Alma’s career as a violist started aged 13 when she performed Telemann’s Viola Concerto in G major with the Orquesta de Cámara de Jimena de la Frontera. Since then, Alma has flourished as a chamber and orchestral musician. She freelances with many UK orchestras, including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Welsh National Opera, and has been on trial with both the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. She is currently a fellow on the Manchester Camerata 360 Fellowship, which involves regular performances with the orchestra as well as being involved with their outreach work. She has played in Wigmore Hall with the Hestia Quartet and live on BBC Radio 3’s programme ‘In Tune’ with the Headrow Quartet, and she has performed Benjamin Britten’s Lachrymae as a soloist with the Taunton Sinfonietta. 

Alma spent the first 14 years of her life in rural Southern Spain – the rugged spikiness of the terrain in which she grew up often reflected in her playing now – and is fluent in English and Spanish. She studied Maths and Music at the University of Leeds, graduating with First Class Honours and having been awarded the Dean’s Prize for Mathematics. Alma did her postgraduate at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, learning with Dr Louise Lansdown, and was awarded a Master of Music with Distinction. She followed this with an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma course specialising in professional performance, learning with Adam Romer and Lucy Nolan, alongside the NEXT training programme with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. 

Magdalen Farm Strings has been a part of Alma’s life since the first course in 2008, when she was 9 and one of the youngest participants on the course. Magdalen nurtured Alma’s love of music all through her childhood and teenage years and it brings her immense joy to provide this experience for current participants.

Polly is married with four children, and lives with her family in Somerset. She is Head of Music at Chard School and teaches private instrumental lessons in her music studio at home. Polly is a qualified Music Therapist and works in special education and mental health - Polly Orr-Ewing Music Therapy. Polly performs regularly with the Taunton Sinfonietta and also gives chamber music recitals in her music barn -  Kilima Farm Music.

After completing a degree in music at Manchester University Polly spent many years living and working in Spain where she was involved in the founding of three music schools in villages where music education was scarce. During this time, she performed with various chamber ensembles and orchestras, alongside teaching commitments.

Since moving to Somerset in 2013 Polly has completed the training for the Professional Certificate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics and is currently training for the Dalcroze Licence. 

Polly's musical education was greatly influenced by a privately-run annual chamber music week in Wales. It was on these camping weeks, which also involved a lot of outdoor activity in the Welsh countryside, that she really developed a passion for playing chamber music, particularly the quartet repertoire.

Polly has been a course tutor at Magdalen Farm Strings since its founding in 2008.

Emma gained her undergraduate and master’s degrees in cello performance from the Royal Northern College of Music and performs as a chamber and orchestral musician on modern and baroque cellos. It was at the RNCM that Emma first encountered the Dalcroze Method, and she has been fascinated by it ever since.

Emma holds professional qualifications in both Dalcroze and Kodaly music education methods and is currently in the final stages of completing the International Dalcroze Licence. She works across the UK as a musicianship teacher and workshop leader with young musicians, music professionals and teachers for organisations including Dark Peak Music Foundation, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester Camerata, Yorkshire Young Musicians, Derbyshire Music Education Hub, the Chetham’s International Piano Summer School, Dalcroze UK and the National Youth String Orchestra.

As Director of Strings for Dark Peak Music Foundation in her Derbyshire hometown, she has grown and developed three thriving ensembles for young strings players. She is a dedicated cello teacher, working with young cellists from the very beginnings through to advanced level in local schools and privately. She has taught cello and coached string chamber music in many varied settings over the years including the RNCM Junior Department and Young Strings Project, Yorkshire Young Musicians and Pro Corda North, for Music Education Hubs and in mainstream and private schools. She is a cello section tutor for the Derbyshire County youth ensembles and works with Derbyshire Music Education Hub leadership to support the CPD of instrumental teachers throughout the county.

Emma is proud to be the Education and Outreach Manager for Carrot Productions, developing access to exceptional live music experiences for all, with a focus on removing access barriers for children, young people and adults with special needs. A highlight of this work is designing and delivering holistic interactive live music performance programmes for children alongside an exceptional team of musicians and creatives.

Emma is an artistic director of the Glossop Music Festival where she has developed a regular summer music programme for local primary schools which reaches over 500 local pupils each year.

Emma lives in Glossop with her husband and three lively children. 

Pete is a multi-instrumentalist based in Manchester with an expertise in oral tradition. Originally a classical pianist, a love for accordion developed from his focus on folk traditions (Irish, Klezmer and Balkan), jazz and composition. He now performs full-time as an accordionist and drummer for multiple bands including Good Habits and The Trouble Notes (DE). These groups have allowed him to travel internationally, performing at some of the world’s largest festivals since graduating from studying music at The University of Manchester in 2019. His classical training, paired with his traditional Irish music background gives him a multi-layered approach to teaching that aims to develop oral and improvisational skills as well more traditional performance skills, helping people find the joy in creating music together without sheet music.

Serena is an accomplished cellist and pianist who first joined Magdalen Strings as a participant 5 years ago. She has worked as a House Mother for MFS for 3 years, and will be returning as a Tutor as she completes her final year of studying Music and English Literature at Newcastle University. Having worked to support the Music Department at Sherborne School in 2021, her experience with childrens' music ensembles balances well with her work in pastoral care at Sherborne International School in 2023, and she has a good understanding of supporting children / teenagers both musically and emotionally. Her infectious laughter and love of music have been great assets for MFS, and we look forward to her being a part of the team of Tutors for 2025.

Poppy was a participant on the course from the age of 8. Her love for Magdalen has brought her back for a 5th year of House Mothering! She combines her playful and creative nature, together with the knowledge from her psychology degree to provide the most fun afternoon activities for the children. Having previously worked in a breakfast and afterschool club, she now works in a nursery alongside completing her Level 3 Forest School training. Poppy is the Designated Safeguarding Lead, with training in Child Protection, Safeguarding, Children’s Mental Health and a Level 3 Paediatric First Aid. Through several years of House Mothering and working in childcare, Poppy is experienced in coping with homesickness, illness, medication and ensuring that all ages are having fun.

Bonnie has attended Magdalen Farm Strings since its very first year in 2008 and has been every year apart from 2020 and 2021 (due to getting stuck in New Zealand over the pandemic). Having been a cello tutor the past few years, she is returning to being a housemother for what will be her 5th year in this role. Alongside her career as an independent musician, she has worked in various pastoral and youth-care roles, including working at Chethams School of Music, OddArts, Contact Young Company and more. Bonnie is looking forward to ensuring the participants have a happy, musical-filled filled week at what she knows to be a unique and valuable experience for young musicians.  

Colin was born in London in 1946. He studied with Arnold Whittall and Nicholas Maw; in the 1970s he was assistant to Benjamin Britten, and worked for many years with Imogen Holst. His collaboration with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony lasted from 1963 until its publication in 1975.

Over four decades his music has ranged from solo piano music through five string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works. From 1992-9 he was Associate Composer with the LSO, writing amongst other works a Cello Concerto for Rostropovich. In 1997 his choral/orchestral Renewal, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of BBC Radio 3, was given a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

Orchestral works since 2000 include Reflected Images for the San Francisco SO, Berceuse for Dresden for the New York Philharmonic, Turning Point for the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Traces Remain for the BBC SO.

Matthews was Composer-in-Association with the Hallé – for whom he completed his orchestrations of Debussy’s 24 Preludes in 2007 – from 2001-10. He is now the orchestra’s Composer Emeritus.

His violin concerto for Leila Josefowicz and the CBSO was premiered in 2009. In 2011 he completed works for the London Sinfonietta, City of London Sinfonia and Leipzig Gewandhaus. He wrote his 4th String Quartet, for the Elias Quartet, in 2012, and his 5th, for the Tanglewood Music Center, in 2015; Spiralling was written for Spira Mirabilis in 2014; The Pied Piper, a collaboration with Michael Morpurgo, was performed by the LPO in 2015.

Matthews is Founder and Executive Producer of NMC Recordings, Executive Administrator of the Holst Foundation and Music Director of the Britten-Pears Foundation. He has been co-director with Oliver Knussen of the Aldeburgh Composition Course since 1992, and composition director of the LSO’s Panufnik Scheme since 2005. He holds honorary posts with several universities and is Prince Consort Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music.

Colin has written a new work for Magdalen Farm Strings every year since the course began.

Sarah was Development Manager at The Magdalen Environmental Trust from 2007 to 2017, when she retired to become a Trustee of the charity. Before that she ran a successful £1.5 million building appeal for The Marchant-Holliday School, a Special Needs School near Wincanton. Sarah and her husband moved to Somerset in 2000 from London, where she was an editor at Faber and Faber for several years and more latterly worked for Macmillan Cancer Support, notably as fund raiser for The Pembridge Centre, a hospice in North Kensington.

The idea for Magdalen Farm Strings was inspired by her violinist daughter’s enjoyment of music camps in which she took part during her teenage years. The music-making, companionship and fun she experienced at Pigotts made a lasting impression, and were certainly a major factor in her decision to make music her career.