The Band of His Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland with RNCM Students 22/02/2024

Bryan Au Yeung

Betty Bao

Julie Beech

Sophia Brown

Aidan Bryson

Chloe Jiaen Chen

Matilda Chen

Esther Clay

Sophie Combes

Johnny Derbyshire

Felix Do

Éadaoin Drumgoole

Yaxin Fang

Isabella Farleigh

Honor Farley

George Farrar

Barney Fildes

Benjamin Finnie

Katherine Foxall

Aidan Fyfe

Lola Garcia Marquez

Sonia Gorji-ghalamastani

Anastasia Gould

David Harris

Alexandra Harrison

Zoe Hennessy

Alex Herdman

Phoebe  Heywood

Joel Hill

Lottie Howden

Faye Huang

Nyra Jain

Chenjia  Jiang

Matthew Jones

Nathan Joseph

Thomas Judge

Avi Kwok

Ella Laughton

Sally Lee

Milly Lennox

Christian Leslie

Yonina Liss

Ivy Liu

Larissa Lourenco

Tiantian Luo

Amit Manna

Nina Martin

Annie Meaden

Asia Movsovic

Natalie Ngai

Emily O’Dell

Poppy Orrell

Peiqi Ouyang

Edward Owen

Tingjie Pan

Maia Payne

Fran Penny

Harry Porthouse

Jasmin Randall

Lewis Reardon

Luis Romao

Annabel Santner

Finn Smith

Joe Steel

Maddie Stewart

Siying Tang

Pip Thomson

Tako Tkabladze

Cheuk Ying Tong

Dongru  Tong

Emma Turetskaya

Mina Vining

Abigail Webb

Rachel Wheatley

Madeleine Wickham Brown

Belle Wong

Sophie Wu

Jane Xiong

Candy Yuan

Samuel Yuen

Zhipeng Zhang

Bohan Zheng

Yanqi Zhou

As one of the five bands that make up the musical wing of the Royal Navy, RM Band Scotland plays a crucial role in boosting troop morale, supporting international diplomacy and paying tribute to their fallen comrades.

The master musicians of RM Band Scotland are highly skilled in at least two instruments – and often many more. Together, these versatile and talented musicians undertake a wide variety of ceremonial commitments across Scotland and the North of England.

Just some of the band’s recent engagements include the launch of the new Daring-class destroyers and the commissioning of the submarine HMS Astute.

As with all Royal Marines Bands, the men and women of RM Band Scotland also perform a vital secondary role supporting the Fleet during active operations, with a number of personnel having seen service in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Roger has been playing at the highest level with brass bands for over three decades. As a principal player, he has spent 10 years with Black Dyke, 7 with CWS Glasgow, 4 with Grimethorpe and a short spell at Brighouse & Rastrick. Alongside these commitments, Roger has been active as a soloist, visiting over 25 Countries and performing in many of the World’s most prestigious concert halls. For many years, as well as playing in our top brass bands, Roger worked with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra performing and recording some of the great orchestral repertoire.

His work as a pedagogue is well known, with many of his students past and present making their own mark on the music world. As a psychologist, as well as a musician, Roger helps musicians with areas of social phobia, and in particular performance anxiety – helping each student to achieve their potential and enabling them to deliver their best at all times.

His latest CD ‘My Heroes’, was recorded at the Guards Chapel adjacent to Buckingham Palace, with the Guards Brass Band for the Help for Heroes charity. Roger continues to work as a soloist and teacher worldwide on trumpet and Cornet. Roger continues to work as a soloist and teacher, giving concerts worldwide on trumpet and Cornet.

Captain Ann Miller RM was brought up in Insch, Aberdeenshire and joined the Royal Marines Band Service in 1997 following a strong interest in music and military bands from a young age. With flute and saxophone as her instrumental category, during her training at the Royal Marines School of Music she won the Cassel Prize Silver Medal on flute and joined the Band of HM Royal Marines Portsmouth (Royal Band) for her first draft in September 2000. A hugely enjoyable start to her career, Ann particularly enjoyed travelling and performing in different countries including Malta, Gibraltar, America, Australia, Iceland and Italy. In 2003 she was deployed with the band onboard RFA Argus during OP TELIC where working with the medical staff within the hospital was a fulfilling and positive experience she will never forget. Ann has always relished the opportunity to play her flute and one of the main highlights of her career came in 2007 when she performed a solo at the Mountbatten Festival of Music.

Following a year as the flute and saxophone instructor at the RMSoM, Ann undertook further musical and military training then embarked on her Bandmasters Course in 2009. Taking on the role of HMS Neptune Volunteer Band Instructor succeeding the BM’s meant a move to Scotland where after a year she then moved across the country to RM Band Scotland. High points during her time here included performing in the Ceilidh Band for the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and traveling once again, to America. Ann then went on to serve in RM Band Collingwood, was the Academic Instructor in the Higher Training Department at the RMSoM and a member of RM Band Service Headquarters before joining RM Band Portsmouth, as Bandmaster, in Summer 2018. After a hugely rewarding year in Portsmouth, she then moved to the West country with her family to become the Bandmaster of RM Band Plymouth. Having the opportunity to conduct, and work alongside the band is a real privilege for Ann and one she relished as a Bandmaster in both Bands. 2020 saw a move to the Higher Training department as Chief Instructor, where she enjoyed instructing and working with the music students who were embarking on their promotional music courses.

Gaining experience as a Bandmaster prompted Ann’s decision to become an Officer. Commissioned to Lt RM in January 2021 she completed her SCCO course at CTCRM and worked briefly at the RMSoM before attending the Royal Northern College of Music for two years studying for an MMus in conducting.

Returning to Scotland, this time as Director of Music of RM Band Scotland has been a real privilege for Ann and an experience that she is fully embracing. Married to Fred, a former RMBS flautist and tremendously supportive husband, and with two young daughters, Ann enjoys outdoor swimming, books and spending time with her family exploring the iconic Scottish landscape.

Mark Heron is a Scottish conductor known for dynamic and well-rehearsed performances across an unusually wide range of repertoire, and his expertise as an orchestral trainer.

As guest conductor he has appeared with the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Psappha, Meininger Hofkapelle, Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Pori Sinfonietta, St Petersburg Festival Orchestra and many more. He is the music director of the Nottingham Philharmonic and as Head of Conducting at the RNCM, he works regularly with all of the College’s orchestras and ensembles. Mark is the conductor laureate of the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra and for ten years was Director of Orchestras at the University of Manchester.

Dedicated to working with young musicians, in addition to his roles at the RNCM and Manchester University, Mark has conducted ensembles from the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Escola Superior de Musica de Lisboa, Tilburg & Maastricht Conservatories, the National Youth Wind Orchestras of Great Britain and Israel, Slovenian National Youth Orchestra, and many more.

Mark has a keen interest in contemporary music and has given world premieres of many important works. He has collaborated with leading composers such as Kalevi Aho, George Benjamin, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Unsuk Chin, Tansy Davies, Detlev Glanert, Heiner Goebbels, Anders Hillborg, Giya Kancheli, Magnus Lindberg, Sir James McMillan, Colin Matthews, Christopher Rouse, Kaija Saariaho, Mark Anthony Turnage and Errollyn Wallen. In 2018 he gave the the world premiere of Adam Gorb’s opera The Path to Heaven, and in 2006 the European premiere of American composer Daron Hagen’s opera, Bandanna. He has recorded dozens of CDs with the RNCM Wind Orchestra featuring contemporary wind repertoire on labels such as Chandos, Naxos, NMC, ASC and Polyphonic.

Mark studied at the RSAMD and the RNCM. Following a successful chamber music career and freelance work with many of the UK’s professional symphony orchestras, he undertook conducting studies at the RNCM and in master classes with Neeme & Paavo Järvi, Jorma Panula, and Sir Mark Elder. He worked with Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra on their mentoring programme for young conductors.

Alongside his conducting engagements, Mark is increasingly recognised as one of the world’s foremost conducting teachers, and students of his have achieved notable success. As well as his work across all of the RNCM’s renowned conducting programmes, he developed an elite undergraduate conducting programme at the University of Manchester, is a visiting professor to the Royal Air Force and appears often as a guest at conducting courses and master classes all over the world.

Connor Lyster (1st year Masters) is a conductor and percussionist currently based in Manchester. Having gained an honours degree from the Royal College of Music in percussion and timpani, he has since played with orchestras across the country such as the BBC Symphony Orchestra and The Hallé.

Alongside his percussion studies at the RCM, Connor also studied conducting with Natalia Luis-Bassa conducting various chamber groups and ensembles within the college. Connor was invited to become the principal conductor of the Lasham Music Festival for their summer season, conducting a variety of chamber works, film music and new commissions. In August 2022 Connor founded Concord Sinfonia – a Hampshire based chamber ensemble – and was most recently a guest conductor for the Burnley orchestra. Connor has attended masterclasses with Dominic Grier and Denise Ham, started his masters in conducting studying with Mark Heron and Clark Rundell at the Royal Northern College of Music in September 2023.

Maria Camila Barbosa (2nd year Masters) is a young conductor and pianist from Bogotá, Colombia. In 2023 she made an acclaimed debut with the Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra, immediately being reinvited for 2024. She was awarded 2nd prize, the orchestra prize, and the audience prize in the 1st Colombian National Conducting Competition, with the National Symphonic Orchestra of Colombia. Maca studied at Fundación Juan N. Corpas and the National University of Colombia before entering the RNCM in 2022 to study with Mark Heron and Clark Rundell. She has participated in masterclasses with the Hallé and Manchester Camerata, as well as many professional orchestras in South America, and with teachers such as Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Antony Hermus, Ludovic Morlot, Jorma Panula and Johannes Schlaefli. As principal conductor she has worked with the Bogotá Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.

Benjamin Voce (1st year Masters) was recently appointed Music Director of the Devon Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the South West’s leading symphony orchestras. In the 2022/23 season he was the assistant conductor to Thomas Adès, working with him with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, and London Philharmonic. Having first completed a degree in Mathematics in the UK before studying music at Daniel Barenboim’s prestigious “Barenboim-Said Academy” in Berlin, Benjamin embodies the long history that
these two interconnected subjects have shared together.

Versatile across all genres, he has completed an advanced diploma in contemporary repertoire conducting at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiano and in June 2023 Benjamin performed in two sold out concerts at Berlin’s Wuhlheide Arena, conducting the orchestra accompanying singer “Danger Dan” and pianist Igor Levit to a combined audience of over 30,000 people and broadcast live on national radio.

Alexander Rebetgestarted his musical career as chorister at the Munich Boys Choir.

He studied church music at the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK Berlin) with Leo van Doeselaar (organ), Wolfgang Seifen (improvisation), Kai-Uwe Jirka (choral conducting) and Harry Curtis (orchestral conducting).

Between 2017 and 2022 Alexander held the position of Assistant Director of Music, vocal coach and repetiteur at the Windsbacher Knabenchor, one of Germany’s leading boys’ choirs. During his time at Windsbach, he specialised in choral a-cappella and oratorio repertoire. Furthermore assisted several oratorio productions with renowned orchestras such as the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, the Freiburger Barock Orchester, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. In 2022 he was appointed Director of Music at St. Ann’s Church in Manchester and studies conducting (Mark Heron) at the Royal Northern College of Music. In Summer 2023 he initiated the Manchester Bach Festival based at St Ann’s Church.