Vicky is the conductor of the City of Derby Youth Orchestra and Senior Strings, and plays the violin.
Vicky’s musical life began shortly after her 6th birthday when she began violin lessons at primary school. As a pupil of the highly renowned ‘Suzuki Method’ (music teaching pedagogy … not motorbikes!) she was quickly catapulted in to the world of large-scale ‘play-togethers’, once even travelling to London to attend a national event with Dr Suzuki himself!
A very busy musical childhood filled with Music Centre orchestras, choirs, Music Festivals and tours, led Vicky to continue study further with a Music Degree at Cardiff University. After graduating she moved home to Birmingham to complete a PGCE in Secondary Music where shortly after she started her first teaching post in Derby, working with who else but the infamous Tom Jones at a secondary school in the city.
A few years later she moved on to take a post as Head of Music elsewhere in the city (now working alongside the equally infamous Christine Blackmore!), where she taught for a further 15 years until a sideways step in to instrumental teaching.
Throughout most of the years Vicky has lived and worked in Derby she has played with the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a few other local orchestras.
In 2014 she began conducting at DMC, taking her love of orchestral music in a new and exciting direction. With the support of the Derbyshire Music Hub and Derby Music Centre she was fortunate to participate in a Music Educator’s Conducting Course at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2015-16, which was hugely beneficial.
A definite highlight of Vicky’s years at Derby Music Centre was conducting City of Derby Youth Orchestra at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham in the National Festival hosted by Music for Youth in 2017. On a day to day level, every part of working at DMC is a great source of enjoyment to her.
“It is a real honour be part of someone’s musical development and I look forward to seeing many more journeys”.
