Meet Winston Clifford, Ahnansé, Olivia Murphy, and Vij Prakash – each a powerhouse in the UK Jazz scene who are going to be leading on all things musical direction and shaping our artistic programmes nationwide, helping us to inspire more young people, reach new audiences, and spread the joy of Big Band far and wide. Our four Resident Music Directors (MDs) are an update to our previous Head of Music model to make a more collaborative structure, aimed at enhancing the creative and educational experiences for young musicians across the UK.
Winston Clifford
Winston is a firm favourite with our Under 18s who he’s worked with for the past few years, and brings educational expertise to the table. Alongside creating safe spaces for less advanced musicians to try out new ideas, one of his most exciting aims is to ‘to encourage the young musicians at NYJO (and all musicians!) to embrace the importance of using the whole body to internalise music, especially at the learning stage’. We can’t wait to see where this takes us.
Ahnansé
Ahnanse has worked with both our Under 18s and Emerging Professionals through collaborations with Steam Down to form ‘The Steam Down Big Band’. Within his role as Resident MD, he aims to ‘empower aspiring young musicians to become professionals by providing them with the tools and experiences they need to thrive and to revitalise and broaden the big band format’s appeal.’
Olivia Murphy
‘In my role as Resident MD, I aim to encourage and develop a diverse, open-minded and innovative jazz network of incredibly talented young musicians.’ We’ve already witnessed this in action while Olivia has worked with our Under 18s for the past few years and is taking the lead in our upcoming Emerging Professional Blue Note project. Watch this space!
Vij Prakash
Vij has worked with NYJO for a number of years, delivering educator training sessions to our Emerging Professionals and creating a festival offering which we debuted at Cross The Tracks 2024. In his new role as Resident MD, Vij aims to ‘contribute to the development of a jazz ‘curriculum’ to build tools and skills for young musicians to bridge the gap between basic knowledge and what is required to approach the level for a jazz/pop degree.’
We’re very excited to have these trailblazers on board, and we look forward to telling you more about them soon!