Performing Arts Teachers

Stephen Morris

Stephen trained as a chorister from a young age before taking up both the violin and piano. Stephen trained with prominent conductor Michael Rose (OBE) which led him to take on the role of Principal Conductor for BDYO and guest conductor positions for several other orchestras, bands and choirs. After studying Music in Cambridge and Pennsylvania, Stephen continued to perform and train with various ensembles before qualifying as a Music Teacher through The Cambridge Partnership. Stephen led on several innovate programmes whilst teaching in the U.K. which helped to create partnerships between school and organisations, artists, and ensembles such as: Britten Sinfonia; BBC Orchestra; The Junction; and Faculty of Education. Stephen collaborated with Cambridge University and NESTA on a unique programme developed to teach composition through coding music, which led to several presentations at national conferences.

As Director of Music at BISS Stephen has worked to embed and enhance the provision offered through the Juilliard collaboration, as well as developing the quality of both curricular and extracurricular music. 

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Queenie Xu

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Nigel de Sousa

Nigel graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London with a degree in English, Drama and Theatre Studies. He went on to study performance at Drama Studio London gaining a diploma in acting. Whilst working as an actor, he toured with many theatre in education companies in the UK, working on a variety of issue-based dramas for young people. He co-founded a London based fringe Theatre company which aimed to produce fresh and new and exciting  theatre to the capital’s audience. 

 

Nigel has been the Head of Drama at an independent school in North London where he led Drama from reception through to GCSE and worked on producing many productions including devising and scripting his own performances. Nigel has also worked as a primary teacher where he was the Key Stage 2 English co-ordinator and introduced more drama into the syllabus to accelerate pupil’s English work. 

Nigel has moved over from Nord Anglia International School, Hong Kong  – where he was the Director of Drama and Performance, working across three campuses. 

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Philip Anthony Laverick

Phil is from the North East of England and studied Music at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 1995 with composition as his main focus. He started playing the tuba when he was eleven years old, quite by accident. Already a keyboard player, Phil then requested to learn the trumpet at school. His music teacher immediately dismissed the idea on the sole basis that his school orchestra already had far too many trumpets and he really needed a tuba player! The tuba stuck and become Phil’s main study. This led him initially down the brass band route, and he enjoyed many years performing with several renowned bands in the north east of England, performing on a regular basis and competing at national level.

 

His career took a surprising turn, working in the hospitality and catering industry at management level before moving to music retail and teaching privately. He then realised that teaching was his passion and so completed his PGCE from York St John University in 2001. His teaching career began as Head of Music in a secondary school in the North East of England, before spending twelve years as Director of Music for a high performing non-selective independent school, also in the North East.

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Laurie Reeve

Laurie started learning the piano at the age of three and later went on to learn the violin and viola. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and Manchester before completing a degree in Creative Music Technology at Kingston University in 2006. He enjoyed a successful career as a musician before completing a PGCE at the Institute of Education in 2014. 

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