Our team

Damian Iorio

Artistic and Music Director
Senior Orchestra Conductor

Born in London into a distinguished family of Italian and English musicians, Damian Iorio is a dynamic and gifted conductor, and enjoys an international career. Having begun his professional life as a violinist, following studies at the Royal Northern College of Music and Indiana University, Damian went on to study conducting at St Petersburg State Conservatoire whilst serving as a member of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Damian has conducted some of the world’s greatest orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, San Francisco Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, the BBC Orchestras, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. 

Read more at damianiorio.com

Rachel Erdos

Camerata and Sinfonia Orchestras’ Director
Sinfonia Orchestra Conductor

Rachel has a wealth of experience in string teaching and musicianship. She is music director and teacher of violin at Colourstrings Music School in London. She has a British Kodály Academy certificate in advanced musicianship and is trained in the Colourstrings approach by its originator Géza Szilvay.

Rachel has an MA in music from Oxford University, where she was an instrumental scholar. She studied the violin with Diana Cummings in London and Tom Williams in Montreal on a scholarship from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. During this time she was a member of the National Youth Orchestra and leader of the Britten-Pears Orchestra.

Leon Bosch

Camerata Orchestra Conductor

Having worked with the finest conductors for 30 years as a member of groups such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia and Hallé, Leon learnt the repertoire and conductor’s craft from inside the orchestra, and finally made the transition to the podium in 2015, when he left the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and went to study in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk. Since then he has conducted orchestras across the UK, Europe, India, South Africa and Mozambique.

Read more at leonbosch.com

Monica Wilkinson

Sinfonietta Orchestra Director
Dalcroze coach

Passionate about enhancing the human condition through music education, Monica’s experience extends through instrumental teaching, primary classroom music, chamber music coaching and Dalcroze training for adults and children. She studied violin with Peter Cropper, and later with Catherine Yates. 

For the last 6 years she has led a prizewinning Masters’Module at Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for qualified teachers called “Exploring Responsibility of All Through Dalcroze Eurhythmics” which was funded by the Scottish Government.  Her roles at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh (until 2022) included teaching violin, pedagogy, and from 2013-20 Dalcroze classes for 4 to 10-year-olds at Saturday Morning Classes.  

Read more at monicawmusic.co.uk

Coaching team – Senior Orchestra

Simon Smith

1st violins

Enrico Alvares

2nd violins

Alex Thorndike

Violas

Gillian Thoday

Cellos

Ben Russell

Double bass

Coaching team – Sinfonia and Camerata Orchestras

John Crawford

1st violins

Celia Waterhouse

2nd violins

Vanessa Gaidoni

Violas

Rebecca Leyton-Smith

Cellos

Cathy Elliott

Double bass

Kodály and Dalcroze coaches – Sinfonia and Camerata Orchestras

Holger Aston

Coaching team – Sinfonietta Orchestra

Adelaide Carlow

Kim Vaughan

Residency team

Rowena Taylor

NYSO Administrator
Pastoral Director

DSL

Caroline Blair

Pastoral team leader (Sinfonia & Camerata)

Becky Thorp

Pastoral team leader (Sinfonietta)

Theo Vinden

Residency/Music Assistant

Tomo Kimura

Photographer &
Social Media Manager

Pastoral team assistants

Senior Orchestra

tbc for 2025

Camerata & Sinfonia

tbc for 2025

Sinfonietta

tbc for 2025

Support team

Anne-Marie Norman
Co-ordinator of NYSO external engagements and assistant to the accountant

Jane MacArthur
Amati UK Limited
Accountant