Musical Team
John Andrews – Conductor
Image credit: Jane Stokes
John Andrews is Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and Conductor-in-Association with the English Symphony Orchestra. Born in Nairobi and brought up in Manchester, he graduated from Cambridge University with a doctorate in music and history.
With a special affinity for Italian bel canto and the English baroque, he has conducted over 40 operas with companies including The Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, English Touring Opera, Garsington Opera, Opera de Baugé and the Volkstheater Rostock. An exponent of neglected English music he has appeared regularly at the English Music Festival presenting works from the seventeenth to the twentieth century.
His recordings include Incidental Music to The Tempest and Macbeth, the oratorio The Light of the World and comic opera Haddon Hall (Sir Arthur Sullivan) and The Mountebanks (Gilbert and Cellier) for Dutton Epoch with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Percy Sherwood’s Double Concerto and Sir Frederic Cowen’s 5thSymphony for EM Records, and Thomas Arne’s The Judgment of Paris for Dutton Vocalion, and most recently Lampe’s The Dragon of Wantley.
He won a BBC Music Magazine Best Opera Award for his recording of Malcolm Arnold’s The Dancing Master for Resonus Classics.
Yvette Murphy, Assistant Conductor
Yvette is a London-based conductor, organist, and mezzo-soprano. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Yvette read for a degree in Theology, Religion and Philosophy of Religion, and held the Organ Scholarship at Selwyn College. During her time at Cambridge, Yvette was President of the prestigious Cambridge University Opera Society, Publicity and Fundraising Officer for Sing Inside, Cambridge (a charity bringing singing workshops into prisons), and Evensong Officer for the Minerva Festival (promoting the work of marginalised gender composers in choral music). Before arriving in Cambridge, Yvette held the Organ Scholarship at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark, and was organist at the Parish Church of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead.
A passionate educator, Yvette is currently Choral Director for the Diocese of Westminster, working to reinvigorate music education in Catholic primary schools, establishing regional choirs across the Diocese. These choirs have recently performed at Westminster Cathedral, Farm Street Church, Mayfair, and The Royal Albert Hall. She is also working as Courses Manager for Creative Oundle for Organists, helping to provide high-quality educational opportunities to young organists, and as Assistant Musical Director and Administrator for Children’s Voices of Enfield. As a conductor, Yvette also works with Genesis Chorale, a non-auditioned choral society in West Byfleet, and greatly enjoys her work with St John of Jerusalem Festival Chorus, Hackney.
Emma Warren, Assistant Conductor
Emma Warren is an award-winning conductor based in London. Emma is currently the Meaker Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music, where her year-long project includes conducting a concert series of choral music for upper voices and leading conducting workshops in local schools. Emma is the Founder and Artistic Director of Inchant, a collective of young professional singers working towards greater accessibility in choral music; the Music Director of the High Holborn Chamber Choir; and is regularly in demand as an Assistant and Deputy Conductor with ensembles across London and the surrounding area.
Emma was a scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music and gained a Distinction in her Master’s in Choral Conducting in 2023. During her studies, Emma worked with choirs including the Academy Chamber Choir, the BBC Singers, and the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Upon graduation, Emma was awarded the Thomas Armstrong Prize for Choral Leadership, the Alumni Prize for a ‘singularly distinguished musician’, and an LRAM diploma in Vocal Technique and Singing Teaching. Prior to this, she obtained a First-Class Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Birmingham, where she majored in Choral Conducting.
Louisa Lam – Repetiteur
Respected as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, Louisa Lam’s recent credits include the televised string final of BBC Young Musician of the Year. She is currently a staff accompanist at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, in both the Senior and Junior departments.
After making her debut performance at the age of nine with Richard Clayderman at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton, Louisa studied at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department before gaining a First Class Honours degree in Music at King’s College London and a Masters Degree from the GSMD, where she studied with Gordon Back, supported by a scholarship from the Worshipful Company of Cutlers.
Her recent appearances include: Barbican Hall, Wigmore Hall, Auditori Winterthur (Barcelona), Musica Eboræ (Portugal) and on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune. She is the répétiteur for the St John of Jerusalem Festival Chorus in Hackney and has a thriving teaching practice, both at home in London and at Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex. Louisa is also an accompanist and performance coach for the Music4People summer school
in North Yorkshire, and ProCorda residential string training camps.
Please find more information at www.louisalam.com
Will Gardner has worked for a number of choirs and ensembles in London and Berlin, including Berliner Rundfunkchor, Karl-Forster Chor and The Royal Opera House Community Chorus. He holds an L.R.S.M. in Piano Performance and a degree in Music from Cambridge University. As an orchestrator Will writes and arranges scores for various artists including Matthew Barney and Mercury Prize winners alt-J. His website is at https://www.will-gardner.com/
Information on past members of the musical team is posted at the Past Members of the Musical Team page