‘I got my love of music from my mum, who is an enthusiastic amateur singer. Singing and playing instruments were part of daily life for me and my sisters. I owe a lot to my bassoon teacher, Eric Butt, and to the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, the centre of my teenage world. We played incredible repertoire under the leadership of Nick Wilks; I’ll never forget Mahlers “Resurrection” Symphony on tour in South Africa – still my number one Desert Island Disc.

My first experience of conducting was at sixth form college: my teacher was called away to an urgent meeting and handed me the baton. At the University of Bristol, I had plenty of opportunities to play, sing and conduct, but had no idea where life would take me afterwards. I couldn’t believe my luck when I was awarded the Sinfonia Viva Conducting Scholarship, and went to Birmingham Conservatoire to study for a Masters in Orchestral Conducting. I spent a lot of time hanging around the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, hassling the conductors, and also joined the CBSO Chorus. Choral music became a big part of my life.

My first professional gig was as a vocal animateur for a Welsh National Opera education project. I loved working with the young singers and sharing their creative journey. For me, music-making has always been about people. Singing is an accessible way to work with people of all ages, backgrounds and experience. Lots of people tell me they can’t sing, but I believe we can all sing, and take great joy in helping people find their voice.

After my Masters, I was appointed assistant director of music at the University of Warwick. This has allowed me to explore all my musical interests, programme and conduct some epic repertoire, but also develop my creative interests away from the University. I’ve had some wonderful experiences as conductor of the LSO [London Symphony Orchestra] Junior Choir; premiering new community operas by Jonathan Dove and Peter Maxwell Davies, and performing in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen under Sir Simon Rattle.

Music of Life is a wonderful charity; every week the team leads singing in SEN [special educational needs] schools and every week we see transformative things happening, through the power of singing, opportunity and encouragement.

I am passionate about finding ways to engage young people in music-making, and have taken enormous pleasure in curating and presenting family and schools concerts for the LSO and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Seeing an auditorium full of young people engrossed in classical music and singing their hearts out is quite the best feeling. We can all learn a lot from young people; they have incredible energy, and imaginations bursting with brilliant – and often hilarious – ideas.

I am very concerned about the state of music education in the UK. Those of us who work as musicians see the extraordinary effect music has on people and communities on a daily basis. Despite the huge and growing body of evidence that music-making boosts wellbeing, health and learning, the government places a distinct lack of value and investment in music, and in the Arts more widely. I’d love there to be more emphasis on community, individual expression, and wellbeing. Little remains of the tribal behaviour or ritual that has traditionally brought people together. Loneliness in the UK is a real problem; I’ll be interested to see where social prescribing may take us in the future.

I start my role as creative director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain in April. It’s a wonderful opportunity to work with an inspiring team to bring singing and broader creative experiences to young people across the UK. The choirs themselves have a fantastic programme, and I’ll be working hard to find ways to open up these opportunities to more young people. One challenge will be removing barriers to participation, perceived or otherwise, and I think the first step to doing so is to take responsibility for them.

I wrote How To Make Your Choir Sound Awesome with Suzzie Vango. We realised we had hundreds of warm-up exercises in our heads, on scraps of paper, and in voice notes on our phones. We’ve created the resource we wish we’d always had as conductors. We’ve been overwhelmed by the response to the book, especially when it was named Choral Publication of the Year at the Presto Awards 2022.