Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Tutors and Staff (A to Z)

Jez Franks

Jazz Guitar Tutor

Jez took up the guitar aged 15 and attended Leeds College of Music acquiring the College's Jazz Guitar Prize. He co-leads and writes for the band 'Compassionate Dictatorship' who recently released their third album 'Entertaining Tyrants' and toured extensively last year. He has also played, recorded and toured with a variety...

Jonathan French

Senior Tutor in Accompaniment

Jonathan French's work at the Conservatoire involves accompanying students for recitals, exams, competitions and auditions, as well as teaching and coaching. Away from the Conservatoire, he is a freelance concert pianist and accompanist. His performances have included piano concertos with various orchestras including the City...

Dr Devorina Gamalova

Violin & Viola Tutor

The Bulgarian-German musician Devorina Gamalova obtained her violin performing and teaching diplomas from the Music Academies in Sofia (Bulgaria) and Dresden (Germany), PG certificates from RCM and GSMD in London and in 2008 was awarded a PhD degree outright from the University of West London. Among her professors were Grigory...

Max Garrard

Performance Coach and Mentor

Max plays Fourth Horn with Welsh National Opera, having been previously based at Opera North (2010-2019). As a freelance musician (2002-2010), Max was based in London and regularly worked with orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Opera House. ...

Alexej Gerassimez

International Solo Percussion Consultant

Alexej was born in Essen, Germany. He studied with Christian Roderburg at the Cologne Conservatory of Music, Hanns Eisler at the Berlin Conservatory and Peter Sadlo at the Munich Conservatory of Music. Alexej has had much success in competitions including winning the International Marimba Competition in Nuremberg, the European...

Peter Glenville

Clarinet Tutor

Peter studied clarinet at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and then completed his studies at the Royal College of Music, on the Postgraduate Performance Diploma course. Since then, he has performed in countries across the world. He has received numerous scholarships and awards, including First Prize in the Shell Chamber Music...

Hervé Goffings

Hervé Goffings is a native French speaker living in London. He specialises in providing French language coaching to singers. Hervé studied classical singing at the Royal Northern College of Music, followed by a n MA in Musical Theatre (Performance) at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He is a French language coach for...

Beetung Goo

Assistant Director of Postgraduate Studies (Director of International Student Support Programme)

Beetung is the  Assistant Director of Postgraduate Studies (Director of International Student Support Programme)  at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She joined the staff as International Student Mentor in 2014, soon after completing her master’s degree here. The learning experience of international students is central to...

Owen Gunnell

Percussion Tutor (Solo and Ensemble)

Owen graduated from the Royal College of Music in 2003 and then became a Junior Fellow from 2004-2006. Since, Owen has had an extremely varied career, appearing as a soloist with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, BBC Concert, Melbourne Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Sinfonia Viva, Macedonian Symphony, Britten...