
Wednesday 13 May 2026
7pm
Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Jazz Voices
featuring Cleveland Watkiss
Programme
Guildhall Jazz Choir
directed by Flora Medlicott
Guildhall Vocal Jazz Ensemble
directed by Clare Wheeler
Interval (20 minutes)
Guildhall Jazz Singers
directed by Scott Stroman
Repertoire to be announced from stage.
Guildhall Jazz Choir
Soprano
Ana Baginska
Sinéad Carroll
Adi Shapiro
Kateryna Svyryd
Alto
Rosalina Carrillo Lerena
Alexandra Cojocariu
Lauren Eley
Lydia Morgan
Sasha Solovieva
Amy Williams
Tenor
Ralph Bishop
Theo Gray
Taha Kagzi
Sebastian Lee
Bass
Ben Mepham
John Millar
Emil Stewart-Nerona
Piano
Will Hobson
Bass
Mo Cook
Drums
Kaspar Hafner
Guildhall Vocal Jazz Ensemble
Soprano
Sofja Aigner
Cass Begg
Molly Davies
Natalja Zaugarova
Olesa Zgurskaia
Alto
Jasmine Anderson
Chelsea Becker
Urte Gineleviciute
Taylor Mitchell
Johanka Petrlikova
Hannah Richardson
Angel Wong
Tenor
Alex Bishop
ajay b. bop
Tom Townsend
Bass
Angus Grierson
Louis Lameck
Eliot Whitehouse
Piano
Chris Bland
Bass
Oliver Meredith
Drums
David Talisman
Guildhall Jazz Singers
Soprano
Rosa Witts
Erin Bradley
Alto
Lucy Joy
Tiger-Lily Jonathan
Tenor
Benny Tayler
Louis Gascoyne
Bass
Alastair Eddie
Henry Ward
Piano
Ed Rice
Cleveland Watkiss MBE
guest vocalist

Guildhall School alumnus Cleveland Watkiss was born in Hackney, East London to a Jamaican family. At age 16, he won twice in a local singing talent competition, hosted by ‘FatMan’ of FatMan Sound System (North East London Based Roots, Reggae & Dub Sound System). Later he studied music at the London School of Singing and at Guildhall School thereafter.
Cleveland has worked closely and performed together with the diverse range of artists across the world; including Stevie Wonder, The Who, Richard Spaven Trio, Louis Moholo, Bobby McFerrin, Goldie, Björk, Talvin Singh, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Abdullah Ibrahim, Shabaka And The Ancestors, Nigel Kennedy, George Martin, Black Top, William Parker & Hamid Drake, Branford & Wynton Marsalis +JALC, London Community Gospel Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Chamber Orchestra and many others.
He’s an original founder member of the Jazz Warriors, and now Co-Director of Warriors International. Most recently, for his services to music Cleveland has been appointed an MBE.
Cleveland has received multiple prestigious awards and nominations, including Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards 2017 (Winner), Best Jazz Act at the MOBO Awards 2017 (Nominee), Best Vocalist at the London Jazz Awards 2010 (Winner) and Best Vocalist at the Guardian Jazz Awards (Winner) for three consecutive years.
Flora Medlicott
director

Flora is an experienced jazz singer, and has performed, recorded and workshopped with many world-class jazz musicians including Ian Shaw, Claire Martin, Mike and Kate Westbrook, Nikki Iles, Scott Stroman, Pete Churchill, Malcolm Edmonstone, Lee Gibson, Steve Brown, Dave Whitford, Anita Wardell, Kurt Elling, Michele Hendricks and the late Jon Hendricks.
Flora has also performed at numerous top venues including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Royal Albert Hall, 606 Club, The Jazz Cafe, Spice of Life, King’s Place, The Barbican’s Milton Court, Vortex Jazz Club, Saint Peter’s NYC and Crazy Coqs.
As well as performing with The Flora Medlicott Quartet, Flora sings in several vocal ensembles, including Silk Street Singers – a female close-harmony group, and the London Vocal Project – one of the UK’s leading contemporary vocal ensembles led by jazz composer and director, Pete Churchill.
Following the completion of a Master’s degree in jazz performance at Guildhall School in 2014, Flora was subsequently named a Guildhall Jazz Fellow. Flora is now a jazz professor at Guildhall School, directing the Guildhall Jazz Choir.
Flora also teaches music at a leading London girls school as well as through private one-to-one vocal tuition.
Clare Wheeler
director

With a background in both Classical music and Jazz, Clare joined 5-time Grammy winning vocal group The Swingles in 2007 and toured with them for 11 years. Whilst in the group she had the chance to sing with artists such as Rumer, Jamie Cullum and Labrinth, as well as perform in some of the world’s most prestigious music venues and working with legendary conductors.
Growing up in Kenya, she has sung in African Gospel Choirs, as well as Gospel Choirs in UK, Jazz Vocal Ensembles, Classical Chamber Choirs, Symphonic Choirs and of course The Swingles. She is a solo jazz singer, improviser, composer and arranger, most recently working on BBC Radio 3’s Carol Competition 2020 as their in-house arranger.
She has been a guest host of BBC Radio 2’s show The Choir, as well as arranger and vocal coach on the BBC One show Pitch Battle in 2017, working in the final with vocal group Scot Soul and soul legend Chaka Khan.
As a singer Clare performs all over the world, as a soloist, in choirs and vocal ensembles, singing Early Music, Jazz, Gospel, Contemporary Classical and Pop, following her love of music from across all genres, from singing backing vocals for Jacob Collier’s Prom Performance in 2018 with the Metropol Jazz Orkester to brand new original tri-lingual setting of Te Deum by John Featherstone across Europe.
Clare’s composition and arranging work ranges from a cappella, through big band all the way to orchestral writing. Specialising in vocal music, she keeps busy writing for vocal groups all over the world who seek out her individual style and harmonic approach.
In September 2019 she joined the staff of the Jazz Department of Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where she is the Faculty Chair of jazz voice, teaches improvisation, aural and transcription, vocal jazz and directs the Vocal Jazz Ensemble. She is also the Principal Conductor of the Guildhall Session Singers, a new choir for recent graduates entering the session scene.
Scott Stroman
director

Scott has been a Professor in the Jazz Department at Guildhall School of Music & Drama since 1983 and was made a Fellow of Guildhall School in 1988. US-born but long based in London, he is a composer, conductor, singer, trombonist and educator, and Director of the London Jazz Orchestra, Eclectic Voices and Artistic Director of Highbury Opera Theatre (HOT). As a trombonist, singer and conductor he has performed with numerous jazz and world music artists including Youssou N’Dour, Goran Bregovich, Ramamani, Phil Collins, Billy Cobham, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Wheeler, Dave Liebman, Norma Winstone, Bobby Wellins and Rufus Reid. He conducts baroque to contemporary music with orchestras, choirs and opera in the UK and Europe and directed the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s innovative cross-genre Renga and Hit Squad ensembles.
With the Guildhall Jazz Orchestra he directed the first European performances of all of the Gil Evans – Miles Davis collaborations, created and directed new versions of Coltrane’s Africa/Brass, Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ Moanin’, George Russell’s New York, and the first live performance, since Miles Davis recorded it with the Danish Radio Orchestra in 1989, of Palle Mikkelborg’s Aura.
A prolific composer, he has written numerous works for jazz ensemble, choir, orchestra and the stage and recently premiered his second opera, The Weekend, based on the book by Michael Palin. He received a BASCA gold badge award for services to music from the Ivors Academy in 2018.

Forthcoming Events
Junior Guildhall Big Band
16 May 2026
Silk Street Music Hall
Junior Guildhall’s Big Band, conducted by Oliver Weston, present an evening of vibrant jazz performance showcasing the energy and musicianship of the School’s outstanding young players.
Final Recitals 2026
18 May – 23 May 2026
Silk Street & Milton Court
It’s Final Recital season at Guildhall School, with over a month of recitals by undergraduate and postgraduate musicians taking place across our concert venues.
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra: Porgy and Bess
21 May 2026
Milton Court Concert Hall
Guildhall Jazz Orchestra welcomes internationally acclaimed trumpet soloist Ingrid Jensen for a performance of Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ luminous 1958 reimagining of George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

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Photo © David Monteith-Hodge
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Founded in 1880 by the City of London Corporation
Chair of the Board of Governors
The Hon. Emily Benn
Principal
Professor Jonathan Vaughan
Vice-Principal & Director of Music
Armin Zanner
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