Alumni

Kira Doherty moved to London from Quebec in 2004 to complete her studies at the Royal Academy of Music at postgraduate level. After graduating in 2006, she enjoyed a varied freelance career before accepting the post of Second Horn in the Philharmonia Orchestra in 2013. She has appeared as a guest orchestral player with the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2014, Doherty joined the board of the Philharmonia and held the post of chairman for two years before stepping down in 2018 to focus on her part-time studies in history. She has recently completed a Master’s degree at Oxford University, focusing on the social history of unlawful hunting in the 17th century. Doherty also teaches at the Royal College of Music.

Photo by Marina Vidor Philharmonia Orchestra

Christopher Hart graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 with Distinction in his Master’s degree, studying under Mark David, Paul Beniston, Gareth Small, Robert Farley and John Hutchins. Prior to this, Chris completed his undergraduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, graduating with first-class honours in 2014.

During his time at the Academy, Hart won the John Solomon Brass Prize in 2014, the Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensemble Prize in 2015 and graduated with a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital. He recorded Igor Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale for Linn Records as part of the Royal Academy of Music Manson Ensemble and was chosen to play the Peter Maxwell-Davies Trumpet Concerto at the Royal College of Music in January 2016.

His studies at the Academy gave him the opportunity to perform for some of the world's leading conductors, including Semyon Bychkov, Yan Pascal Tortelier and Oliver Knussen, and The Countess of Munster Musical Trust selected Hart to be a member of their Recital Scheme, which saw him perform as a solo artist at music festivals across the UK.

Hart was appointed Principal Trumpet of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in Glasgow in 2016. Since he joined the orchestra, Hart has been fortunate enough to perform to audiences throughout the UK and across the world, including the USA and China. He has appeared as a soloist with the orchestra in Haydn's Trumpet Concerto with Sir Roger Norrington and the Neruda Trumpet Concerto with Gemma New.

Hart enjoys a busy freelance career alongside his full-time position, having performed as Guest Principal Trumpet with many of the UK's leading orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and London Sinfonietta, with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Jurowski, Sakari Oramo and Academy alumnus Edward Gardner.

Ben Hulme began horn lessons at the age of seven, before being accepted into Chetham’s School of Music, where he studied with Lizzie Davis and Julian Plummer.

During his eight years at Chetham’s, he enjoyed the abundance of wide-ranging opportunities provided by the school and was also fortunate to be a member of the National Children’s Orchestras and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Hulme was then awarded the Sir Elton John scholarship to attend the Royal Academy of Music. While at the Academy, he studied with Michael Thompson, Richard Watkins, Martin Owen, Katy Woolley and Roger Montgomery, as well as having regular masterclasses with Radovan Vlatković. He also studied the organ with Gerard Brooks.

During his time at the Academy, Hulme had the opportunity to work with conductors Robin Ticciati, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Mark Elder, James Newton Howard, Oliver Knussen, Edward Gardner and John Wilson in the Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra and Manson Ensemble. He also particularly enjoyed the vast array of chamber music opportunities offered by the brass department under the direction of Mark David and Bob Hughes.

Hulme is a founding member of London Metropolitan Brass, which won the Academy’s Worshipful Company of Musicians Brass Ensemble Prize in 2017 and claimed third prize at the inaugural Philip Jones Brass International Brass Ensemble Competition in July 2019. The ensemble members were also Academy Chamber Fellows for the 2018-19 academic year.

After graduating from the Academy with a first-class honours degree in July 2019, Hulme embarked on a freelance career, including trials for Principal Horn with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic. Alongside this, he has played Guest Principal with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. Hulme will be joining the BBC Philharmonic as Section Principal Horn in June 2020.

Ross Knight studied under Patrick Harrild at the Royal Academy of Music and went on to be Tuba Academist at the Berliner Philharmoniker’s prestigious Karajan Academy, alongside the orchestra’s Principal Tuba, Alexander von Puttkamer. During this time, he also studied at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover under Jens Bjørn-Larsen.

Knight has been Principal Tuba player of both the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and European Union Youth Orchestra, and was named the 2012 BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Player of the Year. In April 2014, Ross was runner-up in the European Soloist Competition for Brass and Percussion and won the Best Tuba award. He is, to this day, the highest-placed tuba player in the history of the competition.

Knight has played with several of Europe’s top orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, where he was on trial for one and a half years, Philharmonia Orchestra and Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, among others. Since September 2016, he has been Solo Tuba of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland.

Knight has been successful as a soloist on many occasions. Recently, he was awarded second prize and overall winner of the category in the 2019 Aeolus International Competition for Wind Instruments. In the final round, he performed as soloist with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. Prior to that, he performed the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the Exeter Symphony Orchestra and has also appeared with the Whitehall Orchestra, Tayside Symphony Orchestra and at the RNCM Brass Band Festival with Tredegar Town Band.

Ross regularly gives masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music, Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon, Haute École de Musique de Genève and Escola de Música do Estado de São Paulo, among others. In July 2019, Ross was the tuba tutor of the Australian Youth Orchestra as part of their European and China tour.

Photo by Melton

Matthew Knight is Co-Principal Trombone of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, where he also serves as Vice-Chairman, having been a member of the orchestra’s Board since 2015. He has performed with almost all of the UK orchestras, often as a Guest Principal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Knight graduated with a starred first in music from Cambridge University, where he was Senior Choral Scholar at Gonville & Caius College. From 2005 to 2008, he was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a postgraduate, receiving a DipRAM for an outstanding final recital and the 2008 Principal’s Prize. In 2016, he was appointed an Associate of the Academy and now teaches the trombone at the Royal College of Music.

Along with fellow Academy graduate Simon Cox, Knight is Artistic Director of the brass septet Septura, described by trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom as setting a standard ‘absolutely higher than brass playing has ever been before’. Currently Ensemble in Residence at the Academy, the group is recording a series of 10 discs for Naxos Records, each focused on a particular period, genre and set of composers. Septura has performed around the world, including tours to New Zealand, Japan and the USA, and has recently made its debut in the Chamber Music Season at Wigmore Hall.

An active composer, arranger and orchestrator, Knight has arranged music for nine of Septura’s releases so far, as well as arranging and orchestrating for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Classic FM.

Huw Morgan is Principal Trumpet of the Sinfonieorchester Basel in Switzerland, a founder member of the acclaimed brass ensemble Septura and Assistant Lecturer at the Musikhochschule Luzern. He has won a number of international trumpet competitions including the Prague Spring, Ellsworth Smith, Girolamo Fantini, Only Brass and Lieksa.

Recent solo highlights include concerto appearances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, Hamburg Camerata, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Helsinki Philharmonic, and Irish Chamber Orchestra. He has also featured at numerous international festivals including Cheltenham, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Ticino, International Trumpet Guild and Kaposvár. A passionate exponent of contemporary music, Morgan has premiered works by Leif Segerstam, Paul Max Edlin, Karl Jenkins and Jonathan Harvey.

Morgan has been featured on over thirty commercially available recordings (EMI, Decca, Chandos) and can be heard as the solo trumpeter on the soundtrack to the BAFTA-nominated film, Me and Orson Welles. The first album in his ground-breaking series for Naxos Records, The Art of the Modern Trumpet, has garnered international acclaim since its release in 2019, described variously as a “sensational debut”, “exquisitely interpreted”, and “played with great elegance”. The second and third volumes will be released in 2021.

Alongside his solo activities, Morgan appears regularly as guest principal with many leading ensembles, including the London Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Nash Ensemble. A frequent guest professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, he has presented masterclasses throughout Europe, North America, and Asia.

Born in South Wales, Morgan studied at Chetham’s School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste. His principal teachers included John Dickinson, Murray Greig, James Watson, Mark David, Robert Farley, and Frits Damrow.

Huw Morgan is a Yamaha Artist.