Music Director Jeslyn Asir is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He has been accompanist for several male voice choirs and most recently was Music Director of the Avon and Somerset Police Male Voice Choir. His early university path was a little different as he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in information technology before pursuing a career in music.
He studied with Michael Pollock at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he won the Bryan Davies Accompaniment Prize. At RWCMD, he worked on numerous opera productions as well as on concerts with the Friends of the Welsh National Opera WNO with Donald Maxwell and a performance at Buckingham Palace.
He had a brief stint in Kuwait, preparing the Kuwait Chamber Chorale for their performance at Carnegie Hall, and has played for and conducted concerts in the Middle East, including at the Dubai Opera House. Since returning to the UK, he has worked as staff on RWCMD’s production of Die Fledermaus, Dialogue of the Carmelites, Hansel and Gretel, a double bill of Gianni Schicchi & La bella dormente nel bosco, (sleeping beauty in the woods) and other opera and gala projects.
He has also served as an accompanist for the Voice of Black Opera competition, organised by the Black British Classical Foundation in collaboration with Welsh National Opera.
Accompanist Louise Matley started to learn the piano when she was six years old. By the time she was 16, she had gained the Associate of the London College of Music Diploma in Piano Performance and Distinctions in Grade 8 Piano and Oboe and Grade 6 Organ before she left school. She studied Music at The City University in London and gained a BSc Honours degree. Louise taught for 14 years at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire. There, she became Head of Music, Head of Year and was part of the highly talented music team. She also gained a Masters degree in Educational Leadership.
An excellent sight reader, she has accompanied soloists, bands, and choirs from a young age and has been organist at her local church for 18 years. She studied the organ whilst at Westonbirt School.
Last year Louise is an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She examines any instrument up to diploma level all over the country. Being a part of such a highly talented music team, she brings excellence to every performance.