Biographies

Flora (she/her) is an orchestral horn player who has recently completed a first class masters degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She was a foundation scholar on the Orchestral Artistry course studying with Richard Bissill, Phillip Munds, Angela Barnes, Sue Dent and Jonathan Lipton. She has a first class undergraduate degree from the Royal College of Music in London where she was a scholar supported by a Michael Quinn Award and was taught by Simon Rayner, Jeff Bryant, Kira Doherty, Timothy Jones, John Ryan and natural horn with Roger Montgomery. Prior to her studies, she was taught by Richard Kennedy. Flora was the horn player for the 2020-2022 LPO Foyle Future First program and has had a wide range of professional orchestral freelancing experience. She has played with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the CBSO, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Opera North, the RPO, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the LPO, the Orchestra of the ROH Covent Garden, the RPCO, the Royal Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Welsh National Opera. Flora also enjoys historical performance and has performed solo Baroque Horn in Bach's B Minor Mass at Cadogan Hall with the Florilegium ensemble. She played principal Baroque horn in Bach’s Brandenburg concerto No 1 with the ensemble which was later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Flora also enjoys looking after her lemon tree, Lenny and her Tesco value succulent named Jimbo.

Georgia Dawson (she/her) was born in Suffolk and trained at the Royal College of Music as well as Kings College University (studying ethnomusicology). Now based in East London Georgia balances performance projects with her educational and outreach roles as well as writing guest blog posts (such as for “things musicians don’t talk about”) and academic articles. She is currently a developing artist with the London Musical Theatre Orchestras and regularly performs with the London Firebird Orchestra in addition to freelance chamber and orchestral work. She particularly tailors her schedule to include socially engaged projects and raising the profile of underrepresented composers. This has included performing with the 97 ensemble (supporting solace women’s aid) and playing as principal of the Brixton Chamber Orchestra. Educationally, Georgia has trained as a workshop leader under those such as Tim Steiner and Dr David Camlin and teaches as both a brass and early years specialist across London. She was also invited to speak on issues of EDI in higher music education at the MusicHE City University symposium 2020. In her spare time Georgia loves exploring the city, reading lots of books and going for coffee and cake with her family and friends.

Emma (she/her) is from North London and studied at the Royal College of Music for both her Undergraduate and Postgraduate degrees. Whilst there, she was taught by Simon Rayner, Kira Doherty, Tim Jones, Jeff Bryant, John Thurgood, John Ryan and Roger Montgomery, and was the Michael Quinn Award holder. While at the Royal College of Music, she performed in master classes with Stefan Dohr, Phil Minds and Radovan Vlatkovic, and played under renowned conductors such as Bernard Haitink and Sir Antonio Pappano. She has a passion for low horn playing and has recently played 4th horn at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Emma is currently a freelance horn player, alongside regular teaching for Enfield Music Service and private pupils. In her spare time, she loves playing football, adding to her indoor plant collection and wearing anything and everything rainbow.

Caoime (she/her) is from Kerry, Ireland and is currently undertaking postgraduate studies at the Royal College of Music under the tutelage of John Ryan, Simon Raynor and Kira Doherty. She completed her BMus at Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Jonathan Lipton, Sue Dent and Angela Barnes. She was a scholarship holder with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland from 2011-2016 and was appointed principal from 2014. She represented the youth orchestra at the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins' garden party at Áras an Uachtaráin, as one of the highest scholarship holders. In 2016, Caoime played as a soloist with the Orlando Chamber Orchestra in the National Concert Hall of Ireland and in 2020, she was solo fourth horn in the Schumann Konzertstuck for four horns and orchestra with Orquestra del Renaixement. During her time at Guildhall, Caoime has played under the baton of Vasily Pertrenko, Takuo Yuasa and Thomas Sondergard in venues such as Royal Festival Hall, The Barbican and St. John Smith Square.

Millie (she/her) is from Cambridge and started the horn at 8 years old, simply because it was lying around the house. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Richard Bissill, Jonathan Lipton, Chris Parkes and Nicolas Fleury. She then studied at the Royal College of Music with Simon Rayner, Kira Doherty, Tim Jones, John Ryan and John Thurgood, graduating in 2022. During her time at Guildhall, Millie won the Richard Bissill horn competition 2018, and was 2nd horn of the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. Whilst at the RCM, she won the horn prize at the Solo Brass Competition 2020. In the UK Millie has played with The BBC Concert Orchestra, The London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Abroad she has toured to Dubai to perform at the Dubai Expo, was co-principal horn of the BSFO’s inaugural 2019 tour of Russia and the UK, and toured to Guernsey with the West End production of Phantom of the Opera. Millie is excited to be part of Southbank Sinfonia 2022-23 and the horn player for the LPO Future Firsts Scheme 2022-23. She is also looking forward to performing with the London Musical Theatre Orchestra as part of their 'dev scheme'. As well as enjoying chamber music, Millie is also a keen conductor (recently she conducted London Conservatoire Singers in evensong at Croydon Minster). She is passionate about education and widening opportunities for young people through music and is a regular workshop leader, having worked with Britten Pears Arts, Mini Mozart and Prime Brass, and volunteered with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Millie teaches with Camden Music Service and Guildhall Young Artists centre, as well as privately. Outside of music Millie loves swimming, listening to podcasts on long walks, and learning about social justice causes.

Niamh Rodgers (she/her) is an undergraduate student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying horn with Philip Munds, Richard Bissill, Angela Barnes, and Jonathan Lipton. Niamh is from Cork, Ireland. She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland from 2015-2019 and was appointed principal in 2016. Niamh has performed with this orchestra in venues across Ireland, Portugal and the Netherlands, including a side by side performance with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2016. Niamh is the 4th horn of the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra and has performed at Cadogan Hall and St. John Smith Square with the orchestra. She has played at the Barbican as part of the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra. Niamh has performed under the baton of conductors such as Daniele Gatti and Nicholas Collon. Since beginning her studies at Guildhall, Niamh has developed a passion for conducting and is now studying with David Corkhill. She recently conducted Mozart’s 4th Horn Concerto at the Holy Sepuclhre Church. Alongside Cor8, Niamh is a member of the Haizea Wind Quintet and plays with the Vox Amicum Brass Quintet. Outside of Classical music, Niamh loves Irish Traditional music and enjoys playing the Fiddle, Guitar and Tin Whistle.

Kristina Yumerska (she/her) is an undergraduate student at the Royal College of Music, studying the French horn with Timothy Jones. She is born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In 2016, she graduated with distinction the Dobrin Petkov National school for music and dance arts in Plovdiv. During her studies in Bulgaria she has won numerous prizes from competitions in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia, Macedonia and Moldova. She was also a scholarship holder of the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture and Yordan Kamdzhalov Foundation.
For the past two years in the Royal College of Music, she had the chance to participate in numerous Symphony and Philharmonic orchestra concerts, playing under the batons of renowned conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Thomas Zehetmeir and others. She has also performed in the masterclasses of Fergus McWilliam (Berlin Phil) and Jasper de Waal (Chamber orchestra of Europe).
As a chamber musician Kristina has played in various ensembles and is currently a member of a brass quintet (District brass) and a wind quintet (Ardor Ensemble).

Alys (she/her) is from South Wales and graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2018. She is now freelancing across the UK, enjoying a varied career of performing and educating, as well as being a student of Jonathan Lipton. Whilst studying, Alys was a member of the National Youth Orchestra and Wind Orchestra of Wales and the European Union Youth Wind Orchestra, performing across Europe, whilst studying with Tim Thorpe, Angus West and Anneke Scott (Natural Horn). Since graduating, Alys has been a finalist in the Charlton House Lyrical Brass Competition, and has undertaken tours and workshops with the Berkeley Ensemble and Opera Holloway, among others. She has performed with Welsh National Opera, Opera North, the British Sinfonietta and regularly performs with the London Musical Theatre Orchestra, where she can be heard playing on the album ‘Lucie Jones: Live at the Adelphi’. Alys is excited to be the chair holder for ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the Dominion Theatre in December 2020.