Youth Music Initiative advisors
Walter Blair
Brian Cope
Fiona Dalgetty
Tommy Fowler
Alan Jones
Gwyneth Lamb
Charlie Maynes
Paul McGeechan
Jo Miller
Ian Mills
Rachel Nelken
Jim Park
Alistair Salmond
John Wilson
To follow.
Originally a rock band drummer, Brian Cope went on to gain an honours degree in music from the University of Edinburgh. He is a composer, music educator, animateur and consultant with a particular interest in creativity and the human condition. He has worked extensively as a music consultant for the international humanitarian organisation, War Child Holland on projects in the Balkans, Caucasus and Sierra Leone delivering training on the use of music in the psychosocial rehabilitation of children affected by war.
He is currently working as the Artistic Director for Drake Music Project Scotland, a national music organisation that uses innovative music technology to enable disabled people to play and compose music independently. He has made a major contribution to the development of inclusive music education throughout Scotland.
His composition work spans a wide range of activities including composing for film, multi-media installation and theatre. He enjoys facilitating young people in music making and the art of musical composition. He has worked for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s Education Department and has delivered composition projects to children in schools in the UK and abroad. In September 2006, he founded Portobello Music School, a new music initiative providing music education to children and adults from across Edinburgh and the Lothians.
Originally from the Highlands, Fiona Dalgetty is a freelance musician and arts consultant based in Edinburgh. Fiona’s current contracts include working as Development Worker for the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin and part-time Cultural Co-ordinator for the City of Edinburgh Council. Fiona is also a respected fiddle tutor and she regularly teaches for the ALP Scots Music Group and Fèis Dhùn Èideann.
Fiona studied violin from the age of 11 under local instructor Debbie Ross and, in addition to formal tuition, Fiona regularly attended Fèis Rois. Fiona developed an interest in the Gaelic language through her involvement with the Fèisean and she recently graduated MA (Hons) Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh.
After graduating, Fiona spent 18 months working as principal fiddle tutor for Lochgoilhead Fiddle Workshop. She has experience of working in both the formal and informal education sectors. Fiona regularly delivers music tuition in primary, secondary and special schools. She is also a popular Fèis tutor and, in the past, she has worked as Ceilidh Trail Co-ordinator for Fèis Rois.
Fiona is a member of the dynamic young band, Òr, and she also plays with the renowned Auld Reekie Ceilidh Band. She has performed as far afield as the USA, China and Eastern Europe.
Tommy Fowler is a Glasgow-based composer who is commissioned and performed regularly. His work covers a wide range and includes orchestral, ensemble and solo pieces for the concert platform, collaborative work in the theatre and music for vocal ensembles. He holds a PhD in composition from Glasgow University and has been involved in several workshops promoting new music to new audiences.
Alan Jones was educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Stirling with a Bachelor of Education Degree in Physical Education and a Masters Degree in Education. He has 24 years local authority experience, 14 of which were at Director level. He was Director of Leisure and Recreation for Inverness District Council from 1987-1996 and Director of Cultural and Leisure Services for the Highland Council from 1996-2002.
Alan has experience of strategic management, policy formation and performance management. He has experience in organisational development and change management having set up three new leisure departments. His services covered all aspects of leisure activities including the Arts, Sports Development, Heritage and Museums, Libraries, Archives, Genealogy, Film and Media, Tourism, Facility Management, Countryside Recreation, Events and Promotions, Capital Projects, Lottery functions, Grant Aid schemes, Parks and Open Spaces and Children’s Play.
Alan is a past Chairman of the Scottish Association of Directors of Leisure Services (now VOCAL), and is a former member of the Board of sportscotland.
In April 2002 Alan set up his own leisure consultancy, Alan Jones Associates. Since 2002 Alan has worked on in excess of 40 leisure assignments ranging from leadership development to Best Value reviews, Project Management to Business Planning, Risk Registers and Options Appraisals.
Gwyneth Lamb is an experienced arts professional, with a strong background in community arts and arts in education. She currently works with Youth Music UK as Regional Co-ordinator for the North East of England.
Gwyneth started her career as a musician with ‘Horse and Bamboo Theatre’, but moved on to management in Community Theatre and Theatre In Education. She has been involved in festival and events organisation, and for ten years was the Arts Officer of a county-wide Health Trust, developing a broad programme of projects, classes and performances in hospitals and other health settings. She has also worked in Adult Education, and taught Arts Management at New College, Durham.
In supporting the work of the Scottish Arts Council, and in particular, the Youth Music Initiative, Gwyneth will also be drawing on her experience of being a parent - of following and supporting a young person’s musical development and helping them overcome the barriers they encounter.
Charlie Maynes is Education Support Officer, Expressive Arts at Dundee City Council, and in June 2008 will be assessing local authority applications to the YMI’s Formula Fund as part of the Formula Fund panel. Charlie was also part of this panel in 2007.
After studying woodwind at RSAMD and a period as a freelance clarinettist, Charlie was employed by first Perth and Kinross Council, then Scottish Borders Council as a woodwind instructor. In 1991 he began work at Dundee City Council (then Tayside Council) as Head of Instrumental Services, later moving to his current position as Education Support Officer, Expressive Arts.
Charlie is a former Director of the National Youth Wind Ensemble and has been an honorary Life Member of the International Band Directors Association since 1995. He conducted the European pilot of ‘Standard of Excellence’, now the world’s best-selling tutor book for woodwind, brass and percussion.
Charlie co-founded the Heads of Instrumental Tuition Scotland strategic group. He is a member of Dundee City Council’s Arts Development Strategy Group and part of the Council’s YMI management team.
To follow.
Jo Miller is a singer and fiddler who has worked in music education for over 25 years; privately, in schools, with Local Authorities, and in the Higher Education sector. She taught at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama for 15 years, where she founded the innovative BA (Scottish Music) degree. As joint Course Leader from 1996-2005 she taught a wide range of classes, organised placements and outreach activities, and led the development of community and education studies within the Scottish Music Department. She was commissioned to write materials to support the teaching of traditional music in the Scottish school curriculum, most recently a web-based package for Learning and Teaching Scotland.
While a Community Arts lecturer in Glasgow in 1990, Jo launched the successful Glasgow Fiddle Workshop. She currently teaches traditional music classes for the Tolbooth in Stirling, and runs a school band involving pupils, parents and teachers. She has a long-standing interest in developing family and community music-learning opportunities, and in partnerships between formal and informal music education, and is looking forward to encountering more examples of these in her role as an advisor.
Jo has performed and recorded as soloist and band member, and is also a freelance scholar whose research interests include Scottish music pedagogy, especially the impact of the formalisation of traditional music provision in Scotland.
Ian Mills’ professional background began in the school education service – initially as a Chemistry teacher leading eventually to Deputy Headteacher in a Lanarkshire secondary school. Thereafter he moved to Tayside Region as an Assistant Director of Education where his responsibilities included the arts/education interface and chairing a group which formulated an Arts Policy for Tayside Region. During his time in Tayside he obtained a post graduate degree in Public Policy from Strathclyde University.
In 1995, at the time of local government reorganisation, he was appointed Director of Education in East Dunbartonshire Council but retained an interest at national level in arts/education matters serving as an Adviser to CoSLA and the Scottish Arts Council.
Following a council management restructuring in 2001, he took the opportunity to make a career change as General Manager of the National Youth Choir of Scotland – a post which combined his professional experience in the arts/education field with a life long interest in choral singing - he is a member of the RSNO Chorus. From autumn 2007 he will be pursuing a freelance career in arts/education consultancy work.
Ian is Chairman of the Scottish Amateur Music Association and Administrator of the Scottish International Piano Competition.
Rachel Nelken has been working within the arts and music sector for over 10 years. She studied music at Anglia University in the early 1990s. With a huge interest and background in music across the board, she won the Baroque Performance Prize for her cello performance, formed a string-led improvised jazz/funk group and played with many singer-songwriters on the Cambridge scene.
Three years as a music teacher and youth worker in Kent led to a change of career into arts management and a post-graduate diploma, and subsequently a move to London to become Development Officer for Islington International Arts Festival, working on the year-round education programme and raising money from the public and private sectors to support the festival programme. She then moved on to the newly-formed PRS Foundation for New Music, assisting in its creation and development. As Applications Manager for six and a half years she advised and assisted thousands of applicants and developed strategic projects and commissions supporting the contemporary music sector with a wide range of partners including the Jerwood Foundation, Arts Council England, Fopp Records, the National Portrait Gallery and Glade Festival.
Rachel’s next post was with Point Blank, a music education and training provider, as Head of Community Projects, running a huge outreach programme of ‘urban’ and popular music projects across London and the UK in partnership with a wide range of youth and children’s organisations and local authorities. She raised over £600,000 in funding to support the organisation’s work, leaving to have her daughter in early 2007.
Now moving into her 3rd year as a specialist advisor for Scottish Arts Council, Rachel is also now employed as Arts Development Manager for the borough of Bromley in Kent, where she is currently developing and leading on a major local partnership arts and training project for young people with a focus on music technology, and a cross-borough partnership project involving young people from 8 South London boroughs tying in with London’s Cultural Olympiad.
In June 2008 Jim Park will be assessing local authority applications to the YMI’s Formula Fund as part of the Formula Fund panel.
Jim has been employed within the formal education sector for 26 years, first as an instrumental teacher and since 1996 as Head of Instrumental Music for North Lanarkshire Council. In this role he is responsible for the strategic development and operational management of the music service, and also manages the extensive music groups programme in North Lanarkshire which includes two orchestras, two choirs, three wind bands, a pipe band and various other ensembles.
Jim has acted as an adviser to the RSAMD and the University of Strathclyde. He is a former Chair of the Heads of Instrumental Teaching Scotland strategic group and is a member of the Board of Trustees for the West of Scotland Schools’ Orchestras.
To follow.
John Wilson’s work in music education is extensive. After graduating from RSAMD and further training at Jordanhill College of Education, he taught music in secondary schools, eventually becoming Head of Music in a large secondary school for nine years.
John left this position to become Links Officer in Arts and Education for East Ayrshire Council. In this role he has strategic responsibility for music development and partnerships in East Ayrshire and has worked closely with a number of national bodies. Over the past three years the music development work in East Ayrshire has been recognised by the National Music Council of Great Britain.
John also has a connection with local community music groups and has sat on a number of Scottish Arts Council advisory panels. In June 2008 John will be assessing local authority applications to the YMI’s Formula Fund as part of the Formula Fund panel. |