John Mchugh - Artistic Director

John Mchugh is an award winning composer, performer and music educator. He has composed music in many forms ranging from advertising campaigns for Lucozade and Delta Airways to ballets, music theatre, classical works for the concert hall and a series of groundbreaking multimedia operas that give a voice to important social issues.

His commission for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations was the ‘The Big Voice, Liverpool’ in which he set the rhythms and melodies of the ‘Scouse’ accent to music and was featured on BBC television’s ‘North West Tonight’ and Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme. He is a former graduate of The Royal Northern College of Music where he studied under the guitarist John Williams and has performed in many countries throughout the World in venues ranging from The QE2 Cruise Liner to The Royal Festival Hall. He has released a series of recordings as both performer and composer including ‘From the Famine’, ‘Here In My Home, Part 1’ and ‘Guitar Classics from Around the World’.  In 2015 John was asked to arrange the music for the visit of his Royal Highness Prince Charles to Liverpool.

John is renowned for a series of video operas that use the melodies and intonations of speech to give a voice to everyday stories including; ‘Hidden Voice’, that captures the hidden world behind dementia and features Paul Whitehouse, the national Smiley award winning ‘Behind Doors’ based on the testimonies of people living with domestic abuse and ‘Fleetwood Voice’ that tells the story of the coastal town of Fleetwood and featured in the BBC documentary ‘Inside Out’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EmrysrXmGI&t=6s

Recent works include a collaboration with Dame Evelyn Glennie, the ballet ‘Like A Butterfly’, based on the moves of Muhammad Ali that combines the moves from boxing as a stimulus for dance, the 2 year ‘Locked Away’ video opera, capturing the stories behind lockdown and Liverpool’s digital immersive experience ‘The History Whisperer’ for St George’s Hall. John recently arranged the music and conducted the opening concert of Liverpool’s Eurovision Festival featuring well know pop stars, Ukrainian artists and musicians from the RLPO.

SARAH HARPER BA (Hons) PGCE  MA - Singer/Actor/Teacher

Sarah is a trained teacher of performing arts and has worked with young people for over 20 years. Sarah has enjoyed a number of roles in secondary schools across Merseyside as a Performing Arts teacher, Head of Department, Head of Sixth Form and Assistant Headteacher. Alongside teaching, Sarah has been involved in music all of her life as a performer in bands, as a solo artist, duo as well as being part of many choirs.

Sarah has also worked extensively for the NHS as a ward singer in hospitals across Liverpool, as well as delivering singing workshops alongside a speech therapist working with dementia patients at care homes across the city for Music in Mind in collaboration with More Than Speech Therapy and the Brain Charity.

Alongside ‘Singing and Communication Therapy’ Sarah has other interests and runs Be Scene Performing Arts which provides accessible performing arts provision for young people across the city.  In Sarah’s spare time she is one half of the piano vocal duo ‘Songbird and the Pianoman.’

Gaynor trained at Merseyside Dance and Drama Centre in Liverpool and worked extensively as a professional dancer in the industry for many years in theatre, TV, overseas and on cruise ships.

She choreographed for Costa Cruises , Culture Liverpool, Bruhaha Festival and many professional productions including the live Telethon Roadshow (Wolverhampton Grand Theatre) and Mother Goose (Crewe Lyceum). She taught for 10 years at Merseyside Dance Centre as Head of Musical Theatre and has taught in many major colleges and schools in the North West.

After completing her Cert Ed at Liverpool John Moores University she worked in education on the acclaimed National Creative Partnerships Programme. As a creative practitioner she worked extensively in primary and secondary schools creating cross-curricular programmes and specialising in dance provision and went on to work for Curious Minds as a creative agent /project manager. Her role was to broker practitioners, liaise closely with Senior Management teams in schools to develop and deliver high quality creative programmes. 

Gaynor is the Creative programmer for Music in Mind and also runs Think Dance to teach movement and well-being to adults.  

PRACTITIONERS/Associates

Dr Rosemary Kay - CEO of Gazooky Studios/BAFTA winning writer Tricia Duffy - Writer

Gillian Hardie - Writer/actor Graeme Lycett - Square One Media Andrew Pickering - Pulse

Mary Austin - Aftathought Andrew Prosser - Composer/educator

Musicians - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Partners

Gazooky Studios - The Regenda Group - The Good Business Festival - The Brain Charity

The Calico Group - Immersive Interactive - Culture Liverpool - Afterthought - Nugent - Pulse

The Reader - Edge Hill University - Resonate - Leftcoast - Square One

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