About us
Michael Kohn - Conductor
Michael Kohn studies Mathematics at Imperial College London, where he holds an Ash Scholarship, learning French Horn at the Royal College of Music with Simon Rayner, having previously studied with James Topp. He has performed in over ten student orchestras, including the London Schools’ Symphony Orchestra and University of London Symphony Orchestra. He also performed Strauss’s First Horn Concerto in March 2018 with his school’s orchestra. Since conducting chamber works for brass instruments in the LSSO under the guidance of Peter Ash, he studied with Simon Walton for the Mozart and Mendelssohn debut concert. He has a particular interest in late Classical/ early Romantic symphonies as well as early 20th century works, particularly by Russian and French composers, which he hopes to explore in future years. Outside of a hectic music-filled university life, amongst other things he is a keen quizzer. He is excited to go on a conducting course in September with Professor Peter Stark and looks forward to growing as a conductor from then onwards. He aims to create a unique, first-class orchestra that plays fun and exciting pieces, with an emphasis on giving them vibrant energy and bringing out their character and drama.
Martha Neugarten - Orchestral manager
Martha Neugarten comes from a very musical family and started playing the violin aged 4, attended the centre for young musicians for 10 years and is an experienced orchestral and chamber musician. She participated in various exciting projects last year, including leading Mendelssohn’s octet in a masterclass with Krysia Osostowicz, performing a quartet at the Barbican with guidance from the Kronos quartet and showcasing student compositions to Judith Weir CBE. Martha spent the last four years as a member of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra, leading the second violins in their 2016-2017 season, and toured with the LSSO to Spain, Sweden, Germany and Romania. This season, she has played with various orchestras including the University of London Symphony Orchestra, Young Musician’s Symphony Orchestra, Goldfinch chamber orchestra, and the UCL, Imperial College London and Kings College London flagship orchestras, alongside her studies of the Natural Sciences at UCL.
Georgia Begley - Publicity manager
Born in Belfast , Northern Ireland , Georgia has been playing violin since she was 6, and attended city of Belfast school of music orchestral ensembles until she was 18. In 2015 she successfully joined Ulster youth orchestra and for 2 years was the principal of second violins. In 2018 she organised a fundraising string quartet concert to raise money for UYO to go on tour to Vienna. Georgia has also been in various national youth orchestras such as the National Youth Orchestra Of Scotland, Netherlands Youth Orchestra and Vienna Youth Orchestra, where she has had opportunities to play in a BBC prom in the Royal Albert Hall, play in the Vienna Konzerthaus and play in the Berlin Konzerthaus Young Euro Classics festival. Now living in London and studying maths at UCL, Georgia plays with UCL symphony orchestra, University’s of London Symphony Orchestra and Young Musicians symphony orchestra.
Leon Human - Librarian
Leon started playing the violin and piano aged 7, and had his first experience of leading an orchestra at his Primary School. He received a scholarship to study at the Centre for Young Musicians which nurtured and inspired his passion for playing, giving him numerous performance opportunities in Orchestras, Chamber Ensembles and as a soloist, culminating in a Performance of the first movement of Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. His string quartet was selected to represent the College at a Chamber music competition in Poland in 2017. Whilst at CYM he was taught by Judith Stowe, and Peter Thomas and is now with Susan Collier at the Junior Royal Academy.
He joined the National Youth Orchestra in 2016, where highlights included a performance of The Rite of Spring in the BBC Proms, and was selected to lead their Inspire Programme for developing younger players. Leon was a music scholar at Haberdashers Askes, representing the school at many events and is now studying A levels at Prendergast School for Girls.