Composer and ABRSM Deputy Head of Engagement James Welburn chairs a panel discussion on composing music for a range of educational contexts. Featuring composers Kristina Arakelyan and Sarah Watts, the panel will look at how ABRSM’s composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education, helps emerging composers explore the many and varied opportunities that exist for composers writing music for educational settings. Come along to find out more about the programme, which next runs from September 2025 – February 2026 and for which applications will open in May.

About the presenters

James Welburn

James is a composer, pianist, guitarist and music educator based in London. He composes primarily for solo piano and is published by Editions Musica Ferrum. His debut release, Musical Escapades, was praised for its ‘rhythmic swagger that would not be out of place if juxtaposed with Prokofiev's lighter children's pieces’ by Murray McLachlan (International Piano), while his latest album, Star of Wonder – a collection of contemporary Christmas carols – comes recommended by Pianist magazine.

As Deputy Head of Engagement at ABRSM, James manages the music charity’s global portfolio of partnerships and programmes, including ABRSM’s composer mentoring programme, Writing for Music Education.

Sarah Watts

Sarah Watts studied the bassoon and piano at the Royal College of Music in London, and also plays the flute and saxophone. She is well known as a prolific composer of colourful educational music which is played throughout the world.

Sarah has written solo repertoire for most instruments and voices and has composed large scale choral and ensemble works for commission. She has over two hundred published works, has lead music education workshops in Europe and America, and has pieces in all the major exam syllabuses.

For fifteen years Sarah was Artistic Director of the National Youth Music Camps and is honoured now to be a mentor for the ABRSM composer mentor programme.

Kristina Arakelyan

Kristina Arakelyan’s work as composer, pianist and educator is guided by a clear vision of music’s intrinsic power and purpose. An Armenian-British, prize-winning musician, her compositions are hallmarked by their striking beauty and compelling emotional honesty. Kristina’s studies as composer and pianist were nurtured at the Purcell School, the Royal Academy of Music, the University of Oxford and King’s College, London.

In recent years, her music has been performed at some of the world’s leading venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Southbank Centre and the Wigmore Hall in London, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Carnegie Hall and Walt Disney Concert Hall in the United States. Commissions have been written for Britten Pears, Snape Maltings, BBC Proms, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Paul’s Cathedral, BBC Singers, Alison Balsom and Huddersfield Choral Society.

An accomplished pianist, in February 2025 Kristina performed the world premiere of her Piano Concerto in Yerevan with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. 2025 also sees the release of Dreamland, her debut solo album as composer and pianist for Apple Music’s Platoon label. Toccata for organ and orchestra will receive its world premiere in May 2025 at the Royal Albert Hall, performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by André de Ridder, and organist Anna Lapwood.

If you have any questions, please email events@ivorsacademy.com

Composing For Educational Settings With ABRSM