Issie Barratt is a multi-award winning internationally active composer, arranger, conductor, baritone player, record producer and educator. Ranked by BBC Radio 4’s Women in Music Power List 2018  as one of the 40 most influential women in the music industry,  Issie has performed at a majority of leading venues and festivals in Northern Europe. South-East India, Central America and the east coast of Canada. Known for her genre-fluid approach to composition, her diverse catalogue of commissions includes works for orchestra, big band, choir and chamber ensembles, often featuring internationally acclaimed soloists.

Issie runs her own three ensembles – A 21-piece jazz orchestra, Meinrad Iten Quartet and her ground-breaking ensemble INTERCHANGE (championing the music of women jazz composers performed by a diverse collective of female improvisers) and is the founding Director of Fuzzy Moon Records with a catalogue of 15 CDs championing a roster of over 100 performing artists.

Chris Wright is a financial specialist with over 20 years’ experience of the charity sector, of small non-profit organisations, and of small to medium commercial ventures. He offers a bespoke service to his clients, tailored to their specific needs, and is happy to explore with them a wide range of accounting services.

Chris has a particular, but not exclusive interest in music, both as an accountant and as a professional singer.

Nadja is a digital communication strategist and creative consultant to the Jazz community, following a 20 year career heading up creative and digital teams in a number of leading eCRM and brand agencies.

Her agency, nadworks ltd. covers the entire ARM (Audience Relationship Management) spectrum for international artists and organisations such as the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Claire Martin OBE, Joe Locke, Terreon Gully, Basho Music, Jazz from Scotland, as well as various record labels including LSO Live, Universal and Motéma.

As an artist management agency, nadworks also represent vibes player Joe Locke and provide tour management for small groups in Europe and in the US.

Harry graduated from Cardiff University in 2021 with a First Class Honours Degree in Music, before moving on to a Master’s Degree at BIMM Institute Bristol & achieving a Merit in 2022. During his time at university, Harry played with multiple jazz and big bands as well as sitting on Cardiff University’s Jazz Society Committee.

Highlights of Harry’s professional career include performing with the Greater Gwent Youth Jazz Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall on multiple occasions. Travelling abroad to the Maldives to play guitar on a private island and playing with his own function band, Rock the Mike, across the UK.

Since graduating, Harry has continued to work as a freelance musician and guitar tutor, performing with his own function band regularly and working with many other function bands across the UK and abroad. Harry is now the Marketing Officer for NYJC and will be the project manager for NYJC’s 2023 Summer School’s.

Our President is jazz luminary Dave Holland – known for his work with many of the most formative names in jazz. Dave has regularly taken time to visit us from his home in New York, and takes part in our our National Youth Jazz Summer School.

Over the course of a nearly five-decade career, bassist/composer Dave Holland has never stopped evolving, reinventing his concept and approach with each new project while constantly honing his instantly identifiable voice. From the electric whirlwind of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew-era band to the elegant flamenco of his collaboration with Spanish guitar legend Pepe Habichuela; accompanying the great vocalist Betty Carter in her last years to forging a new sound with the pioneering avant-garde quartet Circle alongside Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, and Barry Altschul; standing alongside legends like Stan Getz, Hank Jones, Roy Haynes, and Sam Rivers to providing early opportunities to now-leading players like Chris Potter, Kevin and Robin Eubanks, or Steve Coleman; Dave Holland has been at the forefront of jazz in many of its forms since his earliest days.

Sir Karl Jenkins is one of the most performed living composers in the world. Educated at Gowerton Grammar School, Cardiff University and the Royal Academy of Music, London, The Armed Man: A Mass For Peace alone has been performed over 2000 times in 20 different countries since the CD was released while his recorded output has resulted in seventeen gold and platinum disc awards.

A Doctor of Music, he holds Fellowships, Honorary Doctorates and Professorships at five universities or conservatoires, including the Royal Academy of Music, where a room has been named in his honour. In November 2009 he was given the Cymru For The World Award and in March 2010 was honoured with the Hopkins Medal given by the St. David’s Society for the State of New York.

In 2015 he was confirmed as the most popular living composer in Classic FM’s ‘Ultimate Hall of Fame’ and holds the Classic FM ‘Red f’ award for ‘outstanding service to classical music’. He was awarded a Knighthood in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for “services to composing and crossing musical genres” and his autobiography Still with the Music was published by Elliott & Thompson. His music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.

Acclaimed as one of the finest jazz musicians to emerge this side of the Atlantic, Julian Joseph has devoted his long career to championing the music across the British Isles and into the far corners of the globe. He has forged a reputation beyond his formidable skills as a composer and performer, and is universally recognised as a highly knowledgable and engaging broadcaster, musical ambassador and cultural advocate. His charitable work and generous skills as an educator have made a major contribution to Britain’s cultural landscape and heritage.

Through his patronage of a variety of educational programmes, Julian has become a formative presence in the dissemination of jazz music and its heritage to children of all ages. Since the launch of the ABRSM jazz syllabus in 1998, he has been at the forefront of initiatives to introduce jazz into mainstream music education, culminating in the foundation of his own Jazz Academy in 2013. His work has been recognised by many major cultural organisations, including the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, which awarded him a Gold Badge in 2010.

Since emerging on the London jazz scene in 1966 with an engagement at Ronnie Scott’s Club opposite Roland Kirk, Norma Winstone has worked with many of the major names on the British and European scene. Her voice could be said to define an entire era of British and European Jazz, from reinventions of The Great American Songbook to more abstract excursions into vocal timbre. She recorded five albums for ECM with the group Azimuth, with John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler. Her own album for ECM, “Somewhere Called Home” with John Taylor and saxophonist/clarinettist Tony Coe, has become almost a classic. Her voice has become an important part of Kenny Wheeler’s big band writing and can be heard in this context on the ECM recording “Music for Large and Small Ensembles”

She is a gifted lyricist and has written lyrics for many compositions by Steve Swallow, Kenny Wheeler and Ralph Towner. Her lyrics for the Jimmy Rowles composition “The Peacocks”, which she re-titled “A Timeless Place” has been recorded by many singers including Mark Murphy, Tierney Sutton and The Swingle Singers. She recorded it herself with the composer on an album called “Well Kept Secret” also with George Mraz and Joe LaBarbera. A collaboration with pianist Fred Hersch resulted in an album of his compositions with her lyrics called “Songs and Lullabies”.

Having won the Melody Maker Poll for Best Jazz Vocalist in 1971, she won the same category in the first BBC Jazz Awards in 2001, was nominated again in 2007 and 2008.

She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to music in 2007 and in 2009 won the Jazz Ahead Prize for her contribution to European jazz.

Her newest group is a trio featuring Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German saxophonist/bass clarinettist Klaus Gesing.

Their ECM album “Distances received a Grammy nomination as Jazz Vocal CD of 2008.