Meet the Music Network staff team.
Tom Chevis
Music Network Co-ordinator
Tom's parents met in the London Symphony Chorus, and Tom's Grandma conducted a male-voice choir that his Grandad was in. Unsurprisingly, choral music played a significant part of Tom's upbringing, the highlight of which was being a member of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain for 11 years, between 2003-2013. He also began composing from a young age, winning the Sibelius Student Composer of the Year award in 2008 for his piece Enclos'd in Cinders, a choral setting of part of Shakespeare's poem The Phoenix and the Turtle.
Tom studied Music at Magdalen College, Oxford, and it was while a member of Oxford Uni's CU - the OICCU - that he was challenged and encouraged by UCCF to begin thinking Christianly about music, rather than keeping his faith and music separate. He explored this further in Cambridge as a UCCF Relay Worker and then in London as a CU Staff Worker for the four music colleges, and he now co-ordinates the UCCF Music Network from his narrowboat in Gloucestershire. He continues to compose, and sings regularly with the Standish Consort, a chamber choir based wonderfully near him in Gloucestershire.
Niamh Sanders
London Music College CU Staff Worker
Niamh is a freelance musician who studied viola at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In her role as a CU Staff Worker for the four London music colleges, she equips music students in evangelism on campus as well as helping them to navigate what it looks like to be both a professional musician and a Christian at the same time.
Barny Kimberley
North-West Music & Arts Staff Worker
Barnabas (Barny) is a drummer and (untrained) singer based in Manchester with his wife Eleonore, fellow musician and (trained) classical singer. A Royal Northern College of Music graduate, Barny had the pleasure of studying popular music performance within a classical conservatoire, an insightful experience.
Barny’s time is spent teaching drum kit, playing kit professionally, working part time with UCCF, particularly with the RNCM CU, and composing music in a couple of ensembles. Those ensembles are: Diving Station, a four piece band crossing genres of alternative rock, dream pop and indie folk; and the thus-far-unnamed vocal/guitar duo with guitarist and friend Matthew Campbell, exploring themes of meaning, faith, love, and culture.
A deep thinker and an emotional man, Barny has a passion for proclaiming the beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ in ways that resonate within Western 21st century culture, and has found the preaching of Tim Keller particularly influential. Barny loves engaging in deep conversations, climbing, games, and music that moves like Bon Iver, John Van Deusen, Simon and Garfunkel and Page CXVI.
Shannon Ludlow
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama CU Staff Worker
Shannon is a freelance violinist based in Cardiff. She regularly plays with orchestras in Wales and the South of England and enjoys playing in bands and for singer-songwriters. She teaches violin and piano privately and has a big love for how music can bridge barriers for individuals or within communities.
Shannon’s student years were formative for her faith, as it was during her time at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama that she truly understood what it meant to live for Christ. In her role she aims to equip Christian music students to live for Christ on their courses and help them speak the good news of the gospel to their friends and colleagues.
Catherine Torrens
Glasgow Music & Arts Staff Worker
Catherine hails from Northern Ireland but has been in Scotland for over 5 years, studying at St Andrews before moving to Glasgow to work with UCCF as a Relay Worker, and then as a CU staff worker with the Christian Unions at Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Although she didn’t study music at university, she has been carrying her flute around with her since she was 8 and has always enjoyed playing in church and orchestras, and having a go at Irish trad music. During her time at university, she also loved studying the ways in which music has been used among God’s people throughout the ages to communicate and understand the gospel. Having studied in a competitive environment and having worked with RCS CU as a Relay worker, she knows a little of the relentless pressure to prove oneself to be 'enough' through one's craft. She loves getting to support students at the RCS as they navigate what it looks like to be a musician/dancer/filmmaker who lives distinctively for Jesus and invites others to explore the freedom that comes with God’s grace.
As well as this she loves painting, pretending she’s a runner, and listening to little-known American indie bands who sing about CS Lewis.