I grew up in a musical household - my mum was previously a clarinet player and a classroom teacher and was keen for me to be exposed to a variety of music from a young age. There was always a recording playing in the house or classical music coming from the optimum radio station for that time of day. 

 

I first started music lessons on the piano but it was the clarinet that hooked me. I loved the sound of it! My mum was keen for me to make my own decision about an instrument, and since the clarinet had been her instrument she tried to steer me away from it. But I was set on it.

 

It was when I joined Ealing Youth Orchestra that I first began to see how beautiful music can be at bringing together people from a variety of backgrounds. I met kids my age who otherwise I wouldn’t have and it became a brilliant social experience that I looked forward to every week. This is why I am so passionate about kids being able to experience playing in an orchestra - it is much more than simply the music.

 

When I was 18 I managed to get a place at the Royal Academy of Music to study the clarinet. I was able to concentrate every day on honing skills on the instrument, talking endless musical nonsense with other music-obsessed kids from all over the world. 

 

While I was there I won the Buffet Crampon Clarinet Prize, graduated with first class honours, and was given a scholarship to do a Master of Arts there.

 

After I left the Royal Academy, I joined the Southbank Sinfonia, which provides a brilliant one-year programme for musicians recently out of college. We did concerts every week and toured around Europe, visiting Italy, Germany, Guernsey and Scotland.

 

Meanwhile, I was also building my freelance career with professional orchestras. In 2019 I was regularly playing as first clarinet of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, while also appearing with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Chamber Orchestra and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

 

Then came the global pandemic! The music world was flattened and like many other freelance musicians (and people from countless other professions) I was unsure what to do with myself. 

 

I had always enjoyed working with children so I applied to Teach First. I was told that they didn’t need music teachers but that I could apply for maths.. In my lockdown-muddled brain I thought why not! A completely new experience and a stable profession was appealing after a couple of years of loving the work I was doing but grappling with the financial instability that comes with freelancing in music. 

 

And so I went off to Tamworth to train as a maths teacher! I achieved Qualified Teacher Status in 2021 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Leadership and Learning. So if you’re ever in need of leadership and learning, I am your guy! 

 

The problem was I felt like there was a part of me missing. In hindsight it was probably the music and the instrument that I had loved playing for over a decade, right?! Unfortunately I was woefully un-self-aware. It took me a good couple of years to finally give in to myself that music and clarinet playing were very much a part of me and denying that was like swimming against the tide.

 

And that brings us to the present. I've settled in Sutton Coldfield with my lovely fiancee (now wife!) Ellie. I’m getting back into playing and getting back in touch with what it feels like to be honing a skill that is important to me. I work for Entrust Music Service, teaching a number of different instruments which I have been playing since I was young, and I’m rediscovering what it means to be a professional musician.