Performance Pathway

The Performance Pathway is for advance young musicians people aged 9-19* who demonstrate a passion for music performance and composition in any genre, style, instrument or voice type, and a dedication to challenging themselves to develop their skills alongside peers and professional musicians.

Curriculum

Saturday sessions: 5 x 5-week modules over the year

  • 3-hour workshop sessions for ages 9-19

  • Designed and led by specialist workshop leaders

  • Musical support from a rotating team of professional musicians from different genres (including musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

  • Focus on topics of relevance across all musical genres

  • Listening/learning aurally, responding creatively through collaborative compositions, exploring theoretical concepts and mechanisms, gaining vocabulary to enable communication about musical concepts

  • Student-lead small bands and chamber ensemble coaching 

  • Career mentoring and pastoral support

  • Performance for the audience and critical reflection

  • Independent enrichment projects based on student interest

  • Masterclasses/visits from guest artists/professionals

  • Access to partner organisations’ events (open rehearsals, concerts, Q&A with artists, attendance at recording sessions and more)

Autumn 2024, 1: “Inspired by the Rite”, with Aga Serugo Lugo

  • Compose in the Moment: In this module, you’ll learn how to compose collaboratively, responding in real time to existing works and your peers’ ideas.

    You’ll explore a wide range of techniques including body percussion, voice, and your own instrument to shape original material together.

    With expert support from professional musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the wider UK music scene, you’ll develop your ideas into bold, large-scale group performances - bringing together orchestral instruments, rhythm section and voice to create exciting, layered textures that reflect the full diversity of the ensemble.


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    Aga Serugo-Lugo is a vocalist, clarinettist, pianist, composer and workshop leader. He sang in the 9-piece Funk band “Gefunkt”, and also composed and played for the jazz-fusion group ‘Eclectiv’. 

     

    Aga has delivered community workshops for Sing-up, The Royal Opera House, ENO Engage, Music in Detention, Britten Pears Arts and Turtle Key Arts. He works in Education settings for SEN Schools, Trinity Laban, Pegasus Opera, London Sinfonietta and BBC Proms.

      

    Aga specialises in collaborative musical storytelling and believes music making should be a shared immersive experience.

    Compositional; projects include:

    Life Growing Up (2018)- Music for film and life performance of poetry derived from testimony of young people with HIV.

    Falling Star (2018) -Celebration of schools at Snape Maltings  

    The Old Man And The Sea (2019)- Community Beach Opera in Lowestoft, 

    Camberwell Groove (2019)-   a 6 movement composition for World Mental Health Day with the Mind and Soul Choir and Camberwell Community Choir.

    Humanity Rising . (2019)- ESOL co-written Operetta based on the Noah’s flood story

    Our Fire (2022) – Written for the BBC Singers and New Youth Vocal Group to celebrate the anniversary of the London Olympics.

    Home Within My Heart (2023) Song for the Philhamonia’s Orchestra Unwrapped project.

    Songs Of Discovery (2023) – 5 ESOL co-written short Operettas based on Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten.

    That’s What I Call Home (2024)- Written for the BBC Symphony Chorus, BBC Singers and 6 community choirs, performed at Hackney Empire.

Spring 2025, 2: “Improvising with Maqam”, with Saied Silbak

  • Improvising with Maqam: In this module, you’ll discover how to improvise using Arabic Maqam scales and explore asymmetric metres like 7/8 to develop your own unique musical ideas.

    Using a combination of voice, body percussion, and instrumental work, you’ll explore the traditions and techniques of Arabic music.

    Working alongside professional musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and specialists from across the UK scene, you’ll scale up your improvisations into full ensemble pieces - blending Arabic, contemporary and classical influences into structured performances with a powerful, cross-cultural sound.


  • Saied Silbak is a Palestinian composer and oud player born in Shafaa`mr, a city located in the lower Galilee of occupied Palestine. He began training in classical piano at the age of four, before moving onto the oud in his early teens in order to delve deep into the nuances at the base of Arabic music. 

    Silbak went on to train at the Beit Almusica Conservatoire where he later taught, before studying Music and Psychology at the university of Haifa and then completing his Masters at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he is currently based. 

    He has a unique understanding of different types of music, from Arabic, Turkish and Indian to classical Western styles. Silbak’s signature sound, created through his artful ability to fuse these styles together, has seen him perform around the world at festivals and concert series in the UK, Belgium, France, Palestine, Morocco, Argentina and beyond.

Autumn 2024, 2: “Global Rhythms”, with Paul Griffiths

  • Rhythm Without Borders: Explore how to play and compose using global rhythms, with a focus on Caribbean and South American rhythmic cycles, polyrhythms, and Cuban - inspired claves.

    You’ll experiment using body percussion, voice, and your own instrument, building rhythmic confidence while exploring how different grooves influence your sound.

    Your ideas will grow into full-scale group performances with support from musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and artists from across the UK music scene. Working with a wide-ranging ensemble, you’ll collaborate across rhythm, melody and harmony - drawing on the unique mix of musical traditions in the room to produce a big, driving sound.


  • Paul Griffiths is an internationally renowned music educationalist. His

    musical roots lie in Jazz, Funk and Rock, but throughout the last four

    decades he has developed a unique artistic voice and inspirational

    workshop style that transcends musical, social and cultural barriers.

    His workshops and projects are predicated on principles of creativity and

    collaboration, access and inclusion and the fostering of musical and

    personal agency for participants.

    He has worked as a creative project leader with the majority of the pre-

    eminent London and UK based Orchestras, Contemporary Music

    Ensembles, Opera Companies, Arts Centres, Festivals and Conservatoires.

    He has taught at the Guildhall School of Music since 1990 at Masters,

    Postgraduate and Undergraduate levels and centrally within the acclaimed

    ‘GSMD-Barbican-Connect’ project which received the ‘Queens Award for

    Services to Higher Education’ in 2006.

    In association with various international organisations, he has produced

    collaborative creative music work in communities throughout the world

    including projects in Iceland, Norway, the Republic of Ireland, France,

    Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus,

    Tanzania, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Palestine, Israel, the

    United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,

    Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Australia, and the United States of

    America.

    He is a highly skilled educational collaborator and has worked in

    partnership with a wide range of UK and international artists and

    ensembles from a broad cross section of music including Mark Anthony

    Turnage, Tan Dun, the Alim Qasimov Ensemble, Robert Glasper, Shabaka

    Hutchings, Gretchen Parlato, Nitin Sawnhey, Jerry Dammers, N’Faly

    Kouyate, Viktoria Mulova, Julian Joseph, Denys Baptiste, Christian

    Lindberg, Tunde Jegede, Ensemble Moderne, Steve Martland, Jef Neve

    and the Jazz at Lincoln Centre Orchestra.

Summer 2025, 1: “Shaping the Sound from rehearsal to stage”, with Nikki Yeoh

  • Shaping the Sound: This module is a deep dive into how to take a song from raw idea to live arrangement, developing structure, flow and energy for performance.

    You’ll explore how to extend and evolve your music using improvisation - enhancing harmony, melody and rhythm while shaping your arrangement to bring out the strengths of your group.

    With expert guidance from one of the UK’s leading Jazz artists and supported by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, you’ll collaborate to create performance-ready pieces arranged for a full ensemble. You’ll work across orchestral instruments, rhythm section and voice crafting bold, exciting live versions of BMA students original material.

    This module leads directly into our ‘Enrichment Project – Showcase’


    Enrichment Project

    From Rehearsal to Stage: This final module is all about levelling up your performance skills and bringing your music to life on a professional stage.

    You’ll rehearse intensively with your ensemble, tightening up your arrangements and refining your group sound in preparation for a live event.


  • Nikki Yeoh is a jazz composer and pianist, recognised as one of the most ground-breaking contemporary jazz composers of her generation. Since her emergence on the British jazz scene in the 1990s, Nikki has proved to be an all-round adventurer who has continually sought to broaden her musical horizons. Accomplished soloist, Nikki has also excelled as a composer, reflected in a number of significant commissions. Among her most notable recent works are “Suite Of Seven Tunes”, written for the internationally renowned reeds virtuoso John Sunman; “River Spirit”, written for The Oxford New College Boys Choir following a commission from Oxford Contemporary Music; and “Nucleus”, commissioned by The National Youth Jazz orchestra, which Nikki dedicated to her mentor Ian Carr. In 2024, Nikki received APPJ Parliamentary Jazz Education Award for her outstanding contribution to jazz education over the past thirty years. In 2017, she got The Jazz FM Instrumentalist of the Year Award, sponsored by Rathbones.

Spring 2025, 1: “Motifs to Masterpieces” with Yvette Riby-Williams

  • Motifs to Masterpieces: This module focuses on developing original ideas, from small motifs to full musical structures, using your own methods for notating and recalling ideas.

    You’ll explore, refine and share ideas through voice, body percussion and your instrument - building your own creative process.

    Supported by experienced musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and UK-based artists, you’ll expand your motifs into fully arranged pieces for a wide-ranging ensemble. Whether you play strings, brass, keys, percussion or sing, you’ll collaborate to create rich, multi-layered performances that reflect the group’s shared creativity and individual strengths.


  • Yvette is a London-based singer, songwriter, producer and community workshop leader, guest leading various community choirs and work in schools across the UK

    Working under the name NAALA her solo work celebrates her Ghanaian heritage and British upbringing; a contemporary electronic music project built from self-made synths and found-sounds. This is a project filled with the delicate complexities of modern and African biographical storytelling. With this project she joined the Snape Maltings Open Space program (2016-2018) developing an immersive sensory show which debuted to a sold out audience at the first annual Snape Maltings Festival of New.

    As a songwriter she has co-written music with NAO for her Grammy nominated album “Saturn” and collaborated with Jarvis Cocker on his recent album, Barbican art installation: Cosmic Dancer and cave performance of “Beyond the Pale”, being heavily featured on the remix of 'House Music All Night Long' and will be joining this project for their Autumn tour.

    She is active leader in many of our community projects and has been leading a very successful singing program at HMP Warren Hill for the past 8 years. Additionally working with Group A and our community leader training program.

    Yvette is passionate about using music and harnessing its multisensory potential to support the creativity of young people, marginalized groups and to help develop community-focused arts projects. She is also fierce advocate for better representation and access for people of colour in the arts.