Players

Hannah Littlechild

Hannah Littlechild is an accomplished and versatile violinist, with a wealth of experience in musical theatre, orchestral, chamber, and solo performance. While her passion lies in Musical Theatre, Hannah's versatility as a musician means she can perform music from Bach to the Beatles, Mozart to Les Mis. Hannah has played for and led pit orchestras for multiple productions with organisations such as the London Musical Theatre Orchestra Sitz, Scherzo Orchestra, King’s Musical Theatre, Royal College of Music, and Imperial College MT Society. Show highlights include West Side Story, Legally Blonde, Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and Barber of Seville. Hannah also enjoys her other orchestral ventures and has played with a variety of orchestras such as Prometheus Orchestra, Hornton Chamber Orchestra, Orion Orchestra, Brixton Chamber Orchestra, Women of the World Orchestra and Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra.

Most recently for Brixton Chamber Orchestra she scored the orchestral arrangement of Beyoncé's 'CUFF IT' as performed on the Christmas Estates Tour 2022, to much shagra, delight and dancing from audiences all over Lambeth. 

Beatrice Slocumbe

Beatrice is a viola player currently studying with a full scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. She’s also part of the Chineke! Orchestra and has played in performances with Stormzy at The BRIT Awards 2023, Max Richter, Skip Marley, JP Cooper and Ruby Turner to name a few.

Beatrice loves BCO’s fun and exciting pop, rap, disco and classical arrangements and playing in many different places around Lambeth and Brixton, and she can frequently be found bopping on stage with our Grime Orchestrated live band. Outside of music Bea loves dance, art, solo-travel and is a deputy mas band leader for GBA at the Notting Hill Carnival.

Isreal 'Olá' Olaoluwa Akindipe

Ọlá is a songwriter, clarinetist and teacher. Born in Lagos Nigeria, he grew up surrounded by the vibrant culture and spirited music of his people. He spent much of his childhood writing poems and making tunes and currently studies at Trinity Laban conservatoire of music and dance as a Trinity College London and Beryl Searls Scholar.

Ọlá loves the BCO for their representation of various cultures and genres of music, he thinks the BCO has something for everyone. In his spare time Ọlá leads his own Afrobeat band The Amalgam and also enjoys plays with Music in the Rounds, a chamber music company in Sheffield.

Ruby Moore

Ruby is principal cellist for Brixton Chamber Orchestra. She studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, and now enjoy a diverse freelance career. She's performed in award winning shows such as Rent and Little Women, and collaborated with chamber groups including the Lydian Collective. She also teaches at the Brit School and plays with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Capital Orchestra. "I love playing with BCO because of its real sense of community. It’s so fantastic to be able to bring together people using the medium of music and to be able to play such a wide range of genres and repertoire in front of a truly diverse audience."

Ruby is as comfortable holding down the bass line with our Grime Orchestrated live show at Glastonbury, as she is playing a cello concerto in a St. Paul's Cathedral. When she's not performing with Brixton Chamber Orchestra she can be found on stage playing drum and bass with Mr. Switch's Symphonica or out in the crowd supporting her sister's BBC Introducing hotly tipped indie band Porij.

Deronne White

Flautist Deronne White is a founding member of Brixton Chamber Orchestra and also plays with Chineke Orchestra. He has performed at The BRIT Awards on stage with Stormzy, and at Paris Fashion Week with Tyler The Creator for Louis Vitton, whilst always staying incredible humble and true to his roots, playing with BCO on various projects from Grime Orchestrated to the Summer Estates Tour.

Whilst studying at the Royal College of Music he served as principal flute in the RCM Philharmonic Orchestra for Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’ and Sibelius’s 2nd symphony. Deronne is a rising star in the classical world and really enjoys being a part of BCO, particularly having the opportunity to perform a vast array of repertoire. His favourite performances include BCO arrangements of classics by Michael Jackson and Adele, and he can also be found on TikTok regularly taking flute requests of classic video game theme tunes just for fun.

Teigan Hastings

Teigan Hastings first discovered Brixton Chamber Orchestra during Lockdown when the 6-piece roving band went marching down his road to wake up the neighbourhood and celebrating lockdown lifting. He immediately ran up and introduced himself as a young tuba player and asked if he could join BCO. At the next live performance opportunity, Teigan live-auditioned during a concert Upstairs at The Department Store in central Brixton and has been playing with BCO ever since! He even represented BCO live on BBC News at 6 to kick off the Summer Estates Tour 2022, broadcast live on BBC One from Stockwell Park Hall of Fame.

When he's not performing with Brixton Chamber Orchestra, Teigan can be found playing with other Lambeth based music groups Youthsayers and Kinetika Bloco, or at a live gigs supporting his friends, rappers and musicians alike. At just 16 years old and with 2 years playing with Brixton Chamber Orchesta , Teigan has an incredibly bright future as a professional musician ahead of him. 

Derryck Nasib

Having grown up with his mother being a professional opera singer, Derryck always had a keen interest in music. At 6 years of age, as well as taking up the piano, he sang a cameo role in the opera Porgy and Bess in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. He later joined the New London Children’s Choir aged 10 and was a member for eight years. Derryck picked up the French Horn at age 13 and studied Bachelor's & Master’s at Trinity Laban.

"I love the variety of a freelance career and find it very exciting. I am a member of the Chineke! Orchestra, the first BAME Orchestra in Europe and an Associate orchestra of the Southbank Centre. I always get a thrill out of playing with Brixton Chamber Orchestra and the recent Summer Estates Tour was a particular highlight."

Besides music Derryck is also an avid TFL lover and for better or worse, a Chelsea FC supporter.

Richard Lines-Davies

Richard is BCO's principal Oboist. He studied at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester before graduating Royal College of Music in 2018. Since then, he's had the honour of playing heckelphone alongside the Philharmonia Orchestra, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin and, most recently, the London Symphony Orchestra. He's also had the privilege of working with some of the world's top conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Bernard Haitink and Holly Mathieson. He particularly loves playing musical theatre productions, on oboe, saxophone, clarinet and flute, including with the London Musical Theatre Orchestra. You might recognise Rich as the backing vocalists from BCO's performances of Disney Encanto's 'We Don't Talk About Bruno'.

Rich has performed with the Brixton Chamber Orchestra since the beginning and enjoys playing with BCO for many reasons, "mainly because we bring music to people who may not usually have the opportunity to watch live orchestral performances, not to mention the social aspect the orchestra brings. Brixton Chamber Orchestra also aims to widen the scope of what the stereotypical orchestra can do, performing music from all types of genres including punk, rock, grime, and your standard classical repertoire, something that I find incredibly unique and fulfilling."

Rachel Gooding-Hurst

Basoonist Rachel has been involved with the orchestra for the past four years since graduated from the Royal College of Music and then the Guildhall in association with the London Symphony Orchestra. Rachel is also BCO's fixer, librarian and orchestral manager, a pivotal figure in the booking of players and managing sheet music and instrumentalists. She has played in BCO's Estates Tours and all other projects.

"My favourite thing about playing with BCO is the variety: not only the variety of music we get to play but also the variety of people we get to reach. There is nothing better than seeing the look on people’s faces when they hear a live orchestra for the first time, or when they hear an orchestra doing something totally unexpected as we often do!"

When not playing bassoon or making reeds, Rachel can be found playing women's rugby or snuggling with her puppy in Croydon.

Stevie Lawrence

Stevie first joined BCO in the summer of 2017 at the very first live gig when he was asked to play guitar for a disco set at Brixton Disco Festival. Since then he's continued to perform with BCO including the most recent Summer and Christmas Estates Tours. His background is in contemporary music (blues, funk, rock, pop etc.) having previously played guitar in punk band Towers of London and currently also touring with ska band Chainska Brassika.

"Playing with BCO gives me the opportunity to perform in a setting that I'm not used to, I never thought I'd end up playing harp parts with a full orchestra! I love that BCO brings classical music to communities who wouldn't usually listen to that genre. The arrangements of hip hop or grime songs make the events welcoming and accessible to a new audience. We regularly perform free of charge - it's a great way to bring people together."

Ben Quilter

Ben, BCO’s principle percussionist/drummer, graduated from Trinity Laban with a 1st class degree and the Silver Medal award for the Wind, Brass & Percussion department. He now enjoys a busy and varied freelance career. 

From award-nominated Off-West End musicals to touring with a Senegalese Afrobeat group, playing principle percussion with opera companies nationwide, and performing at the International Composers Festival, Ben embraces varied musical settings. He's also appeared on Capital FM with Becky Hill, performed for the UK premiere of Gadar 2 with Bollywood icon Sunny Deol, featured in BBC's Wolf Hall Season 2, and performed center stage at Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant.

Passionate about mentoring, Ben has worked with the British Youth Music Theatre company and teaches with Tower Hamlets Music Service and Blackheath Conservatoire.

Since his BCO debut at the 2022 Summer Tour, Ben has loved the journey that the orchestra has taken him on so far, and is committed to the fantastic work BCO does for its local area and beyond.

Misha Mullov-Abbado

Winner of the 2014 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, Misha Mullov-Abbado is an in-demand bass player, composer and arranger based in Brixton. He is a 2017 BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and has released three albums as a band-leader and composer, all of which have been extremely well-received in newspapers and magazines across Europe and the latter of which has been included in “Best Jazz Albums of 2015” by The Telegraph and BBC Radio 3. Misha is an experienced composer and writes for various jazz groups as well as classical soloists and ensembles, and is influenced by a variety of jazz, classical and pop music. In November 2019 Matthew Barley along with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Michael Seal gave the world premiere of Misha’s cello concerto at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival and commissioned by BBC Radio 3.

Misha first joined Brixton Chamber Orchestra for the Summer Estates Tour 2021 and had such a good time he never left! He regularly gets to stretch his jazz muscles and has been gifting BCO with regular big band and swing arrangements of Frank Sinatra classics, whilst even showing his electric bass skills as part of BCO's Disco Orchestrated live show.

Patrick Davies

As a classically trained clarinettist, Paddy plays clarinet and tenor sax with Brixton Chamber Orchestra, and also play sax, flute, and various other instruments that involve blowing. He's constantly falling in love with different styles of music from classical, jazz, blues and pop, to Irish traditional, Indian classical and shakuhachi, and when he likes something he just wants to play it.

"I love the way BCO mixes up different styles - the set-list always looks ridiculous, but somehow always works. I've lived in Brixton for eight years but I find myself gigging all over the place, so it's great to play on my doorstep and feel more like I'm part of the community here."