As a community musician, and founder/director of Flash Company Arts, I spend my days working with people of all ages, delivering and facilitating inclusive music making and empowering other aspiring community musicians to do the same. I lead community choirs on a weekly basis, deliver training sessions for a variety of organisations, and sit on the NYMAZ Early Years Network steering group. Community music is my passion, I believe that music enhances lives and over the years I have seen relationships forged and communities brought together in astonishing and lovely ways. I previously served on the Sound Sense Board and hope to be re-elected to continue to support this amazing organisation and advocate for the power of community music.

I am a practitioner, lecturer, drummer and dyslexic based in Cardiff. I have been working in and developing my understanding of community music practice for over a decade. I lecture in workshop leadership at RWCMD, and realised early on that the practice that I teach and demonstrate must be of excellent quality for all participants; pupils and students. At the centre of all my teaching is the intention to aid my students develop their own authentic leadership practice, based on their musicianship, through learning experiences and reflective practice. As a practitioner I have delivered projects across Wales and I spent the last year studying with the National Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Bristol. As a trustee I wish to promote and develop the opportunities to engage in practice development and the training Sound Sense provides, to ensure the next generation of leaders are equipped to deal with a changing sector. In addition I would like to provide a Welsh perspective to the organisation

As a community musician, my passion is in working with diverse and at-risk communities, creating a welcoming and pedagogical space. I believe that music can be transformative, support health and wellbeing, build communities and support family relationships through trauma and recovery. As well as being open to my own learning and development through reflective practice and peer support, I have devised and delivered training for musicians and other professionals and believe that everyone's musicality can be nurtured. I have worked with Sage Gateshead, Local Authorities, Family Support Services and Music Hubs, to deliver inclusive opportunities for music-making for all ages and abilities. I specialise in early years and SEND and run Treble Time, my own business in music-making sessions for babies to under-fives and their grownups. I am committed to sharing my experience and knowledge as a facilitator and performer and helping to develop this wonderful Sound Sense community, believing that communication, teamwork and advocacy are at the heart of community music engagement and participatory music.

I’m a singer / composer / educator / researcher from west Cumbria in northern England. I’ve been leading community music activity since I was a teenager in the 1980s, and music has been my profession since the 1990s. I was the founding Creative Director of community music organisation Soundwave in west Cumbria 2005-10, and Head of Higher Education and Research at Sage Gateshead from 2010-18 before taking up lecturing roles at Trinity Laban (2014) and Royal College of Music (2018). Currently, my community music practice consists of a number of natural voice choirs alongside other freelance work in school, community and healthcare settings. My academic work explores community music, group singing, musician education and participatory methodologies, and my recent book Music Making and Civic Imagination focuses on music making as a resource for sustainable development. I guest lecture all over the world, but my heart is in the music of my local community. I’m particularly interested in how community music as a sector connects with the international research community, and how research resources might support global grass roots community-based initiatives.

I am a gamelan player, music creator, improviser, and occasional folk fiddle player who takes great joy in collaborating with others. Over the past 20 years, my facilitation work has spanned prisons, mental health settings, theatres, festivals, youth programmes, leisure-time ensembles, mentoring schemes, and education institutions. I have also worked as a fundraiser and administrator, particularly with the Learning & Participation team at the National Centre for Early Music and as manager of Yorkshire's Sound of Bronze youth gamelan programme. Much of my time is currently spent at the University of York, where I lead the MA in Community Music and at the University of Sheffield, undertaking a practice-based PhD on community uses of gamelan in the UK. At the heart of all my work is the belief that music can nurture both individuals and communities, and give voice to that which is hard to say in words alone. I am passionate about the diversity of community music practice and am keen to work in the interests of the practitioners at its heart.

I’m a neurodivergent socially-engaged contemporary cellist, community musician / in healthcare, trainer / mentor, and creative practitioner. I facilitate supportive, transformative, and playful sound-based spaces for wellbeing, communication, and social inclusion. My work is highly responsive, reflective, and dynamic - developed through a blend of formal and self-directed learning, as an individual and via collaboration and partnerships. Consent, nervous system regulation, and embodiment are central themes of my practice.

I’m founder of Brighton & Hove Music for Connection CIC, currently celebrating our 12th year; as part of our project portfolio I facilitate all-abilities adults’ strings and older people’s free improvisation sessions, as well as running weekly later-starter string band Silver Strings. I’m also a long-term freelancer with various other Sussex-based arts and health / community organisations and practitioners: I have extensive experience working in a huge range of settings and with people / patients in all life stages (from premature babies to end-of-life), as well as training and mentoring other community artists & medical students, and facilitating Action Learning Sets.

I am a community musician from East Lothian, Scotland. After graduating with a BMus (Hons) Community Music degree from the University of Aberdeen in 2022, I have been developing my knowledge of community music, from building strong relationships through community development youth work to assisting on community music projects with Scottish Chamber Orchestra. I am interested in learning new ways of using music to connect with everyone and am motivated to explore, develop and promote the world of community music.

Lee Holder is a self-professed Music Hacker and has been using music technology to overcome their own challenges to making music for the last 35 years. They have led and performed in numerous bands, run a record label, created multimedia art installations and worked as a DJ & club promoter since the 1990s. They now use this experience to empower young people in their musical journeys as Disability Lead for the Music Works, exploring new and abandoned technologies to remove barriers to making music for those with the most complex needs.

I am a community musician, flautist and teacher originally from Manchester. I am a graduate in Music from Durham University and in Orchestral Performance from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Having been deeply inspired by my upbringing and formative community experiences, I explore music and wellbeing in educational and community settings in my practice.

In all of my work with young people, I hope to foster a lifelong love of music making and advocate for inclusive and accessible music education experiences. I have worked with the Aulus Duo and Live Music Now to facilitate workshops for children with additional support needs and have implemented a new specialised curriculum in my placement school as part of Music Making SENse. I also act as Project Coordinator and Pastoral Assistant at Turtle Key Arts' Key Club, a creative and social arts club for autistic adults.

I am thrilled to be part of the Sound Sense team in support of the fantastic work of community musicians across the country!

Gica is a freelance music practitioner and until 2023, YMI Arts Education Officer for East Lothian Council. She has worked in community arts and arts organisations for 35 years and is founder of Makin a Brew, a music and storytelling project for vulnerable families. She is director of Fun Fiddle, a longstanding East Edinburgh music project for children and adults. Gica has a strong track record in leading music projects and training for practitioners in and around Edinburgh. An experienced fiddle player and band leader, she is founder of Edinburgh’s Belle Star Band, Celter Schmelter Klezmer Trio, and The Ladies Guerilla String Quartet. She currently performs with Michael Alpert, reknowned Yiddish scholar and musician as a Scottish/ Klezmer Duo.

Gica graduated from Edinburgh University with an MSc in ‘Music in the Community’ and a PG Diploma in Health Education, (Leeds). She has led research projects around local communities, the arts, and regeneration, including Sistema Scotland, ABC Creative Music, and Scots Music Knowledge Exchange and has published papers in the International Journal of Community Music, Journal of Education Policy, and Sound Sense’s ‘Sounding Board’. She lives in Portobello, Edinburgh, and has 3 sons, two grandsons, a musician husband, and a cat! She is active in local community projects and venues, and enjoys gardening, cycling, and living by the sea.

Dr Tenley Martin is an ethnomusicologist, percussionist, and senior lecturer in music at Leeds Beckett University. She teaches popular music performance, ethnomusicology, and arts and social engagement, as well as supervising 6 interdisciplinary Ph.D students. She received her Ph.D in Music from The University of Leeds in 2016, with an ethnomusicological study on British and Spanish flamenco cultural exchange. Tenley is a specialist in a variety of popular and world music cultures with a keen interest in unusual percussion instruments. She is the author of Transnational Flamenco: Exchange and the Individual in British and Spanish Flamenco Culture (Palgrave Macmillan 2020). Tenley’s practical activities include several ongoing music outreach projects in Leeds and Bradford, as well as being a freelance percussionist and workshop technician.

Holly is Producer at MAC, Makes Music, a Youth Music Fund C programme aiming to strategically influence musical inclusion, based at the Midlands Arts Centre. Holly grew up as a family carer and consequently developed a passion for inclusion within the arts, especially music. Holly has experience of managing music making programmes with a broad variety of adults and young children. Holly is a passionate advocate for creative inclusive music making opportunities that are person-centred and brings a range of experiences to the Sound Sense board.

Rory is a community musician, a researcher of community music as social and political activism at the Institute for Social Justice and International Centre for Community Music at York St John University, and a Director/Co-Founder of Gathering Futures, a charity mobilising community music, community development and participatory research towards social change.