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 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 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.

As an organisation Sound Sense has an invaluable body of knowledge and experience and a generosity of spirit which is unique and plays an essential role in supporting colleagues, many of whom are working in solo. Advocacy is key, looking outwards to collaborate and form new partnerships alongside supporting music at the heart of communities. Recently I've been making music with refugees, young people at risk of exclusion, inter-generational projects in care homes and free gigs in care homes, libraries and hospitals. I am delighted to have been elected back on to the board for a second time and I am looking forward to sharing my experience, to sustain and develop the workforce at this crucial time

I am a community musician, flautist and teacher from Manchester. I am a graduate of Music from Durham University and Orchestral Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Having been hugely inspired by my upbringing and formative community experiences, exploring music and wellbeing in education and community settings is central to my practice.

Since 2020, I have developed Project Bottled with classical guitarist Georgina Dadson as part of the Aulus Duo. This project delivers workshops facilitating children’s first explorations of emotional honesty and its links to musicianship. As an enthusiastic and ambitious educator, I also seek to foster a lifelong love of music making and advocate for inclusive and accessible music education practices, an ethos I have shared with Ambassadors as a Creative Learning Lead Ambassador with the Benedetti Foundation.

I regularly work with arts organisations Live Music Now, Bristol Beacon and Wye Valley Music to explore the joy of music with families, young people and people living with dementia. Most recently, I have supported Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project with Live Music Now, delivered Project Bottled as part of the Bridgend Children’s Literature Festival and acted as the Project Coordinator for Turtle Opera Bristol in partnership with Turtle Key Arts and Bristol Beacon. I am thrilled to have joined the Sound Sense team and can’t wait to support the fantastic work of our community!

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.

Fascinated by young children’s interest in and natural enjoyment of sound and music play, I am an early childhood music practitioner, trainer, lecturer, education consultant and researcher. I work as lecturer in music education at the Royal College of Music and I am interested in music research that has direct application to practice. I bring experiences of directorship of an early years arts company (Magic Acorns) and trusteeship of national charity MERYC England (Music Educators and Researchers of Young Children). I am motivated by a desire to make a difference for Sound Sense and its members; bringing a listening mind, heart, and the passion to support and develop Sound Sense in the coming years.

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.