Tutors & Staff

Dominic Grier is Tutor and Course Director of Undergraduate and Second Study Postgraduate Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, and is widely acknowledged as being among the most versatile conductors of his generation.

He has served as a regular conductor for all of the UK’s major ballet companies and guest conducts symphonic repertoire, opera and ballet extensively within Europe and further afield.

He is Music Director of the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra and the Angmering Chorale, and Joint Principal Conductor at the Junior Royal Academy of Music. He has previously served as Staff Conductor for The Royal Ballet and Northern Ballet, Music Director of the King’s College London Symphony Orchestra, and Assistant Conductor at the Opéra National de Lyon.

Recent and forthcoming projects include Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ and Prokofiev’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for English National Ballet, and a series of symphonic engagements and broadcasts with major Romanian orchestras, including a full Brahms symphony cycle.

He is a highly-respected teacher of conducting, having previously been on the faculty of the George Hurst Conductors’ Course at Sherborne Summer School of Music, and a regular guest tutor at the London Conducting Academy, in addition to his permanent role at the Royal Academy of Music.

https://www.harrisonparrott.com/artists/dominic-grier

Denise Ham taught conducting at the Royal Academy of Music from 1986-2009 and in 2006 established the Conducting Course at Blackheath Conservatoire, London. In 2016 she became Director of London Conducting Academy. For many years she has been on the staff of the George Hurst Conductors’ Course at Sherborne Summer School of Music.

She has held principal conductorships with the the Cheltenham Chamber Orchestra, Worcestershire Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Conservatoire Junior School, Aberdeenshire Youth Orchestra and the Bournemouth Rehearsal Orchestra.

After a lifetime’s commitment to music, conducting, orchestral training and teaching Colin Metters' experience is impressive. He has conducted orchestras across some twenty-four countries, worked with many of the leading symphony orchestras in the UK and conducted for some of the world's leading ballet companies at Covent Garden, Sydney Opera House and the Lincoln Centre New York. As Music Advisor, he travelled twice a year for ten years to conduct the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra in Hanoi and in the UK was Head of the Royal Academy's three year conductor training programme for thirty years.

Colin Metters' passion for music and music making remains undiminished, he continues to conduct and his commitment to the ongoing training and mentoring of aspiring conductors continues unabated. After a career lasting five decades he now devotes the major part of his time to the teaching and mentoring of aspiring conductors. He teaches every term at the Royal College of Music, is Emeritus Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music, visiting guest professor to the Cracow Music Academy  and directs masterclasses as Artistic Consultant and Senior Tutor for the newly formed International Conducting Academy.  Now into his second decade as freelance teacher and mentor he gives regular masterclasses and works with conductors on one to one mentorship.

Cathal Garvey taught Orchestral Conducting at postgraduate level, for the Choral Conducting course at the Royal Academy of Music, for over fifteen years.

He regularly conducts orchestras and choirs across London and the South East of England, and is currently Musical Director of Reading Symphony Orchestra.

He has previously conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, London International Orchestra, Covent Garden Chamber Orchestra, Southern Sinfonia, London Medical Orchestra, Orchestra of the Reform, and Leicester Symphony Orchestra, and many others.

Leif Tse teaches the dedicated class for those with limited experience in conducting, and his sympathetic and thorough approach is greatly admired by course participants working under his guidance.

He was recently music director of Streatham St. Bart’s Chamber Orchestra and South London String Orchestra and has conducted the Lithuanian State and the Hungarian National Szeged Symphony Orchestras, among others.

He completed his Master of Performance in Conducting at the Royal College of Music as a Christopher Hogwood Scholar, during which time he assisted Sir Antonio Pappano and Vasily Petrenko. Leif has also participated in masterclasses led by Sir Andrew Davis, Martyn Brabbins, Colin Metters, Sian Edwards and Rüdiger Bohn.

John Longstaff, Principal Accompanist and Tutor in Supporting Studies, was appointed Musical Director of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra in 1993, becoming Artistic Director in September 2001-2011. He has held full time posts as rehearsal pianist and conductor at the Opera House in Kiel, Germany, and with Northern Ballet Theatre, in addition to guest engagements for Opera North, the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company and Opera Lirica. He is currently Director of Music at St. Peter’s Church, Harrogate.

Associate Director Laura Kjærgaard-Grier holds a BMus in Classical Saxophone from the Royal Danish Academy and a PGDip from the Royal Northern College of Music, where she also studied Performance Psychology, Orchestral Conducting, and Music Management.

She works full time as Project Leader for Music Inter Alia in London, representing world renowned conductors and instrumentalists. In January 2023 she founded her own agency, AriseEnsembles, and has previously worked for the HarrisonParrott and Rayfield Allied artist management agencies.

She studied conducting at the prestigious Malko Academy for Young Conductors, working with musicians from the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, with tutors including Fabio Luisi, Manfred Honeck, Juanjo Mena, Thomas Søndergård, and Michael Schønwandt.

She is currently Music Director of the Lancing Chamber Orchestra, the City Wind Orchestra (London), and the Worthing Concert Band.