Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust

Jean Murray, Director, 11 Melville Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7PR.

Phone/fax: 0131-226-3392. 

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PERSONNEL

SScOT Office Holders

Hon Patrons John Wallace, CBE & Mark Forkgen

Hon President Donald Runnicles, OBE

Hon Vice President Hilary Davan Wetton

Trustees Roger Clegg (chairman), Robert Baxter, Richard Chester, MBE, Margot Cruft, Philip Rossiter

Committee Neil Metcalfe (chairman), Jill Craig, Margaret Douglass, Alison Edwards, Susan Green, Jacquie Johnstone, Catriona Robertson, Vaughan Townhill, Chris Turley

Director Jean Murray

Principal Staff Biographies

Matthew Rowe - Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra - studied conducting with Colin Metters, George Hurst, John Carewe and Frederik Prausnitz, and won prizes at a number of international conducting competitions including the 1999 Leeds Conductors Competition. He has appeared with all the BBC orchestras as well as the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber and Ulster Orchestras, the London Mozart Players, Manchester Camerata, Birmingham Royal Ballet and many European orchestras. Matthew enjoys coaxing the very best from all ages and abilities and has been involved with a multitude of education projects and youth orchestras. Since 2009 he has been Director of Orchestral Studies at San Diego University in California.

Robin Wedderburn – Conductor of the String Orchestras – recently retired from St. Paul's School in London, where he had been Head of Strings since 1981.  He is an experienced coach and conductor and has always enjoyed composing and arranging, most often in connection with his teaching.  His "Fantasy for Orchestra" was commissioned by SScOT and performed at their 20th anniversary course in July 2005, and several of his string pieces have been published by Goodmusic  He has recently been delighted to accept the position of viola player in the London-based Rasumovsky Quartet and is enjoying an active retirement, developing his violin and viola playing, private teaching, coaching, conducting, adjudicating, arranging and composing activities, whilst avoiding having to leave home ridiculously early every morning. 

Susan Dingle - Conductor of the Wind Bands - has an honours degree in music from Sheffield University and an M.Mus (conducting) from the RSAMD in Glasgow, where she studied with Martyn Brabbins.  She also spent over 3 years studying at the State Conservatory in St. Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk and Ilya Musin.  since then she has conducted the BBC Scottish and Leicester Symphony Orchestras, the Paragon and Kelvin Ensembles, the Edinburgh Practice Choir, Opera on a Shoestring and Lontano.  She is Music Director of the Cumbernauld Choir and Principal Conductor of the Kentigern Ensemble, Highland Chamber Orchestra, Highland Region and Stirling Youth Orchestras and Renfrewshire Schools Symphony Orchestra.

Adele Neilson - Conductor of the Mandolin & Guitar Orchestra at the Play Away Day in February 2012 - has been playing the guitar since the age of 8, gaining an undergraduate scholarship to the RSAMD and a distinction for her Postgraduate Diploma.  As a solo guitarist and in flute and guitar duo "Duo Concertante", she has performed at prestigious venues in Scotland, England and Italy, and has given interviews and performed live on BBC Radio Scotland and Gaelic Radio.  She teaches guitar and conducts the guitar ensemble at St. George's School for Girls in Edinburgh and for the Lanarkshire Guitar and Mandolin Association, where her commitments include directing the Classical Guitar Circle and writing a quarterly article for The British BMG Federation Newsletter on Classical Guitar Technique.  Since September 2010 she has been Director of Strathclyde University Guitar Ensemble.

Bede Williams - Conductor of the Brass Ensemble - initially launched his career as a trumpeter, winning prizes including the 2005 Royal Overseas League Philip Jones Memorial Prize for brass. Since earning his Masters in Conducting with Distinction, he has participated in masterclasses with Martyn Brabbins, Benjamin Zander, Jorma Panula, and Pierre Boulez and has conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Hebrides Ensemble. He is Musical Director of the Pentland Singers and Kingdom Brass, as well as being Artistic Director of the Alba Brass Quintet. Passionately committed to music education, he currently teaches at St. Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and St Andrews University, where he also directs the Brass Ensemble.

Jean Murray – Director of SScOT & Co-Director of the summer courses – has been organising extra-curricular musical activities for children for 25 years, and is also Director of Edinburgh Young Musicians, which runs Saturday Morning Classes for children aged 3 to 17. She holds a music degree from Edinburgh University and works as a freelance flautist, mainly with small chamber groups at weddings and other functions, and as a flute teacher at St. Andrews University and privately.

Chris Turley - Co-Director of the summer courses - currently teaches History and Politics at The Edinburgh Academy.  Before joining the teaching profession in 2006 he enjoyed a six year voyage through higher education at the universities of Durham, Edinburgh and Cambridge, incorporating a stint of teaching in Malawi. A keen traveller, Chris has supervised over 30 school trips in the last five years. He participates in amateur choirs and orchestras around the Edinburgh area and treasures very happy memories from his own time attending SScOT as a clarinettist many years ago.

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