Composer and ABRSM Deputy Head of Engagement James Welburn chairs a panel discussion on composing music for a range of educational contexts. Featuring composers Florence Anna Maunders and Amit Anand and the National Children’s Orchestras of Great Britain’s Artistic & Educational Director Catherine Arlidge MBE, the panel will look at how ABRSM’s composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education, helps emerging composers explore the many and varied opportunities that exist for composers writing music for educational settings. Come along to find out more about the programme, which next runs from September 2024 – February 2025 and for which applications will open in May.
About the presenters
James Welburn
James is a composer, pianist, guitarist and music educator based in London. He composes primarily for solo piano and is published by Editions Musica Ferrum. His debut release, Musical Escapades, was praised for its ‘rhythmic swagger that would not be out of place if juxtaposed with Prokofiev’s lighter children’s pieces’ by Murray McLachlan (International Piano), while his latest album, Star of Wonder – a collection of contemporary Christmas carols – comes recommended by Pianist magazine, which featured his arrangement of Ding Dong Merrily on High in its Christmas 2021 edition.
As Deputy Head of Engagement at ABRSM, James manages the music charity’s global portfolio of partnerships and programmes, including ABRSM’s composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education.
Florence Anna Maunders
Newbury-based Florence Anna Maunders is a multi-international award-winning composer, performer, conductor & educator. She’s enjoyed significant successes in the UK, the USA, Europe and across the rest of the world, with a string of high profile awards & prizes including the Royal Philharmonic Prize. Recent highlights include commissions from internationally renowned ensembles such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Third Coast Percussion, London Chamber Orchestra, Psappha, Black Pencil Ensemble, Rarescale, Strange Trace Opera, the Villiers Quartet, Calefax Reed Quintet, Fulham Brass Band, Wigmore Hall and Kyan Quartet.
Her music is wild, rhythmical and exciting, filled with “energised, rough-edged juxtapositions” – “a crescendo of outright queer orchestration” – and reveals a wide range of influences from EDM, contemporary jazz, Middle Eastern music, and the music of Stravinsky & Messiaen. She is currently working with London Chamber Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Orchestra as well as ensembles and festivals across the world.
Amit Anand
Amit is an Indian-born, Scotland-based composer, performer, audio engineer and educator. He moved to Scotland in 2015 to undertake a BMus in Composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which he completed in 2019. Amit has written works for a wide range of ensembles and genres and is known for respectfully blending cultural and traditional ideas with contemporary styles. He is also actively composing for educational settings and aims to publish his own educational books in the future, having developed a wide range of skills in writing to briefs as part of ABRSM’s flagship composer mentoring programme in 2022/23. Complementing this work is his busy teaching practice, which includes piano, composition and music theory, for students of all ages and stages.
Amit also is training to be an ABRSM examiner, having completed the examiner mentoring programme. Amit is gaining popularity as an audio engineer and has a busy recording schedule with a range of renowned musicians, his knowledge of classical music and composers makes him a preferred choice. Uniting all aspects of Amit’s work is his search for new perspectives in music and he remains passionate about finding innovative ways to inspire and ignite people’s curiosity in music.
Catherine Arlidge MBE
Catherine is the Artistic and Educational Director of the National Children’s Orchestra’s of Great Britain and Sub Principal Second Violin in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She is also a founder member of the string quartet, The Stringcredibles and a dedicated performer and music educator. She was the third recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Salomon award in 2015 and received and MBE for services to music education in 2016.
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