Who we are

Jeremy has worked as the Head of St Helens Council Music Service since its inception in 2008. Previously he held senior roles within Stockport and Suffolk Music Services and has much experience of instrumental and curriculum leadership and teaching over a 30+ year career. 

 

He gained a PhD in education research investigating how a service could create a Wider Opportunities programme that considered its participants as musicians and the class as a band or orchestra from the first lesson. He has also been instrumental in setting up a Music Education Hub Alliance across the Liverpool City Region and the Local Cultural Education Partnership for St Helens. Over the past few years, Jeremy has become passionate about the role that music and the arts can play in the lives of young people. He is an advocate for a broad and balanced school curriculum that supports the intellectual and emotional growth and understanding in all young people. More recently, he has become a keen advocate for the use of the arts as therapy and is currently developing a number of arts on prescription models to support young people's wellbeing.

A singer and violinist, Michelle originally trained as a musician and has a degree in music and English literature. She has a 27-year professional background within UK-based music education organisations including conservatoire Trinity Laban, the international music exams board ABRSM, The National Foundation for Youth Music - a lottery funded music charity for disadvantaged young people - and most recently, school music education provider Sing Up.

 

Under Michelle’s leadership Sing Up provides songs and resources to support singing in schools. Sing Up has a deep commitment to every child having the opportunity to experience high quality singing as a regular part of school life because of the many educational, developmental, societal and health benefits this brings. In 2018, Michelle wrote The Singing School Handbook which is published jointly by Faber Music and Sing Up.

 

In 2017, Sing Up created the Sing Up Foundation, a charity which focuses on singing for child and adolescent mental health. Michelle is on the Board of the Sing Up Foundation and also of the UK’s Music Education Council.

Dr McWilliams studied Natural Sciences at King’s College, Cambridge University, where he won the Richards Prize for biological sciences. He then went on to study medicine at Barts and the London Hospital, winning the Strauss Prize for Psychological Medicine. Training in child and adolescent psychiatry followed at the Maudsley Hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the Royal London Hospital, where he is now a specialist registrar working on an in-patient adolescent unit.

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Andrew completed his PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience and at the Wellcome centre for Human Neuroimaging, Queen Square University College London, where he used interdisciplinary methods to study questions at the interface of the law and cognitive science. His research straddles mind-body relations, self-awareness, neuroscience, autonomy in decision-making and the law, as well as the notion of metacognition – the ability to reflect on your own thought processes. His arts involvement spans music, visual arts and dance, where he is interested in the ethical issues created by arts-in-health programmes, including the handling of adverse consequences and processes of gaining valid consent. He was awarded an Annual Meeting Senior Researcher Award from the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2019.

A singer and one-time soprano saxophonist, Beth has a BA in Music and Media Studies from the University of Sussex and an MA in Composition of Music for Film and Television from the University of Bristol. Beth has extensive experience in managing and administrating programmes and projects, commissioning and editorial work, and partnership development for commercial and charitable organisations, and has been working in the Arts, Music, and Education sectors since 2005 – firstly at Faber Music, and then for a range of organisations including Creative Skillset (now Screen Skills), and Arts Council of Wales. Specialisms include education, skills development, and publishing. 

 

Beth has been involved in Sing Up since the outset in 2007 and now works for Sing Up full time as Publishing Manager, looking after the process of creating resources for the Song Bank and website from commissioning, through editorial, to publication. She is passionate about cultural and creative education, creating and supporting opportunities for children and young people.

Motje is an international researcher in Music Education and holds the position of VC 2020 lecturer in Education at De Montfort University. Dr Wolf holds an MA in Musicology and Drama from the University of Leipzig (Germany), studied Music Psychology in Graz (Austria, Erasmus) and completed a PhD in Music Education/Musicology at De Montfort University Leicester (UK) in 2013. She co-founded the special focus group ‘Singing in Music Education’ (SiME) of the European Association of Music in Schools (EAS) and sits on the steering committee. Within SiME, Motje is involved in international research projects and helps to develop singing research throughout Europe. She is also editor-in-chief for the Music MESH guide project.

 

Being a professional singer herself, Motje has developed a strong interest in different teaching models of singing. In her current research project Models of Vocal Education (MOVE) she investigates the models that form the basics of singing teaching. Furthermore, she is interested in enhancing the pedagogical practice for working with young voices.