Caitlin Mayall – Director and Early Years Music Teacher
Caitlin read Music and Spanish at The University of Leeds from 2010-2015, majoring in performance (classical voice), and achieved Double First Class Hons. She then worked for Durham Music Service as a Singing Strategist and Vocal Teacher in 2015-16; here she gained a specific interest in Early Years and Primary education, and discovered the Kodály Approach which has since underpinned her music teaching pedagogy.
Following her PGCE in 2016-17, Caitlin then worked for Barnsley Music Service from 2017-2019 as a Vocal Teacher and Primary Music Teacher. She received a Cecilia Vajda Memorial Scholarship from the British Kodály Academy in 2018 which enabled her to complete a 2 year CPD Certificate Course (Level 1) in Primary Music Education for which she achieved High Distinction. In 2020 Caitlin took on a new role as Primary Music Teacher at The Grammar School at Leeds before taking her maternity leave to become a mum.
Aside from teaching, Caitlin is an experienced and dynamic choral leader. Whilst at university, she directed the Leeds University Chorus in 2012 and was later awarded a Sing for Pleasure Young Conducting Scholarship in 2015. She has since worked as a freelance conductor with countless vocal ensembles including Darlington Youth Choir, Penistone Children’s Choir, Left Bank Community Choir, Barnsley Youth Choir, and members of the National Youth Choir GB Chamber Choir. Caitlin has been Musical Director of Leeds Vocal Movement since 2017 and became part of the Hallé’s choral outreach team in 2020.
Caitlin is a diverse performer and natural improviser with a background in classical, jazz and folk singing. A fluent Spanish speaker, she has sung lead vocals for Latin American bands Tarantismo and Los Camaradas, and formed a Latin jazz quartet, Agua Pasa, with whom she has performed at Manchester Jazz Festival. Caitlin is a singer-songwriter and jazz pianist; her original music project, the Caitlin Mayall Trio, recently recorded their debut album, ‘The Sounds and the Circles’. She has sung soprano in numerous choral ensembles, including the Ebor Singers, Leeds University Chamber Choir and the semi-professional octet, North8, which she founded in 2018.
Carolyn Yates – Early Years Music Teacher
From a musical family, Carolyn began learning the clarinet at the age of 8 and studied with her grandfather before gaining a place at the Royal Northern College of Music. She graduated in 2013 with a First-Class degree in clarinet performance. After her studies, Carolyn has played with many professional orchestras such as The Halle, Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC Philharmonic, including a performance at the BBC Proms in the Albert Hall. In addition, her skills on flute, saxophone and violin have given her the opportunity to play in the bands of many amateur dramatic shows across the Northwest, which she thoroughly enjoys, plus also aiding her teaching greatly.
Alongside playing, Carolyn enjoys teaching young children; she first began working with Cheshire West and Chester Music Service teaching large classes of violin and wind instruments, and then moved to Merseyside in 2014 to work with an El Sistema inspired project, In Harmony Liverpool, where her love of teaching the early years flourished. Here she taught music to a variety of ages, from babies up to 18-year-olds, from 1:1 lessons to small groups and large ensembles. She loves the challenge that this can bring, laying the foundations of music from an early age, and watching the children develop musically and socially.
Carolyn is a mother to two wonderful children and has loved using the Kodály approach in her everyday life with them. Her husband recently acquired a job with the Orchestra of Opera North, so in March 2022 they relocated to Leeds and are gradually building their new lives in this wonderful city. Carolyn has started working for Bradford Music Service teaching woodwind and is also excited to work for Music at Heart delivering classes for Caitlin while she is on maternity leave. Classes like Caitlin’s are hard to come by. They really encompass everything that Carolyn believes in with regards to early years music making and she is excited to watch this project grow and reach more families across Leeds.
June Vun – Music at Heart Teaching Partner
June was classically trained as a cellist and earned her Diploma in Higher Education Music from Edinburgh College, before completing her Bachelor of Music with Honours from Edinburgh Napier University in 2007. Following a year of voluntary works and travelling, she then completed her Master of Science in Music in the Community at the University of Edinburgh from 2008 – 2009. It was there she first learned about the Kodály music education from one of her lecturers.
As a freelance cellist and community musician for several years, she developed an interest in working as a clinician to improve mental health and wellbeing by using music as an intervention. She then studied Master of Science in Music Therapy (Nordoff-Robbins) at Queens Margaret University, Edinburgh from 2011 – 2013, gaining further experience in a range of clinical settings. Upon graduation, June worked professionally as a music therapist across the North West and Yorkshire regions, by delivering individual and group music therapy sessions for residents living with dementia, end of life care, neurological conditions and in adult mental health.
Since then, June has dedicated her time to raise her young family and she came with her children to Caitlin’s pre-school music class in September 2022. She and her family are proud to be part of Music at Heart’s community, where the love of music and celebration of life are nurtured in the littles ones through interactive songs in a creative space. June looks forward to gaining more experience as a teaching partner in early years music with families in Leeds.
Music at Heart 