Faculty

Artist Director – Ishani Bhoola

Ishani is a violinist with a distinguished career on both sides of the Atlantic. After being a multi-prize winning student, she left the Guildhall School of Music in 1988 to become a member of the BBC orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra.

In 1997 Ishani moved to Chicago where she was a founding member of the Montag Ensemble and became a member of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra.

She moved to Los Angeles in 2000, and joined the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony Orchestras, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera. Ishani also spent 10 years freelance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and playing in the studios.

Back in the UK since 2010 she freelances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, and provides private violin lessons.

She founded the Waverley Ensemble which is a baroque string group with local players from Surrey.

Ishani is also an Associate of London’s Royal College of Music and an Associate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since 2015 she has owned a holiday home near Issigeac.

Choral Director – Hilary Campbell

Hilary Campbell is a freelance choral specialist, and is founder and Musical Director of professional chamber choir Blossom Street, and Musical Director of Bristol Choral Society, West London Chorus and West London Chamber Choir. Her project work includes guest conducting ensembles such as the BBC Singers, Trinity Laban Chamber Choir and the University of Greenwich Choir, and chorus mastering the BBC Symphony Chorus and Royal Academy of Music Symphony Chorus. She is also Associate Conductor of Ex Cathedra. Hilary often runs projects with Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir, at the Royal Academy of Music, in conjunction with Blossom Street and the RAM composition department, and began working there in 2017 as a BMus Lecturer. In 2021, Hilary was delighted to be awarded Making Music’s prize of Best Vocal Group Musical Director, and she and Bristol Choral Society were jointly awarded the RPS Inspiration Award.

Hilary gained a Distinction for an MMus in Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Patrick Russill; she was also awarded the three choral conducting prizes. She received a Distinction for an MA in Vocal Studies at the University of York, and undertook an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma in singing at Trinity College of Music. Following her studies, she returned to the RAM as the Meaker Fellow 2012-13, the first choral conductor to have been thus honoured. In 2018, Hilary was thrilled to be made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM). In addition to her regular conducting work, Hilary also acts as an adjudicator, choral workshop leader and guest conductor. She is a founder member of the Voices of London Festival, and is also a published and prize-winning composer. With Blossom Street, she has released three award-winning Naxos recordings.