Performer Biographies

Tabitha enjoys a busy freelance life as a cellist. As an orchestral musician she has worked with Welsh National Opera, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is a regular extra player with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. She has performed solo twice for HM King Charles, enjoyed multiple TV appearances with BBC and S4C, and played for several film and television soundtracks. Tabitha is a founding member of Quartet Draig, a Welsh string quartet with whom she has performed at the Wigmore Hall.

Equally dedicated to inspiring the next generation of young musicians, Tabitha has a busy private teaching practice and is a teacher, orchestral tutor and conductor at ‘Cardiff and Vale Music Education’. Tabitha holds a Bachelor's degree, two Master's degrees and an international PGCE specialising in whole class teaching. Outside of music Tabitha has a keen interest in literature and is passionate about veganism.

Cheryl Tan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. Her Research Ireland-funded project, Revisiting Clara Wieck(-Schumann): Virtuosity, Identity, and Lost Repertory, examines the postclassical milieu at the intersection of performance, analysis, and historical-cultural study. She holds degrees from Cornell University (DMA), the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (MMus), and the University of Oxford (BA Music). In addition to her work as a (forte-)pianist and scholar, Cheryl has taught across performance and academic disciplines at the Universities of Southampton, Bristol, and Oxford, as well as at Cornell University.

Cheryl’s research into lost pianistic traditions and the works of women composers seeks to bring scholarship and practice into mutually illuminating dialogue. She has presented papers, recitals, and lecture-recitals internationally on both modern and historical pianos; her research has also appeared in Nineteenth-Century Music Review. Passionate about re-integrating lost musical voices into modern-day musical spheres, she engages audiences through performance, research-led concert programming, and educational initiatives across the UK and Ireland.

Tabitha Selley

Cheryl Tan