As a trombonist, Callum has worked with many professional bands, including the Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, the Syd Lawrence Orchestra, the Daniel Houghton Big Band, and the Gareth Lockrane Big Band, and musicians as diverse as Nigel Hitchcock, Mark Nightingale, Alex Garnett, Joss Stone, Stan Sulzmann, Guy Barker, Katie Melua, and Eric Delaney. He runs his own big band, the Callum Au Big Band, which features some of the finest up-and-coming jazz musicians, and co-leads the organ band Organism.

As a composer and arranger, Callum has written or arranged music for, among others, the BBC Big Band, the Gordon Campbell Big Band, the Jay Craig Big Band, and the Henry Armburg Jennings Big Band. With the Callum Au Big Band, he plays many of his own compositions and arrangements.

Callum’s biggest influences as a trombonist are Mark Nightingale, Carl Fontana, and Andy Martin, and as a writer Nelson Riddle, Jaco Pastorius, Laurence Cottle, Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones, David Foster, and Thad Jones. In his spare time he cooks and collects tropical fish.

Clive – who joined the NYJO Board last year, and is an adviser on the Diversity, Access and Equality committee, chaired by Jack Fallow – was recognised for the award in respect of his work as Chair of the REACH Project and as a Director of the Globis Mediation Group, of which he is Founder.

The government-backed REACH Project, which ran from 2006-2009, identified and assessed the economic cost of the underachievement of young males from poor socio economic backgrounds. One of the project’s recommendations was to launch a national role model programme to help raise the aspiration levels of those in this group.

As Founder of the Globis Mediation Group, Clive has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of workplace mediation in the UK. He specialises in resolving complex one to one, team, organisational and collective disputes and is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading experts in this field.

He did his National Service in the RAF from 1955-57, where he learned Russian and the saxophone.

Going up to St Peter’s Hall, Oxford in 1957 he immediately co-founded The Ambassadors Dance Band with Andrew Hayman.  He took a degree in Modern Languages and during vacations worked as a fair-ground attendant, vacuum cleaner salesman, barman, sous-chef, baker, wholesale grocer’s warehouseman and tri-lingual tour guide in Switzerland.

His third year was spent in France as an English Assistant. During that time he played in The Stardust Combo in the Caveau des Fouleurs, Chateaudun and worked in Paris as a street photographer, office worker and gardien de nuit des Bateaux Mouches.

Returning to Oxford he co-founded the Oxford University Big Band in1960. He stayed on at Oxford to do a Post-graduate Diploma in Education and after university worked as a musician on the American bases in France.

In 1963 he came to London, where he played in Red Bludd’s Bluesicians with organist Jon Lord, whilst working first as a supply teacher and then as a French teacher in London Schools for 10 years.

In 1965 he founded the London Schools Jazz Orchestra with Pat Evans, Mike Kershaw and others. This rapidly became the London then National Youth Jazz Orchestra which for five years ran Easter Jazz Courses in London as well as rehearsing every week. Bill has missed no more than half a dozen weekly rehearsals in nearly 45 years.

To date, NYJO has made about 50 albums and Bill has taken the orchestra all around the world: notably to USA twice, USSR, Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland, Malta three times, Portugal five times, France and Germany several times each, Sicily, Madeira and Spain. NYJO has performed many times on television and in front of the Royal family, notably at The Royal Variety Performance and the Royal Celebration of Youth.

In 1978 Bill was awarded the MBE, the first time the word “jazz” had ever appeared in the Honours List. Bill has subsequently received the Silver Medal of The Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Radio 2 Award and the Parliamentary Special Jazz Award. He was made a Fellow of the City of Leeds College of Music.

He has written over 70 songs in whole or part, including notably Much Too Much, Wait and See, It’s Over, Looking Forward, Looking Back, New in London, Don’t Try Argue With Me, Let’s Settle Down, A Step Too Far, A Way With Words, Paris is for Lovers, London, No Flowers By Request, and several instrumental themes.

He served on the committee of The International Year of the Child, and the Association of British Jazz Musicians.
He married Kay (nee Watkins) in 1966 and has three children, Grant b.1967, Miles b.1968 and Helen b.1983. He has one grandson and three grand-daughters. He lived in Harrow since 1968.

Likes: Big Band Jazz (the supreme art form), snorkelling, songwriting, science fiction, English television, and real ale. Dislikes: football, opera, fizzy beer and mayonnaise.

Bill became Life President in 2009 and continues as Founding Musical Director of NYJO. He was awarded the OBE for Services to Music in 2010.

Having already shared the stage with the likes of Dame Cleo Laine, the late Sir John Dankworth and ‘BBC Jazz vocalist of the year’ winners Liane Carroll and Ian Shaw, nineteen year old Emma Smith is well on her way to her achieving her dream of being an accomplished jazz singer.

At age 14 she had her first taste of big band singing with the Glenn Miller outfit ‘The String of Pearls Orchestra’. She began to tour frequently with the band and received practical training in being a jazz musician. Having come from a family of musicians and composers, Emma decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. At only 15 she was made NYJO’s female vocalist and vocal coach; a chair sponsored by Cleo Laine and the Wavendon Foundation.

In 2007, Emma was awarded a scholarship to study at the prestigious Purcell School of Music. She was the first ever jazz vocalist to do so. While at Purcell, she gained invaluable experience performing everything from choral chamber music in the Royal Festival Hall to contemporary jazz in the Wigmore Hall. She now continues her studies at the Royal Academy of Music under the likes of Gerard Presencer, Pete Churchill, Stan Sulzmann, Nia Lynn and Tim Garland.

At 16, Emma’s reputation as an up-and-coming talent led her to become increasingly in demand. She began playing extensively in many of London’s top jazz venues, including Ronnie Scott’s, The 606, The Vortex, Pizza Express Dean Street, The Spice of Life and Pizza on the Park. She has also played numerous jazz festivals, including the Oxford Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and The London Jazz Festival. In 2009, she was invited to be part of the Vocal Summit at the London Jazz Festival, which featured Emma, Natalie Williams and Anita Wardell.

April 2009 saw Emma featured alongside Ian Shaw and Madeline Bell with the Guy Barker Big Band and the BBC Concert Orchestra. The show, entitled ‘The Billy Strayhorn Story,’ was aired on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night.’ Emma prepared extensively for the broadcast in order to portray the personalities of Eartha Kitt, Rosemary Clooney and Ruth Ellington.

Emma has been privileged enough to have performed with some of her Idols. In June 2009, she received coaching from Sir John Dankworth and performed the notoriously difficult ‘Shakespeare Suite’ with John and his band.

Ensemble singing has recently become a major part of Emma’s singing and writing. Since attending the Academy, mentor Pete Churchill invited her to join the ‘London Vocal Project.’ She is delighted to be part of this extraordinary ensemble, and she was lucky enough to be involved in a project with renowned composer Roger Treece which resulted in a performance with Bobby Mcferrin at the Barbican Centre.

Emma is also a featured soloist with the Callum Au Big Band, which she actively performs and writes for.