At sixth form college, Jacqui achieved ABRSM Grade 8 in piano, flute, bassoon and theory and Grade 5 in General Musicianship. While there, she performed bassoon in an Opera North led performance of West Side Story and synthesizer in a college production of Fiddler on The Roof for which she sampled her own bassoon and flute.
At university she studied for a BA (Hons) in Music and French. She performed in the University orchestra and chamber ensembles as a bassoonist and flautist and as bassoonist in Hull Bach Choir performances. She also joined the Early Music Consort and played bass curtal in a number of Early Music Festivals.
While studying for her Masters in Music and PGCE in Secondary Music, she joined a band as the keyboardist which eventually brought her to Brighton, performing in venues in Brighton and London. After the band, she joined an improvised comedy group (similar to Whose Line is it Anyway) as the piano player and performed in venues around the South of England.
Jacqui is a musician and qualified music teacher and has been working in music education for over 25 years. She has experience in a wide range of contexts, teaching from primary to 6th form students, as an instrumental teacher and as a classroom teacher. She has led big bands, orchestras, wind bands, choirs, steel pan groups and samba bands and has taught the piano, keyboard, flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, theory, guitar, ukulele, samba drums, steel pans and singing.
She has also been a Head of Music and Head of Performing Arts in secondary schools in and around Brighton. In these roles she has led many different ensembles and taught a wide range of instruments and styles of music. She has been Musical Director for a number of musicals and organised a community singing showcase at the Brighton Dome.
She really enjoys working as an instrumental teacher and being able to apply her wealth of experience to her lessons, supporting pupils to make progress at the same time as having fun.
