, and she is now the Music Director of Lancing Chamber Orchestra and Worthing Community Concert Band