Artist Practitioners
More than a hundred experienced professional artist-educators deliver Creative Futures’ programmes. They include musicians from every genre, writers, poets, visual artists, dramatists, dancers, producers and film-makers.
Every project we deliver is unique as is each artist, so we take great care to match the best possible facilitator to every programme. We work closely with our artists to ensure that every session goes well and that projects meet their objectives. Our nurturing approach to our artists, as well as attention to detail in managing each project, are things that makes Creative Futures unique, and why we command great loyalty from our artists.
Here is a snapshot of some of our fantastic and inspiring artist practitioners:
Ayozie Pollendine
Ayozie is a singer and has many years’ experience as a singing and workshop facilitator. She completed her postgraduate study in Creative Leadership at the Royal College of Music and has worked for various organisations including the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, the Southbank Centre and Spitalfields Music. Ayozie is passionate about working with families across different contexts particularly in the area of maternal mental health and working with families in temporary housing. Ayozie is also a visual artist and loves making art journals. She is mum to two grown up daughters and resides in North London.
Caroline Thomas
Caroline works as an adaptable, inclusive, freelance dance artist; in professional performance, teaching, and choreographic work, with a technical training foundation from a Dance Theatre degree at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Throughout the past decade, Caroline has provided over 300 primary and secondary schools with workshops, clubs, weekly curricular sessions, GCSE classes; as well as devising schemes of work, resource packs, and staff CPD training. Alongside school settings, Caroline works as a dance therapist in various hospitals across London, looking at creative movement play and cognitive and emotional exploration. More work can be found below.
Dan Cundy
Dan’s highly popular Early Years sessions are filled with bouncing double bass rhythms, joyous melodies and oodles of interactive musical fun, making them a firm favourite at the numerous children’s centres and nurseries in Hackney that host his Creative Futures sessions. As well as his work in the Early Years field, Dan is also a singer, songwriter and well established band leader and performer on the Luxury Roaming Band scene.
Eleanor Rashid
Ellie has been working with Creative Futures since 2017, leading early years and family projects such as Sound Communities and Sound Start. Her playful, child-led practice draws on diverse music from the home and integrates storytelling, puppetry, and improvisation. Alongside this, she has pursued Hear My Voice, a Creative Futures project supporting young people facing challenging circumstances to build confidence through songwriting. She also writes for film and TV under a publishing and sync deal with Downtown Music Publishing and is working on her first EP. This year, she is developing a mini-series to support children and parents with daily routines and is part of Guildhall’s Abolition Song and Its Legacies (ASaiL) project, exploring abolition songs. More information can be found below.
Georgia Dawson
Georgia Dawson is a French Horn player who studied at the Royal College of Music and King’s College London. As an educator she works across London as a peripatetic brass teacher, and as a workshop leader specialising in early years. In addition to her education work Georgia has a diverse performance schedule, including work at the London Palladium, Barbican, Southbank Centre and Abbey Road Studios. Georgia is also undertaking a PhD investigating autistic wellbeing in music conservatoires, and has presented her research at Cambridge University and the International Symposium of Performance Science.
Hannah Caughlin
Hannah is a singer, songwriter, and Arts in Health music practitioner specialising in maternal mental health. In collaboration with Creative Futures, she launched and led Together We Sing, a nurturing group-singing project for mothers and babies in Thanet, East Kent. Hannah is part of teams delivering Creative Futures’ Music at Heart and Steps into Music. She leads groups for Breathe Arts’ Melodies for Mums in community settings and MBUs, and singing/songwriting sessions for London Rhymes with perinatal mental health services and migrant/refugee groups. A performer with over 20 years’ experience, she loves sharing the joy and wellbeing benefits of singing with fellow mums.
Joe Steele
Joe Steele is a London-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, facilitator and theatre-maker whose eclectic work spans contemporary classical, electronic ambient and South Asian fusion music. Trained at the University of York and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, he creates bold, often cross-cultural projects with both professionals and non-professionals, driven by play, curiosity and imagination. Deeply committed to community and education, Joe leads workshops and creative programmes with organisations including English National Opera and Music Action International, supporting refugees, SEN(D) learners and emerging artists through inclusive, collaborative music-making.
Julia MacDonell
Julia is a British-Australian musician working across Early Years, SEND and inclusive settings, and cross-disciplinary practice with visual artists and dancers. At Creative Futures she worked on Sound Communities, Sound Start, Arts Exchange and Sounding Out projects. She has also worked on Early Years projects with LSO Discovery and leads the Music Explorers EYFS programme for Music Education Islington. Julia teaches musicianship at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and performs on modern and period horn in orchestras, bands, and the cross-cultural project Sitar Fusion.
Kate Comberti
Beyond her current roles at Creative Futures Sound Communities Programme and Take Art, Kate tutors on the CME: Early Childhood course and assists as a tutor for the MA at the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, allowing her to support and mentor students and practitioners in developing their expertise and reflective practice within the field. Kate’s passion lies in the cross-arts applications of musical exploration. She’s keen on integrating music with other creative disciplines to enrich holistic learning experiences for young children. She collaborates closely with early years practitioners to develop innovative pedagogical strategies that foster curiosity creativity and confidence in the classroom.
Larisa Popovici
Larisa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from West University Faculty of Music in Romania and a Master of Performance Degree awarded with Distinction from Royal College of Music in London. Born in Romania, she began studying percussion instruments and piano at the age of 9, further developing her musicianship skills by performing with many orchestras and touring around Europe, as well as winning several national competitions. Alongside freelancing as a Music Educator across London, Larisa is the Lead Percussion & Keyboards Teacher at Tri-borough Music Hub where she is passionate about teaching and unlocking the musical potential of young people.
Lila Bhattacherjee
Lila Bhattacherjee is a flautist (doubling piccolo, alto, bass, and Indian bansuri), music facilitator, and community project coordinator based in London. As a core member of Charles Hazlewood’s Paraorchestra, she has performed at venues including Glastonbury Festival and the Concertgebouw, and recorded for Sky Arts. As a facilitator and musician, Lila regularly works on community projects with organisations including Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, London Rhymes, Creative Futures, Soundcastle and Paraorchestra, and provides training on inclusive practice for community organisations. Alongside this, Lila is a project manager for Thinking Music, administrator for Fairbeats!, and trustee for Newham Music Hub.
Miriam Dubois
Miriam is a Deaf drummer and community musician based in London. Since 2022, she has worked with Create Future as a Music Assistant, inspiring children as a Deaf role model and delivering music sessions in British Sign Language and English. Miriam uses drumming and rhythm to lead interactive drum circles, perform at concerts and festivals across the UK and beyond, and collaborate with Deaf musicians and organisations such as Deaf Rave, Audiovisability, and Celtic Deaf Festival, fostering creativity, connection, and community wellbeing.
Paul Lyalls
Poet Paul Lyalls weaves a wonderful fun time around Words, performance & even a book launch! 'Paul is a kind of magic that makes you see the world' MICHAEL ROSEN Poet In Residence for The Roald Dahl Family & Mueum.2013/14 Arsenal FC community poet 2012-20 ' London 2012 Olympics 'Shake The Dust' Poet ' Published in over 50 anthologies/ publications including Michael Rosen's 'A-Z of the Very Best Children's Poetry', Has visited over 500 schools and held over 25 long term residencies My 7th & latest book 'Words Are Frogs' (Caboodle Books 2025 available from all sources.) 'Playfully comic' Glasgow Herald 'I knew you'd go far' - Benjamin Zepphaniah. ‘Words of wit, wisdom & Intelligence' - Apples & Snakes
Penny Osmond
Penny trained with Spitalfields music in 2010 and has worked as a music practitioner specialising in early years ever since, for organisations including Wigmore Hall, Multi Story Orchestra, Stratford Circus and the Royal College of Music. Penny has been lucky enough to work consistently for Creative Futures since 2014, leading workshops in nursery and Reception to help with social skills, language and communication and creativity, as well as training early years practitioners in weaving music into the fabric of their setting and approaching communication playfully. In 2016 Penny was one of the workshop leaders on the flagship Royal College of Music study by Perkins and Fancourt which proved a connection between community singing and quicker recovery from post natal depression. This work has been solidified in recent years by Creative Futures in Music at Heart, a collaboration between mums, babies and the perinatal mental health department at St Mary's hospital. Penny is passionate about the power of singing as communication, and advocates for SEN participants in all walks of life to have their contributions valued and respected.
Vanessa Gray
Bio to follow
Emerging Music Leaders
Welcome to our Emerging Music Leaders for 2025-26! They will be taking part in a course of 3 CPD sessions and joining our existing team on placements on Sound Start. We're pleased to be partnering with Sound Connections on this programme who are providing coaching sessions from our experienced early years music practitioners. We're looking forward to learning from and with this year’s leaders!
Here is a snapshot of our Emerging Music Leaders:
Amrit Sohal
Amrit Sohal is a professional French horn player, teacher and workshop facilitator. With a passion for creating an inclusive environment within music education, during her time at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Amrit created Motherland Music CIC where she runs workshops based on composers and musicians from global majority backgrounds. When not in the music education space, Amrit is often playing in various ensembles and loves to explore all genres of music. Outside of her professional life she enjoys a variety of hobbies, knitting being the main one, and is a trustee for The People’s Orchestra and The Stringcredibles.
Hannah Seymour
Hannah Seymour is an oboist, educator, and advocate committed to making music accessible to all. Alongside her work as a performer with ensembles including Northern Reeds and the BBC Philharmonic, she has built a rich portfolio of teaching and outreach with the Royal College of Music Sparks, Tri-Borough Music Hub, and the National Children’s Orchestra. She has experience across a wide range of educational settings and is equally motivated by the behind the scenes work that helps create supportive and inclusive spaces for music making. Hannah is also co-founder of EMPOWER: Women Changing Music, an initiative championing gender equality and providing opportunities for emerging artists to help shape a music industry that is welcoming and representative of all voices. She is particularly inspired by the creativity and openness of early childhood music, and is excited to explore new ways of supporting young children’s musical journeys through the Emerging Music Leader Scheme.
Sophie Robertson-Acolet
Sophie Robertson-Acolet played classical flute, piano and even harp for a number of years growing up, and found her way back to music through jazz and Tomorrow’s Warriors in her final year of university. Sophie is excited to build on her teaching assistant experience, and love of communal music-making and improvised practice to explore the therapeutic and engaging sides of music as a music leader and emerging arts practitioner.