"Whilst studying Art at Edinburgh College of Art in the mid 80s I bought a saxophone which I attempted to play in bands with my friends in Edinburgh and then after I moved to London in 1986. I was always frustrated by my lack of skill and inability to keep up with my 'musical' friends. While attending Goldsmith's College for a Certificate in Music Workshop Skills I was introduced to solfege by the tutor, Phil Mullen. It instantly made sense to me and I started to take evening classes with David Vinden. I attended David's elementary and intermediate classes and eventually progressed to Yuko's advanced course. In 2003-4 I went to the Kod‡ly institute in KesckemŽt, Hungary where I completed the Diploma in Basic Kod‡ly Pedagogy.

Solfege has opened the door for me to a level of musicianship that I thought was for 'talented' musicians only and I have had musical experiences that would not have been available to me without it. I enjoy teaching music to children using these ideas because I believe that by educating our children to be musicians we can create happier and more creative adults.

Through studying in this way I have developed my singing and I now perform in a duo, the C siders with Robert Storey.

I am very interested in words and song and I am a member of a poetry group which meets regularly to write and critique poetry.

I have also recently started to draw again, following my attendance on the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brian course."

"Caroline Kraabel (born 1961 in Torrance, California) is a London-based American composer, improviser and saxophonist. She is known for her research into the implications of electricity related to recording, synthesis and amplification.

After living in Seattle, Kraabel moved to London while in her teenage years, at the end of the punk era.[1] There she took up the saxophone and became active in London's improvised music scene, eventually developing a style based on the physicality of the instrument, extended techniques and acoustics. She has performed solo and collaborated with John Edwards, Veryan Weston,[2] Charlotte Hug, Maggie Nicols,[3] Phil Hargreaves, and the London Improvisors Orchestra[4] among others. She has also organized and conducted pieces for Mass Producers-a 20-piece, all-female saxophone/voice orchestra[5] and for Saxophone Experimentals in Space-a 55-piece group of young saxophonists, as well as with her two children during walks through the streets of London.

Recordings include Transitions with Maggie Nichols and Charlotte Hug,[6] Five Shadows with Veryan Weston, Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 1 and 2 and Performances for Large Saxophone Ensemble 3 and 4 with Mass Producers and a solo work Now We Are One Two.

Caroline Kraabel has been hosting a weekly radio show on London's Resonance FM[7] and is the editor for the London Musicians Collective's magazine Resonance."

"Andy Diagram (born 14 December 1959 in London) is a British musician and trumpet player. He has worked with the instrument in a variety bands and contexts ranging from pop and rock to experimental jazz, art rock and dance music. He is best known for his work with James (having been a member from 1989 to 1992 during the band's popular peak in the UK, and rejoining for the ongoing band reformation in 2007), with Spaceheads and with the Pere Ubu singer David Thomas.

Andy Diagram has been a unique voice on the trumpet for more than 25 years. He developed his own style over that time in a variety of very different projects. Creating large soundscapes of brass with the use of electronics, looping his trumpet in multiple echo machines, and with the ingenious use of harmonisers he builds not just luscious washes of sound but also pulsating and infectious rhythms.

Spending much of the 1980s in Manchester, England, he recorded and toured with a range of bands on the rock, pop and jazz scenes (from The Diagram Brothers, Dislocation Dance and the Pale Fountains) before joining James in 1989. Andy stayed on for two of the band's most successful albums (Gold Mother and Seven) before leaving James in 1992. (He made a special return for the band's farewell tour in 2001 at the MEN Arena.)

Moving to London in 1992 he became a founder member of The Honkies (Diagram, Richard Harrison, Caroline Kraabel and Kathy Hulme), whose high energy style, reminiscent of post-punk, was married to an experimental approach derived partly from the more adventurous American jazz such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and had an acknowledged kinship with such bands as The Pop Group and This Heat - which found a certain success/notoriety in the London improvised music scene of the early 1990s. He now records and tours the world with his own, much acclaimed band Spaceheads, where his unique sound and melodic sense are complemented by the emotive rhythms of drummer Richard Harrison. He has also been recording and touring with David Thomas as a regular member of Two Pale Boys for the last ten years.

Following the reunion of James in 2007, Andy returned to the band during their festival tour in the summer of that year and played on the new album Hey Ma, released on 7 April 2008. He is now a full-time member of the band again, featuring on every live performance from 2008 to 2015 (with odd occasions when only 4 or 5 members attended live appearances), and has featured prominently on their recent album, La Petite Mort, released June 2014, Girl At The End Of The World (to be released March 2016) and accompanying the band on their UK and Portugal tour in November 2014 and festival tour in 2015.

Andy performed with the Pale Fountains at their 25th anniversary reunion concerts in Liverpool and London on 2 and 3 February 2008 and is rumoured to be working with the band Shack on their next record.

Andy currently lives in London, where he is active on the jazz and improvised music scenes."