Suzie Collier has an eclectic taste in music, and manages to indulge these diverse musical interests in all the music she plays. As well as performing in Scaramouche, she freelances with various London-based ensembles, plays in The Watson Trio, and conducts the Chamber Orchestra at RAMJD. She devotes much time to organising and performing fund-raising recitals and events, as well as adjudicating competitions, and running masterclasses. She has also broadcast on Radio 3 and Classic FM. Having studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a violin scholar, she became the youngest violin professor in their Junior Department and has since been awarded an ARAM for outstanding services to the violin profession.
Steve Mulligan was brought up on jazz. “My dad used to belt out Basie, Ellington, Parker, Davis and Coltrane on his gramophone - anyone remember those archaic analogue machines?” He also admires Bartók, Stravinsky, Ives and Berg, among many others. Steve played with the jazz-rock group “Steps”, “Loose Tubes”, in its early days and was also in “The Baritone Band”. He has also led his own quintet and a duo featuring the jazz pianist Tim Richards. He plays saxophones and clarinets and performs with Nicola in the busking duo “Tabley Bellows” in England and the south of France.
Nicola Hadley is a versatile musician; a pianist and accordionist, working in the fields of concert, theatre and education. She has performed throughout Europe with “Happy End” and “Accordions go Crazy”; currently she plays with the Ceilidh bands “Northern Frisk” and “Cat’n’Fiddle” and has appeared at the National Theatre as a musical rabbit in “The Wind in the Willows”. Her passion for the accordion and busking sprang from an inspirational encounter with the Cambridge Buskers and coincided with a quest to take her music travelling. You can’t take a piano for a walk.
Jacob Collier: Music has always been an underlying aspect of Jacob’s life, and he has enjoyed many opportunities to perform as a musician. He has performed in the Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum, and has also been awarded a Gold Medal, by the Associated Board, for attaining the highest mark in the country for his Grade 8 singing. Jacob feels most at home in the realms of jazz, but likes to blur boundaries between genres when composing. As well as being a bass player and singer, Jacob also plays jazz piano, percussion and ukulele. He joins the Purcell School and RAM Junior Jazz course later this year.