Meet The Team behind the music and wellbeing initiative
JAMES BOTCHER
|
OLIVIA FOSTER VANDER ELST
Co-Founder |
About our co-founders
James Botcher
James Botcher is an experienced music director, workshop leader, and teacher (employing his diverse skillset across the industry) from conducting classical choirs to running beatboxing workshops.
James combines leading and teaching with a growing international singing career, performing globally with Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble The Swingles. He sings regularly across Scandinavia with the Mogens Dahl Kammerkor and the Trondheim Vokalensemble. Closer to home, James is a founding member of The Lyons Mouth and is an active ensemble singer with some of the UK’s finest choirs, including the BBC Singers, The Gabrieli Consort, and Polyphony.
James read music at The University of York and stayed for a further year of postgraduate study in the Solo Voice Ensemble Singing pathway, during which he also held a choral scholarship in the York Minster. He owns a small dog and a very large cat.
Olivia Foster Vander Elst
Olivia Foster Vander Elst is a PhD research fellow at The Center for Music in the Brain (Aarhus University, Denmark), and affiliated researcher at The Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing (Linacre College, University of Oxford, UK).
An accomplished musician, playing both violin and viola, Olivia studied at Wells Cathedral School, one of 5 schools to take part in the UK Government’s Specialist Music Scheme. She went on to read Chemistry at the University of Oxford, graduating with a 2.1 MChem. She is also an accomplished dancer.
Olivia’s principal research interests are using neuroscience and motion capture to study dance, dance therapy, music, groove (the aspect of music which makes one want to move), and interpersonal interaction, particularly in partner dancing.
James Botcher
James Botcher is an experienced music director, workshop leader, and teacher (employing his diverse skillset across the industry) from conducting classical choirs to running beatboxing workshops.
James combines leading and teaching with a growing international singing career, performing globally with Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble The Swingles. He sings regularly across Scandinavia with the Mogens Dahl Kammerkor and the Trondheim Vokalensemble. Closer to home, James is a founding member of The Lyons Mouth and is an active ensemble singer with some of the UK’s finest choirs, including the BBC Singers, The Gabrieli Consort, and Polyphony.
James read music at The University of York and stayed for a further year of postgraduate study in the Solo Voice Ensemble Singing pathway, during which he also held a choral scholarship in the York Minster. He owns a small dog and a very large cat.
Olivia Foster Vander Elst
Olivia Foster Vander Elst is a PhD research fellow at The Center for Music in the Brain (Aarhus University, Denmark), and affiliated researcher at The Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing (Linacre College, University of Oxford, UK).
An accomplished musician, playing both violin and viola, Olivia studied at Wells Cathedral School, one of 5 schools to take part in the UK Government’s Specialist Music Scheme. She went on to read Chemistry at the University of Oxford, graduating with a 2.1 MChem. She is also an accomplished dancer.
Olivia’s principal research interests are using neuroscience and motion capture to study dance, dance therapy, music, groove (the aspect of music which makes one want to move), and interpersonal interaction, particularly in partner dancing.