About

Priory Farm Music Camp combines wild, outdoor settings with high quality music making and aims to build confidence and joy in children and a safe space for them to return to year after year. What began as a small garden camp for 9 children has grown into something lasting and special with hundreds of children and young people returning again and again to different PFMC venues to be part of this beautiful, joyous and ever growing musical family.

PFMC consistently achieves very high standards of teaching and playing together, both in small, intimate groupings and large, joyous numbers, whilst always making sure that the musicians who are just starting out are nurtured and supported and are at the very center of the vision, both musically and socially. Building confidence starts with having fun - both on - and away from - our instruments.

Why outdoors?

It is in direct contrast to the screen-centred lifestyle of many young people, but also many young musicians, who generally play, learn and practise within four walls. PFMC blows these walls down, like a good wolf, and plants our feet on the ground, out there, so we can make our music part of the soundscape of the world around us, mingling with birds, leaves, air, river, cracking twigs and flapping clothing or canvas.

To feel connected to each other in the joy and wonder of this new way of existing and playing music, to share it, to feel safe and energised simultaneously

If we let go of routine and shed cultural expectations of, and reliance on, formality, institution, the classroom, technology:

we become free to shout, cry, laugh, team up together, be brave, be quiet, sing, try hard, watch and listen, do our best, have a go
we create connections between these liberated sparks in ourselves, and the scenery around us.

We should strive to - and we are entitled to - have times when we are full of joy.

Adelaide Carlow

Adelaide is the founder and director of Priory Farm Music Camp. Having studied music and psychology, and ethnomusicology, Adelaide now teaches cello, piano and elementary violin. She founded and directs Milnathort Youth String Orchestra and delivers early years music classes in Kinross-shire and Fife. Adelaide enjoys arranging music for string groups, and for choirs, and she also loves leading non-audition community choirs up in Scotland and finds amazing human connection and inspiration through the natural voice and unaccompanied choral harmony. Her biggest passion is PFMC though, and she loves sharing it’s annual summery mini-world of music and happiness with her three children every year.

Sally Anne Anderson

Co-founder and music director Sally Anne Anderson plays violin with the Royal Liverpool Phil, and is Lead Musician for the Sistema-inspired music education program, In Harmony Liverpool. Specialising in group string teaching, Sally currently teaches over 350 children a week! She has created many resources to support her style of teaching including two series of books, ‘Tune Up!’ and ‘Sticks & Blobs’. Sally coaches at the NCO having been a member as a child. As faculty member of The Till Project, Sally is enthusiastically developing ways for teaching healthy string playing. PFMC is an annual highlight for her and her children, and Sally especially enjoys conducting the camp orchestra using techniques that allow children to feel the music from the inside out.

Music Team

Meghan Perry PFMC

*Co-founder, chamber and cello coach*
Meghan is a cellist playing in chamber groups and orchestras across Edinburgh.
Meghan is also an Infectious Diseases Consultant with the NHS. In a crossover between her two passions, Meghan devised a historical musical called The Mould that Changed the World (one of whose songs was a hit at a previous PFMC!) This important show has gone on to have major success both in the UK and the US.
Meghan is also a hill climber, and a keen wild swimmer and camper. Her two boys will be attending PFMC this year.

Ceri Pearmain PFMC & PFMC+

*Co-founder, chamber and violin coach, and support team leader PFMC*
Ceri Pearmain is a violinist and pianist, teaching peripatetically and privately along the Welsh-English border. She leads her local orchestra, and has coached chamber music and choir at PFMC since its beginnings.
She is a keen gardener, expert wild camper, and pretty competitive frisbee player!
Ceri is a secondary school history teacher as well!

Grace Dale PFMC

*Wind, piano and chamber music coach*
Grace Dale is a pianist, clarinetist, guitarist, accompanist and choir leader, studying community music up to postgraduate level at Aberdeen and Glasgow.
Grace set up and facilitated regular choir sessions for the homeless across Scotland, and has delivered music workshops for people with additional needs and people in prisons. Grace teaches piano in Glasgow and plays in ceilidh bands around Scotland.
She excels at creating team spirit, whether she is running our amazing annual ceilidh, or, in chamber groups, enabling our youngest musicians to shine.

Sophie Till PFMC+

*Violin and chamber music coach, Till clinics and masterclasses.*
Violinist Sophie Till’s teaching has become internationally known for solving playing-related injuries among professional orchestral musicians. She has delivered numerous workshops, lecture series’ and symposiums for professionals, teachers and students in the U.S, U.K, Singapore and Australia and was a keynote speaker for the Australian String Teachers Conference.
Sophie makes annual visits to the U.K working with members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the BBC Orchestras. Working in tandem with children and young people aged 4-18 at home and with professional players internationally has resulted in a new children’s pedagogy now being used in schools and string programs internationally.

Eliot Murray

*Big Band Leader, PFMC+*
Eliot is an instrumental instructor in Scottish schools teaching guitar, bass and woodwind instruments. He has also taught voice at Strathclyde University and has been a tutor on various summer jazz schools for the last 30 years.
Alongside performing live for over 30 years, Eliot has arranged music for and conducted the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on several occasions, and was the director, pianist and arranger of the RSNO Big Band for 7 years. Eliot has also arranged for and directed the BBC Big Band many times broadcasting regularly on Radio 2, and he directed and arranged the music for BBC’s Frank Sinatra Centenary concert at the Festival Theatre with Curtis Steigers.
Eliot likes to play golf, enjoys cooking and eating out !

Monica Wilkinson PFMC

*Violin and chamber 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 Catherine Yates, and Dalcroze in UK and Switzerland.

In 2019 she joined the team at National Youth String Orchestra, specialising in using Dalcroze to train the members of the Intermediate orchestras. She is the Director of the newly formed NYSO Sinfonietta, a residential training course for string players aged 7-9. International work has included teaching on Dalcroze Australia’s Summer School in 2019 and on String Camps in Ukraine in 2018/19. Monica is currently involved in Playground Proms, leading Dalcroze-based workshops in primary schools.

Monica's work is led by her belief that people learn best when they are enjoying themselves.

Rosamund Hawkins PFMC & PFMC+

*Viola and Chamber music coach*
Rosamund is a graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music and has worked with the In Harmony Liverpool programme,. She teaches violin and viola to pupils of all ages, taking a music-driven approach with inspiration from the Kodaly, Dalcroze and Sophie Till methods.
Rosamund lives in Manchester and leads a busy freelance orchestral and chamber music career, and is excited to be joining the PFMC staff team once again!

Kim Vaughan PFMC

*Cello and chamber music coach*
Kim studied cello in Derry and Dublin and in 2000 was awarded the Northern Ireland Young Musician of the Year prize. She continued her studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Whilst at the RNCM she was a founding member of the prize-winning Benyounes String Quartet, and the artistic director of the acclaimed Quercus Ensemble.
Kim plays regularly with the SCO and teaches cello and chamber music both at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh and at NYSO Sinfonietta for 7-9 year olds. Kim has two young children who will be attending PFMC this year.

Ben Cashell PFMC+

*Cello and chamber music coach*
Ben Cashell studied cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School and later at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is an extremely versatile musician, equally at home playing classical, pop and folk.
Ben has played at many prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall, Glastonbury and Celtic Connections. He specialises in chamber music, having founded the RNCM Cello Ensemble, the Herbert Cello Quartet and the Cashell Piano Trio.
Ben is passionate about the education of young musicians - over the last seven years, he has taught dozens of young cellists through the In Harmony programs with Opera North and In the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. He also teaches at Stockport Grammar School and Yorkshire Young Musicians.

Ian Sankey PFMC+

*Brass and chamber music coach*
Ian Sankey is a musician and trombone player based in the North East of England.

In 2023, Ian performed with numerous award-winning ensembles and orchestras, including Royal Northern Sinfonia, Cologne Chamber Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra and Northumberland Radical Fun Group. Ian also toured Britain and Ireland with Surge Scotland’s street theatre show ‘Beautiful Bones’. Ian has collaborated with composer Joe Snape - working on a large format piece for trombone and electronics as part of the Glasshouse International Centre for Music’s Foundry Residency in November 2023.

Katie Foster PFMC

Katie studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she graduated in 2015. She thrives working in both classical and non-classical music and has enjoyed a multitude of incredible performance experiences.
Katie is co-principal of collaborative ensemble ‘The Untold Orchestra”, who work with acclaimed pop and jazz artists and is a founder-member of progressive folk-fusion ensemble Kabantu. The group’s highlights include performing at the BBC Proms and delivering a TEDx talk, live sessions for BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC World on 3 and a guest appearance on Cbeebies, plus an array of renowned festival and venue appearances.

Support Team

Aaron Moorehouse PFMC & PFMC+

*SEND support*
Aaron is a Yorkshire-based composer, writer, and researcher currently exploring the links between Music Therapy, Socially Engaged Art Practices, and Post-Sonic Musics.
Aaron teaches music to children and young adults with special educational needs through his work with various schools, colleges, music charities, disabled children's services, and across his activities as a private music tutor.
Aaron is also employed as a guest lecturer for Bath Spa University, and his research has been published by a number of leading academic journals.

Holly Jager PFMC

*Support team leader*
Holly is a primary school teacher and a long time member of the PFMC support team, bringing her diligent approach to the garden and managing the support team with a friendly and clear approach - together with her team Holly puts wonderful activities in place during the long summer afternoons, always working towards a happy, busy group of young people!

Noah Wild PFMC

Support team

Noah is an English student at the University of Oxford, with an academic interest in life writing. As a pianist and singer, he often mixes music with his love for theatre. Having regularly attended PFMC as a child, Noah is excited to be returning as a member of the support team.

Lia Gourlay Gerrard PFMC+

Support team

Lia is a singer and guitarist who has played and been involved with music for a long time and used to attend PFMC when she was younger! Lia is studying Theatre at the University of Glasgow and has become a trusted member of the PFMC pastoral team.