Musical Director
Danish conductor Laura Kjærgaard-Grier first studied conducting at the prestigious Malko Academy for Young Conductors, working with musicians and singers from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, where tutors included Fabio Luisi, Manfred Honeck, Juanjo Mena, Thomas Søndergård and Michael Schønwandt. Other tutors throughout her conducting studies include Mark Heron, Bjørn Sagstad, Alberto Roque, Rodolfo Saglimbeni, Dominic Grier and Denise Ham.
Laura holds a BMus from the Royal Danish Academy of Music (Copenhagen) and a PGDip from the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester), both in classical saxophone. She also studied orchestral and wind ensemble conducting, performance psychology, and music management and education. She frequently appears as Solo Saxophonist and Second Principal Timpanist with the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside her freelance work as concerto soloist.
For many years, Laura has been invested in local music making through serving on the boards and committees of various wind ensembles. In 2012, she co-founded the Danish Youth Wind Orchestra which she chaired for seven years. Alongside courses under the National Association for Amateur Wind Ensembles in Denmark, she started covering for conductors in rehearsals with 1st division wind ensembles. In 2021 she co-founded the Girton Conducting Course (Cambridge), of which she is now Associate Director.
She works full time as Project Manager for the London-based classical music agency, Music Inter Alia, representing world-renowned conductors and instrumentalists. She was previously Artist Coordinator for HarrisonParrott in London and has also worked for Rayfield Allied.
Former Musical Directors
Jim Pywell was CWO Musical Director from 2024-2025, leaving us for an exciting new opportunity in Thailand.
Starting as a bassoonist in the Croydon Schools' Centre for Wind Players, he went on to study conducting as part of his music degree at Huddersfield Polytechnic. He took further studies in wind ensemble conducting with Timothy Reynish at the Royal Northern College of Music and at Canford Summer School of Music. Jim holds an MA in Composition and has also composed for wind orchestra and wind ensembles.
During the 1990s he directed musical theatre orchestras in the north of England as well as conducting contemporary music group YON ensemble, and was the founding musical director of Huddersfield People's Choir, providing opportunities for people who were not music-readers. Jim later held the post of Fellow in Music at the University of Bradford where he conducted student ensembles and directed large-scale collaborative projects such as Soundings, which connected a symphony orchestra with a Balinese gamelan orchestra, a West African djembe ensemble, folk musicians, bhangra musicians and Indian classical musicians.
As well as playing bassoon, Jim plays saxophone, melodica, penny whistle and traditional instruments from The Gambia, Kenya and Zimbabwe. He was a co-founder of Bucharest Saxophone Quartet. He was a member of contemporary song band Nankivell's Optet. He also led the Kenyan band Kachumbari Seven which combined musical influences from Kenya, India and Europe.
Jim holds long-established connections with music education development in Kenya, where he lived for 13 years. He trained Kenyan music teachers at Kenyatta University, set up the country's first BTEC Popular Music training courses, taught conducting and composition at the Kenya Conservatoire of Music, and co-founded the National Youth Orchestra of Kenya in 2010, continuing as its Musical Director until 2014 when he took up a school teaching post in Romania. He also conducted and played in the Nairobi Orchestra. Jim's international teaching perspective also extends to India, where he held a senior post in the KM College of Music and Technology founded by film composer, A. R. Rahman.
Lucy was CWO Musical Director from January 2022 until July 2023, helping us reform after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lucy is a composer-conductor, who writes orchestral, chamber and choral works in addition to music for theatre, opera and dance. Her music has been performed at Vale of Glamorgan, Cheltenham, Aberystwyth and Dartington festivals, and often draws on early music and folksong. Lucy is a pianist and composer-in-residence at Middlesex Dance School. She is Musical Director of the Harrow Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Contemporary Music For All (CoMA) and Sussex Ensemble. She is completing her Master's in Composition on a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music.
https://twitter.com/LucyCallenMusic
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Shea Lolin was our Musical Director from 2009 until 2020 and conducted our 10 year anniversary concert in 2019.
Shea studied at the Colchester Institute School of Music with Charles Hine and Angela Fussell for performance, Alan Bullard for composition and Christopher Phelps for conducting. While at ‘The Institute’, Shea won several awards including the John Myatt Cup for Solo Woodwind.
Shea was also Musical Director of the Bloomsbury Woodwind Ensemble and the East London Clarinet Choir in addition to freelance conducting engagements for rehearsals, concerts and recordings and his schedule has placed him throughout Europe. In 2014 Shea conducted the Czech Philharmonic for a recording devoted to the woodwind orchestra. Shea has conducted several world premieres, having secured funding from all the major awarding bodies.
He is passionate about music education; Artistic Director of the ‘Woodwind Orchestra Play Day’ at premiere venues throughout the country, providing amateur musicians with valuable playing opportunities. As a liturgical musician, Shea is the Director of Music and organist for the Catholic parish of Manor Park.
See www.shealolin.co.uk for further details.
NEWS
Announcing our new Musical Director:
Laura Kjaergaard-Grier!
Current vacancies:
Percussion
Tuba
Trombone
Horn
NO AUDITION REQUIRED
Contact us for more information
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