Adults

Recognised as one of Australia’s finest singers, Lily Dior has shared the stage with a remarkable list of outstanding musicians from Australia and around the world and has performed at many of Australia's best venues including The Opera House Concert Hall, The State Theatre and the Sydney Town Hall. She has been a featured artist with Dave Matthew's Manhattan Jazz Quartet (Victor Lewis, Charnett Moffat, Lew Soloff) as well as Oscar Castro Neves and his all star band for Sydney Festival (Airto Moriera, Alex Acuna, Abe Laboriel, Don Grusin, Gary Meeks) and was invited to sit in with her mentor, the late great Mark Murphy, while studying in New York many years ago. A finalist at The National Jazz Awards she is also an experienced radio personality and three time host of The Freedman Fellowship Jazz Awards held yearly at The Studio, Sydney Opera House. Before moving to London Lily hosted a weekly program on Sydney's Eastside Radio for 15 years and interviewed such luminaries as Ron Carter, Fred Wesley, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marcos Valle, Kurt Elling, Lulo Reinhart and Norma Winstone. The daughter of professional musicians who met and married in London, Lily spent her first five years touring South East Asia with her parents who later settled in Australia. Returning to her roots Lily has very quickly established herself as an in demand performer appearing regularly at iconic jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The 606 Club, The Bull’s Head, Pizza Express, Toulouse Lautrec and now closed ‘The Hideaway’. A featured artist at Spice Of Life the last two years, selling out both shows as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival, she has recently toured Italy and Sicily and previously been invited to perform a couple of times at the Budapest Jazz Club with an all star Hungarian band. With a voice that dances effortlessly between jazz and soul Lily brings a fresh and exciting approach to her music, imbuing her songs with deep meaning and inviting the listener on a journey through her rich expressive voice and warm stage presence.

"Since Australian vocalist Lily Dior arrived on the London scene she's been going from strength to strength and amassing a reputation as an exciting live performer and versatile singer who works across genres including jazz, groove and soul" 606 Club

"She can belt out a song, dramatize a lyric, swing hard and earthy, flirt, sing a tender song - Lily can ‘tell a story’ “ ABC Australia

“Dior’s voice has the depth, control and clarity of Gregory Porter” Kind Of Jazz

www.lilydior.com

Martina is a versatile flute player and enthusiastic teacher from the Czech Republic. She trained in Classical Flute and Jazz Flute Performance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has freelanced with orchestras, touring the UK with Czech National Symphony Orchestra, or Scandinavia with City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, and playing flute and piccolo in theatre pits in ballet and opera productions. Exploring her interest in groove and improvising, she is currently specialising in Brazilian music, performing with Rhythms of the City samba band as a percussionist and with Offbeat Collective as a flautist.

She has taught students of different levels and ages, helping them achieve their musical goals and discover their creative potential. She has lead creative music workshops for The Music FunDation in Prague and taught a seminar on Creativity in Music at the Teplice Conservatoire.

Award winning saxophonist and recorder player Tom Ridout was predicted by Jazzwise Magazine in 2012 as an upcoming jazz musician to watch out for. A finalist in the 2016 BBC Young Musician Jazz Award, graduate from the prestigious Royal Academy of Music, winner of the Lancaster Jazz Festival Youth Jazz Commission 2018, Help Musicians Peter Whittingham Jazz Awardee 2021, and a recent member of NYJO, Tom is a prolific composer who fronts his own bands playing his original compositions.

Thomas is currently in his final year studying in London, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His principal instrument is the recorder, but he is also a talented baroque flautist, as well as an early keyboards player.

As well as being a dedicated educator, he enjoys a busy schedule filled with exciting performance opportunities. Recent highlights have included playing in the ENO's Olivier Award winning production of ‘Noye’s Fludde’, as well as playing alongside members of The Academy of Ancient Music in a series of concerts and touring with Opera North as the Principal Recorder player for a production of ‘The Greek Passion’. He also successfully auditioned and completed the Wigmore Hall’s Chamber Tots scheme, leading educational workshops for toddler and young children.

Over the last three years, Thomas has taken part in lessons and masterclasses both as a soloist and as part of an ensemble with various people, such as Maurice Steger, Rachel Podger, Karel van Steenhoven and Dorothee Oberlinger. In his first year at GSMD he was selected to play the principal recorder part in the school’s opera; a production of ‘Venus and Adonis’ by John Blow, and has since been asked to play again for both Charpentier's 'Orphée descendant aux enfers' and Carissimi's 'Judicium Salomonis'. He has also toured across Austria and Switzerland as a member of the critically acclaimed ensemble Apollo's Cabinet, playing both the recorder and the harpsichord.

As well as performing, Thomas is a keen arranger and composer, and was commissioned by The Worshipful Company of Woodturners to compose a fanfare for the Lord Mayor of London, which he had the opportunity to perform and present to the Lord Mayor on multiple occasions.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCTXb2AZ3KYMie7EZR1yH4kg

Reuben Fowler is a 27 year old jazz trumpet player, composer, arranger and teacher based in London. He is currently the trumpet player for Paloma Faith and Culture Club, and has also performed with an array of artists including Noel Gallagher and Texas. As a result he has performed at some of the most coveted venues and festivals worldwide including the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, The Hollywood Bowl (Los Angeles), the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Glastonbury and the North Sea Jazz Festival. Reuben has also worked extensively as a session musician and his performing credits include the BBC Big Band. Worldwide, he has played on broadcasts including: Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny, The Jimmy Kimmel Show, The Jonathan Ross Show, Alan Carr Chatty Man, Taratata, and Live at the Palladium.

Reuben Fowler graduated in 2012 from the Royal Academy of Music, winning the Kenny Wheeler Award for composition and performance and the Musicians Benevolent Peter Whittingham Award. He also won the John Baker Memorial Award for brass.

Following the online success of the Facebook page Trumpet Tuesday; which is co- managed by Reuben alongside two other Royal Academy of Music alumni, he was asked to lead a group masterclass for the jazz and classical brass students at his alma- mater in 2016. Prior to this, he had also taught the Jazz Ensemble at the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. 

In 2013 Reuben Fowler wrote and arranged, rehearsed and recorded his own big band as part of a trans-atlantic recording project called Between Shadows, featuring jazz legends Tom Harrell, Stan Sulzmann and Jim Hart. The project later resulted in Fowler being cited: "...maybe the most exciting and accomplished trumpeter to emerge on the British Jazz scene.."