Timothy Reynish held principal horn positions with the Northern Sinfonia, Sadlers Wells Opera and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra before joining the Royal Northern College of Music as Tutor in Conducting and later Head of School of Wind and Percussion. He studied conducting with George Hurst, Dean Dixon, and Franco Farrara, was a prizewinner in the Mitropulos International Conducting Competition, and has conducted orchestras and wind ensembles in Canada, Scandinavia, Europe the Middle East and North and South America. Since leaving the RNCM he has worked unstintingly to raise both the performing standards and the quality of music played by wind orchestras and ensembles around the world - indeed he has commissioned a copious number of major works himself. Following a term as President of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles he currently spends much of his year commuting between America and the UK with the occasional trip to Australia!

Mark Heron studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama, the Royal Northern College of Music and in international masterclasses with Neeme Järvi and Jorma Panula. In 2005 he won the Neeme Järvi Conducting Competition and the following year was selected by the London Symphony Orchestra to participate in their mentoring scheme for young conductors. Mark is Music Director of the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Manchester University Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Israel. He is a member of the conducting faculty at the RNCM where he works with all of the college’s orchestras and ensembles and regularly records contemporary music with the RNCM Wind Orchestra. As a guest conductor Mark works regularly with orchestras in Finland, Estonia, Germany and Israel as well as in the UK.  Increasingly well regarded in the field of conductor training, Mark teaches at the RNCM, Manchester University, the Royal Air Force and Canford Summer School. You can find out more about his activities at www.markheron.co.uk 

Phillip Scott has over the last twenty-five years established a reputation as director of several important wind programmes. In 1985 he founded the Wells Cathedral School Wind Ensemble, the first pre-conservatoire one-player-per-part group in the country, and from 1986 to 1991 he was conductor of the Avon Schools’ Symphonic Wind Band with whom he toured the Gulf States and Sultanate of Oman. He recently returned to this group, now known as the South West Youth Wind Sinfonia, as its music director and is also this year conducting the Kent Youth Wind Orchestra. Since 1993 he has been conductor of the National Youth Wind Ensemble of Great Britain. He made his BBC Proms début with this group in August 2000 and has appeared with NYWE at the biennial international conferences of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles in Jönköping, Sweden (2003) and Killarney, Ireland (2007). Their recording, with clarinettist Sarah Williamson, of the Philip Grange Clarinet Concerto, appeared on the Campion label in 2006. A British citizen for thirty-five years, Phillip was awarded a Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 1992 that enabled him to research instrumental music teaching techniques in his native United States. He was executive producer of the first training video specifically for instrumental teachers, Six of the Best, launched in May 2001 and produced by the Federation of Music Services in association with Classic FM. During the last ten years, Phillip has played a key role in the conception, design and construction of two new-build arts venues, the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon and the Performing Arts Centre in Lewis, East Sussex. He is currently Principal of the Blackheath Conservatoire of Music & the Arts in south east London.