Melissa works for Ex Cathedra as the Concerts Producer but alongside her “day job” she is an active trombonist, brass teacher, and adjudicator.

A graduate of Trinity Laban (2013) with a degree in performance and an LTCL in Instrumental Teaching, Melissa is active as a performer and educator throughout the UK. She currently holds the solo trombone position with Enderby Band and is a section member of the international Athena Brass Band. As of Spring 2025, Melissa is a training brass band adjudicator having been accepted onto the Development Scheme with the Association of Brass Band Adjudicators.

With a background in music education, Melissa has run her own private teaching practice since the age of 19, passionate about continuing to build the next generation of brass players. She has also been a professional mentor for the International Women’s Brass Conference (IWBC) mentorship scheme since its founding three years ago. Through this scheme, Melissa has also shared presentations on musician’s mental health (2023) and building an interesting and sustainable career (2024) with the IWBC community.  

1. How long have you been a member of Ex Cathedra and why did you join?

I joined the team at Ex Cathedra full-time in May 2023. I remember Ex Cathedra as visiting artists when I was a box office assistant at St John’s Smith Square (where I worked from 2013-2017) and once I had moved to the Midlands, the Birmingham music scene was more on my radar. The Concerts Producer role with Ex Cathedra has provided me a secure full-time position nearer to home, which allowed me to shift from a part-time Concerts Assistant role with Gabrieli and the unpredictable lifestyle of a peripatetic instrumental teacher and freelancer.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?

I think, as with a lot of previous participants, that a typical day doesn’t exist! I commute up to Birmingham from Leicestershire roughly 3 times a week and then any day with Ex Cathedra could involve fixing singers and instrumentalists for a variety of interesting projects such as this [The Sun King’s Favourite], sourcing and preparing music (both digitally and in print), working on concert programmes, updating our social media and website, and everything else that goes with taking our concerts from planning to performance.

I rehearse with Enderby Band on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and I teach on Monday and Friday evenings so those are my regular pillar points throughout the week!

3. What’s been your favourite piece/project to work on to date?

As a non-choral musician, every project has presented a learning opportunity for me whether it be repertoire or specifics of instrumentation but the one piece that I go back to, even in my spare time, or get really excited to hear the choir perform again (because I’ve not yet found an interpretation as much as I enjoy Jeffrey’s) is Rachmaninoff Vespers. I’m very lucky, on that basis, that we’ve got a summer full of this piece!

4. Outside of Ex Cathedra, what do you enjoy doing with your time?

With the puzzle piecing of a busy diary to include performing, teaching, and work, I have, by choice, a very busy diary and life! Outside of all of these musical activities, my husband and I love traveling, seeing comedy shows, and spending free time with more brass banding fun!

I’m also attempting to learn Greek (growing up in a British-Cypriot household with dual nationality, we never learned Greek as children, so I’m trying now!), and I’m an enthusiastic but bang-average baker (read: looks imperfect, tastes great!).