My first career was as a freelance violinist, based in Manchester, playing in chamber orchestras, musical theatre and ballet orchestras, and teaching the violin.
My interest in education grew over the years and I came to know Dalcroze Eurhythmics, a way of gaining a bodily, muscular experience of musical theory, rather than learning it as an intellectual subject. This was a light-bulb moment for me. It led to an initial two years of training at the Insitut-Jaques-Dalcroze in Geneva at the end of the 1990s and then back again in 2012/2013. I am now an international representative of the Dalcroze approach, enjoying culturally rich exchanges through guest invitations to teach abroad, whilst also being on the staff of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester as a musicianship tutor.
I am coming to the end of my PhD studies (2026), through which I’m inquiring into my own practice using multi-media. My artistic autoethnography uses bricolage, stitched collages, film, performance and writing. The focus of my study has become the story of the discovery of my body, as a musician. It touches on themes of trauma, safety, play and integration. A passionate Welsh woman, I love being able to say that I live near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch. I’m at my happiest swimming in the sea off Llanddwyn Island, chatting to the seals.