THE PLAYERS

The orchestra is made up of a hand-picked group of musicians and include a significant number of outstanding leaders, soloists and members of many musicals’ Orchestras in London’s West End and around the country as well as members from many distinguished ensembles.

Alex Parker

Conductor and Artistic Director

Alex graduated from Birmingham University in 2012 with a BMus Honours degree in music. Alex is also the Musical Director of the Really Useful Group.

His musical director credits include: White Christmas (Sheffield Crucible), My Fair Lady (UK Tour), Gypsy (Alexandra Palace), Sunset Boulevard (Alexandra Palace/Royal Albert Hall), Chicago (Ljubljana Festival), Wonderful Town (Opera Holland Park), Far From Heaven (Turbine Theatre), Am Dram (Curve), A Little Night Music (Holland Park Opera) Mame (Hope Mill Theatre/Tour), The Color Purple (Curve), My Left/Right Foot (National Theatre Of Scotland), Hairspray, Sweet Charity (Pimlico Opera), Barnum, The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (Menier Chocolate Factory), Wonderland (UK Tour), A Little Night Music 40th Anniversary Concert (Palace), South Pacific (Cadogan Hall), Merrily We Roll Along, Sunset Boulevard, Follies (Yvonne Arnaud), The WhatsOnStage Awards 2015 – Present (Prince Of Wales/London Palladium).

His assistant and associate musical director credits include: My Fair Lady (London Coliseum), West Side Story, On The Town (BBC Proms), Les Misérables (Queens and Dubai Opera), Stephen Ward (Aldwych), The Pajama Game (Minerva) and Soho Cinders (Soho).

Alex produced and served as the musical supervisor to the London premiere of Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together at the St. James Theatre in 2013. He was also the musical supervisor for the London premiere of Working at the Southwark Playhouse in 2017.

As a composer, Alex has written five musicals with Katie Lam. These include AmDram, All Aboard, The Railway Children and After You. After You was filmed at the London Coliseum for streaming. In 2021, they completed their new musical Henrietta commissioned by National Youth Music Theatre.

Emily Davis

Leader

Emily is simultaneously the Associate Leader of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Leader of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway. She is regularly engaged as a Guest Concertmaster with orchestras including the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, English Symphony Orchestra and the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra in Dublin. For two years, Emily was Concertmaster of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Solo performances have taken Emily to festivals and venues across the U.K. and Europe. Notable highlights include Arvo Pärt's ‘Fratres’ with Vasily Petrenko at the Pärnu Festival in Estonia, the Cuban Premiere of ‘The Lark Ascending’ in Havana Cathedral, Haydn's ‘Sinfonia Concertante’ in the Gothenburg Konserthuset and Piazzolla's ‘Four Seasons’ at the Bergen International Festival. She was a founding member of the Artesian String Quartet from 2009-2016. Her time with the group saw performances at Wigmore Hall, The Purcell Room and Kings Place, as well as live radio broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 "In Tune" and the BBC Proms. She regularly collaborates with some of the world's leading chamber orchestras, including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Ensemble and the Aurora Orchestra. She is passionate about bringing music to wider audiences, and has formed ‘Thirteen North’, a leading string ensemble in Scotland driven to take world class performances out of the concert halls and into communities. Emily is a violin tutor for the National Children’s Orchestra of GB and teacher at St Mary’s Music School in Edinburgh.