I was born in 1985 at Birmingham Women's Hospital and raised in Bournville, a leafy villiage in the south of Birmingham, home to George Cadbury's ubiquitous confectionary juggernaut. I first took up the guitar at the age of 6 after growing up hearing my father tinker away on a now 50+ year old Guild dreadnought steel string acoustic guitar. I was self taught at first, and educated myself through a mixture of copying riffs and chord patterns from Dad and sitting in front of his record player working out Beatles riffs by ear and finding inspiration in a recording by Narcisco Yepes of the famous Rodrigo gutiar concerto. When at secondary school, at the age of 15, my wonderful music teacher heard me fiddling away at the guitar and send me off to receive tuition from Bryan Lester - a wonderful musician who I count as a mentor and a lifelong friend. The following year I joined the Birmingham School's Guitar Ensemble (BSGE), wand fondly remember working through an eclectic range of musical styles from classical and baroque to flamenco and gypsy jazz, with a hint of heavy metal throw in for good measure.
After leaving school I attended the University of Birmingham from 2003-2007, graduating with a First Class (Hons) Masters Degree (MSci) in Physics. During this time, I took every opportunity to perform at various weddings and functions, occasionally alongside fellow BSGE alumnus and Birmingham Consevatoire graduate Thomas Abela. After graduating with a good first class degree and receiving encouragement from my tutors to apply to top universities for post-graduate studies, I attended the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre at Oxford University for a year and a half as a research student in the field of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a topic close to my heart as my older brother was diagnosed with MS in his late teens.
After leaving Oxford in 2009, I moved back to Birmingham and undertook various volunteering opportunities with the Birmingham branch of the MS Society, driving the branch minibus, helping to organise support groups for ethnic minorities with MS and young people affected my MS across the city. After sitting on the committee for a few months I helped to fill a vacancy as Chairman of the branch, representing local MS Society members at regional level. I also spent some time volunteering with a local charity that helped to house asylum seekers and refugees, and a subsidiary of that charity that looked after young adults who were about to, or had recently, left care.
Since returning to Birmingham I spent a few years performing at weddings, functions and recitals along with providing private tuition. Seeing myself as 'undercooked' as a guitarist, owing to my studies taking priority, I spent some time studying under the guidance of Mark Eden and Mark Ashford at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Through these lessons I was able to observe and take part in masterclasses with the likes of William Kanengiser, Benjamin Verdery, and Pual Galbraith.
More recently, I have moved away from performing as I've found that I really love teaching. I was privileged enough to work for the Music Service in Birmingham for a few years, working in a number of schools across the city and honing my technique and repertoire as a teacher. I currently teach almost a full week at Kind Edward VI Five Ways School and run three classical guitar ensembles there. I take great pleasure in the process of developing a rapport for students, finding what it is about the guitar that has drawn them to it, what styles/genres students gel with, and ultimately finding a path to helping them to express themselves through the guitar and develop a lifelong skill and passion.
On a self-promotional note. I have an excellent pass rate as a teacher, and have guided students through Inial Grade to Grade 8 on the Trinity Classical Guitar syllabus, various grades on the ABRSM syllabus, including Copper through to Platinum Music Medals. I've also steered students through Grade 1 to Grade 8 Rockschool exams.
After leaving school I attended the University of Birmingham from 2003-2007, graduating with a First Class (Hons) Masters Degree (MSci) in Physics. During this time, I took every opportunity to perform at various weddings and functions, occasionally alongside fellow BSGE alumnus and Birmingham Consevatoire graduate Thomas Abela. After graduating with a good first class degree and receiving encouragement from my tutors to apply to top universities for post-graduate studies, I attended the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre at Oxford University for a year and a half as a research student in the field of the Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a topic close to my heart as my older brother was diagnosed with MS in his late teens.
After leaving Oxford in 2009, I moved back to Birmingham and undertook various volunteering opportunities with the Birmingham branch of the MS Society, driving the branch minibus, helping to organise support groups for ethnic minorities with MS and young people affected my MS across the city. After sitting on the committee for a few months I helped to fill a vacancy as Chairman of the branch, representing local MS Society members at regional level. I also spent some time volunteering with a local charity that helped to house asylum seekers and refugees, and a subsidiary of that charity that looked after young adults who were about to, or had recently, left care.
Since returning to Birmingham I spent a few years performing at weddings, functions and recitals along with providing private tuition. Seeing myself as 'undercooked' as a guitarist, owing to my studies taking priority, I spent some time studying under the guidance of Mark Eden and Mark Ashford at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Through these lessons I was able to observe and take part in masterclasses with the likes of William Kanengiser, Benjamin Verdery, and Pual Galbraith.
More recently, I have moved away from performing as I've found that I really love teaching. I was privileged enough to work for the Music Service in Birmingham for a few years, working in a number of schools across the city and honing my technique and repertoire as a teacher. I currently teach almost a full week at Kind Edward VI Five Ways School and run three classical guitar ensembles there. I take great pleasure in the process of developing a rapport for students, finding what it is about the guitar that has drawn them to it, what styles/genres students gel with, and ultimately finding a path to helping them to express themselves through the guitar and develop a lifelong skill and passion.
On a self-promotional note. I have an excellent pass rate as a teacher, and have guided students through Inial Grade to Grade 8 on the Trinity Classical Guitar syllabus, various grades on the ABRSM syllabus, including Copper through to Platinum Music Medals. I've also steered students through Grade 1 to Grade 8 Rockschool exams.
