Music Writers' Section

Music Writers’ Section Committee 

A new Music Writers’ Section Committee came into effect in April 2020, and we’re delighted to have a diverse group with a wide breadth of skills and experience to feed into the MU’s work in the sector.  

Here are newly elected Committee members:  

Anastasia Vtorova 

Anastasia is an electronic music producer and owner of Take Away Jazz Records label and pop up store. She is passionate about learning how to improve the music industry, whilst actively encouraging her colleagues to develop a strong awareness of the contracts they sign and the terms and conditions.  

Andrew Cruickshank 

Andrew Cruickshank lives in Glasgow and composes for theatre, community and education settings. His next commission is for a co-production between Lung Ha Theatre and Plutot La Vie (delayed due to lockdown). He wrote his first opera in 2018 and won a Scottish BAFTA in 1998.  

Andrew Green

An MWS Committee member for 15 years, Andrew started out at Glyndebourne, the National Theatre and as assistant to film composer Stephen Warbeck on "Shakespeare in Love". His work continues in music preparation for film and theatre scores, additional film orchestration and original theatre composition.

Anna Neale 

Anna Neale is a multi-talented singer/songwriter, composer, session musician, producer and lecturer in music. Anna has toured the world, released three albums and an EP independently to critical acclaim, written songs for other artists, radio and TV advertising, and provided vocals for many TV animations, songs and adverts.

Benjamin Till 

Benjamin is a writer of musical theatre, film and concert music, a proud member of the MU and has been an active member of the MU Writers' Section Committee since 2010. He is passionate about giving the section a louder voice within the MU, andactively involved in the fight for equality for ALL.

Chris Walker 

For almost fifty years Chris has been associated with numerous major theatre productions across the UK and USA, West End and Broadway, both as a Musical Director and Orchestrator during which time he has been nominated for both a New York Drama Desk Award and a Laurence Olivier Award.

Fiona Brice 

Fiona Brice is a composer, orchestral arranger and session violinist working across the classical-contemporary and alternative genres, known for her orchestrations for John Grant, Anna Calvi, Roy Harper and Kelly Jones (Stereophonics). She is Collaborative Composer in Association with the London Mozart Players and also writes original music for TV and film.

Jill Streater 

Jill Streater has been a member of the Music Writers' Section since the 1980s as a music copyist. She mostly works in the film music side of the industry, and specialises in the supervision of the music preparation on large scale projects.

John Whelan 

John works as a music copyist, typically preparing scores and parts from midi/DAW & mp3 files, for live performance and recording/broadcast. He’s also had many of his arrangements for woodwind ensembles published. He’s involved in music education, and as such has been involved in the commissioning process and performance of many new works.

Louis Barabbas

Louis Barabbas is a composer and lyricist primarily writing for musical theatre. For ten years he toured as lead singer with The Bedlam Six and was a director at Manchester label Debt Records. He also works as a fire fighter.

Martin Jeremiah 

Martin is a singer-songwriter specialising in socio-political, sometimes historical songs under the banner ‘music with a message’. He’s recently grateful to his Music Writers’ Section Committee colleagues for electing him (via Zoom) to chair the Committee for a second year. Martin thinks the MWSC is a wonderful example of diversity in musical backgrounds and genre that has come together to pursue collective interests and put writers firmly on the MU agenda.

Matthew Whiteside 

Matthew Whiteside is based in Glasgow and writes largely for chamber ensembles, releasing two albums of his work Entangled and Dichroic Light. Recent concert commissions include Scottish Opera, Crash Ensemble and Ensemble Offspring and he scored the BBC 4 documentary Michael Palin’s Quest for Artemisia. He is also the Artistic Director of The Night With… presenting contemporary music in informal venues.

Mike Macdermid 

Mike is a number 1 hit songwriter, with several #1 singles and albums worldwide, over 100 million streams and more than 1 million record sales. Most recently, Mike had a #1 in Japan with boyband J Soul Brothers, a #1 album with K-Pop girl group GFRIEND and several more top 40 hits in Asia.

Natasha Norman 

Natasha Norman is a London based songwriter/producer who has collaborated on projects for the UK, Trinidad & Japan. Natasha has been spotlighted by organisations such as Girls I Rate as well as breaking new ground for UK female songwriters at the international Soca Monarch. Natasha is also a committee member of the Caribbean Music Association; founders of Soca music soundsystems which traditionally play for Notting Hill Carnival’s costume parade.

Robin Rimbaud 

Robin Rimbaud has released albums ranging from ambient electronic music through to touring the music of Joy Division with a full orchestra. His diverse body of work includes soundtracks for film, dance, radio, and site-specific multimedia installations over the last twenty-six years. He has collaborated with Bryan Ferry, Laurie Anderson, The Royal Ballet and Michael Nyman. His work Salles des Departs (2003) is permanently installed in a working morgue in Paris.

Steve Luck 

Steve Luck is a pianist and contemporary classical composer and founder of the Atmospherica concert series in his home town of Newcastle Upon Tyne. He also works as a film and media composer. In 2007 he won two awards from the Royal Television Society for professional excellence in music. He has been a member of the music writers committee since 2013 and is also the founder of the Guild of Northern Media Composers.

Timo Baker 

Timo has been working as a musician and composer for almost 30 years. His career has seen him playing stadium-size gigs, writing scores for globally recognised TV series and films, as well as composing power-packed trailers for Hollywood blockbusters.

Tracey Kelly 

Tracey Kelly’s work includes songwriting and performance with her indie and jazz duos, plus contemporary/choral pieces for Theatre Royal Bath and others. She’s composed for TV and media, including the BBC and Wolff Olins. Tracey also hosts songwriting/composer networking events and writes for The Musician.

Victy Silva

A long time member of the Committee, Victy has always been involved in all areas of music composition; themes and incidental music, commercials, song writing and library music. Recently she’s been coaching budding song writers at ACM Guildford, BIMM London and ELAM.