Staff
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Travis
Baker
Organist & Voice Coach
A native of Melbourne, Australia, Travis Baker is considered to be one of the finest organists of his homeland.
Travis is now based in England studying with world-renowned concert Organist, Dame Gillian Weir. He recently completed a Masters Degree in Performance (organ) from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.
His recital career regularly takes him throughout the U.K., Continental Europe, Scandinavia and America. His growing reputation has led to invitations to give the Annual Opening Concert for the Organ Club of Great Britain and to première David Loxley-Blount’s Knotweed, commissioned by the Eric Thompson Trust.
As a Certified Master Teacher for Estill Voice Teaching Systems, Travis has worked with Estill Voice Systems in London, Australia, New Zealand and Northern Ireland. With Paul Farrington. Travis was responsible for coaching the cast of the feature film, Quartet, starring Maggie Smith, and subsequently worked on the feature film of Stephen Hawking’s life, The Theory of Everything. More recently Travis has been working with the cast of West End production Operation Mincemeat, and Mean Girls.
Travis is Director of Music for:
The Bromley Boy Singers
&
BAY Courses
Travis also works with the boy choristers of Westminster Abbey and collaborates with the Education Department of Glyndebourne working regularly with world-renowned voice coach, Mary King.
Judith Colman
Voice Teacher
Judith Colman trained at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Birmingham Conservatoire and completed her studies at the Royal Academy of Music. Judith has worked with British Youth Opera, English Touring Opera, as principal Soprano with the English Brass Group, Opera Interactive and Soprano roles with many Choral Societies across the UK.
Having taught singing since she graduated, it was working with Starshine Music that first brought Judith into the world of working with groups of young singers. She discovered the joy of teaching groups how to use their voices safely and appropriately across different genre.
Subsequently, Judith has worked as a choral director, voice coach for the BBC and regularly coaches several military bands. Judith very much enjoys teaching at Bird College, locally, and at the Creative Dance Company.
Judith first met Travis working on a youth choral course, well over ten years ago. They have worked collaboratively together ever since, whilst maintaining their separate careers. Working with Travis to create the Battle Abbey Youth, BAY courses has been a joyous journey and they very much look forward to accompanying you too.
Krystal Tunnicliffe
Accompanist
Australian pianist Krystal Tunnicliffe enjoys a varied career as a collaborative pianist and music educator. She works in both the Senior and Junior departments of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and is a Britten-Pears Young Artist, Ryedale Festival Young Artist, and an Oxford Lieder Young Artist. With duo partner Siân Dicker, she has performed at the Oxford Lieder Festival, LIFE Victoria Festival (Barcelona), the International Lied Festival (Zeist), and opened St John’s Smith Square’s 2020 Autumn Season. They are looking forward to recitals as part of the Aldeburgh Festival, Ryedale Festival, and the Ludlow English Song Weekend. In 2019, she won the prize for the best accompanist in the heats at Melbourne National Liederfest, and with Harriet Burns she was a finalist at the Maureen Lehane Awards.
Krystal completed Bachelor and Masters degrees (with distinction) from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Guildhall School respectively, before undertaking a Junior Fellowship at the Guildhall School. She is also a graduate of the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden bei Wien.
Krystal’s recent engagements include performances in London, Cornwall, Ireland, Wales, Belgium and France (Notre Dame de Paris, Disneyland Paris, La Madeleine), including recitals at Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St-Martin-in-the-Fields, and LSO St Luke’s. In the summer of 2021, she was the pianist for Waterperry Opera’s staged song cycles, Lili Boulanger’s Clairières dans le ciel, and Vaughan William’s On Wenlock Edge. In 2018 she performed Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles as a part of the BBC Total Immersion Day, later broadcast on BBC Radio 3. She was the concerto soloist for Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue and Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto for the Chorus of Dissent. In 2019/2020, she was the repetiteur/orchestral pianist for NI Opera/Lyric Theatre Belfast’s Sweeney Todd, and Kiss Me Kate. She has been a staff pianist at Arts Educational Schools, Guildford School of Acting, Millennium Performing Arts, the Victorian College of the Arts and Opera Scholars Australia.
Krystal is also passionate about music education and outreach, and she is the Principal Accompanist and Piano Teacher at Surbiton High School, where she also works across both the Boys’ and Girls’ Prep Schools. She was a Wigmore Hall Chamber Tots Artist 2017-18, and has worked on education workshops for Glyndebourne Education Department, the Royal Academy of Music, the London Bach Choir, the Prison Choir Project, and Kingston Music Service. She is the accompanist for the award-winning Bromley Boy Singers, is the staff pianist for the BAY Choral Courses, and in Australia has worked with the Gondwana Voices.
Chlöe
Du Prè
Rock & Pop Specialist
Chlöe du Prè is a professional session singer who’s provided backing vocals for Nicole Scherzinger, Cee Lo Green, Sinéad O’Connor and many more.
Chloe is also a very experienced and passionate voice teacher, she is currently Head of Contemporary Vocals at Bromley High School.
She’s contributed to recordings by well-known artists, singing and performing cello on Status Quo’s 2007 album, ‘In Search Of The Fourth Chord’ and in the video for Plan B’s ‘Love Goes Down’. Championed by BBC Radio 2, she also attended the network’s New Songwriters Academy.
Simona
Budd
Musical Director
Simona’s association with BAY began in the Summer of 2018 when she joined the team to lead some Musical Theatre workshops and masterclasses.
Simona is a freelance musician who works predominantly as a Musical Director and keyboard player. She is involved with a number of production companies who create and produce an extensive range of shows both in the UK and abroad. Most recently, as Musical Director, Simona has completed sell-out runs of Heathers the Musical at The Other Palace and at Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London’s West End. She has also recorded the Original London Cast Album. Other theatre credits as Musical Director include Killer Queen. The Producers, Hot Mikado, Seussical and Grease as well as a number of pantomimes and, as Assistant Musical Director, Legally Blonde, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Cabaret and Guys And Dolls.
Simona works as an accompanist for singers and instrumentalists at all levels in addition to fulfilling private commissions from individuals and a variety of establishments for song and other arrangements. She works with the London Gay Men’s Chorus as an accompanist and song arranger. Her arrangements have been performed at many of London’s leading venues and she has accompanied the chorus at a number of renowned venues in the UK and abroad. For a number of years, she was involved with the Cabaret circuit across London which included a residency at The Pheasantry - one of London's most recognised Cabaret venues. She continues to enjoy work as an accompanist and pianist at many of these venues and at some of London's five-star hotels including The Ritz. Other positions include as a guest lecturer, advisor and consultant on musical theatre workshops and courses. Many of these engagements are frequently undertaken for leading specialist performing arts and drama colleges of higher and further education.
Media work includes soloist for Mercedes and National Lottery radio advertising campaigns, conductor at the world premiere of Disney’s A Christmas Carol and Musical Director for the British Media Awards, Financial Risk Awards and Your Money Awards. She has been a Performance Coach for the ITV productions of Newsrooms’ Got Talent.