Dr Steven Berryman

Dr Berryman is a composer, arts education practitioner and researcher. He completed his music studies at Cardiff University (BMus 2003, PhD 2011) and Royal Holloway (MMus 2004).

He has taught secondary music since 2004 and currently holds the post of Director of Music at City of London School for Girls, having previously taught at the North London Collegiate School and the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music.

Dr Berryman has examined and moderated for GCSE and A-level Music and contributed to study guides published by Rhinegold Education as well as written numerous articles and reviews. From September 2019 he will extend his Director of Music role with a one-day per week secondment as ‘Creative and Cultural Learning Forum Strategic Champion’ for the City of London Education Strategy.  

His work with arts organisations includes acting as a consultant, presenter and author for projects for the Learning Departments at Royal Opera House, London Philharmonic Orchestra, NMC Recordings, and Rhinegold Education. 

He has written and presented courses for teachers for Keynote Educational, with a focus on composition teaching, and presented at conferences for A-level music students. Dr Berryman was a Teach Through Music Fellow and more recently a Teacher Advocate for Music Excellence London. For the Chartered College of Music, he led the London Music Education Network, launching November 2017. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Educators. Since May 2018 he has been a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.  

Research 

His current research seeks to balance his own work as an arts education practitioner with an investigation into co-creation practices and an exploration of how curriculum opportunities can be designed to facilitate a sustained engagement with music. 

As a composer, Dr Berryman's work has included a wide range of projects. His orchestral piece 'Cypher' (2010) was selected by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for performance in their Welsh Composers Showcase and was performed by the orchestra on 18 February 2011, conducted by Jan Van Steen at BBC Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Bay. Opera Holland Park commissioned transcriptions of Donizetti for a dance performance, 'Dance Holland Park' in June 2012 and other work for theatre includes Jamie Zubairi's one-man show 'Unbroken Line' (Ovalhouse December 2012) and 'Corpo: Lixa da Alma' (Cena Internacional Brasil, Rio de Janerio, June 2012).

His choral work 'Versa est in Luctum' was performed in Washington, D.C. January 2013 as part of the New Voices @ CUA Festival. In September 2016 a new work for community choir was performed by LSO Community Choir and students from City of London School for Girls as part of 'Old Street New Beginnings', celebrating fifty years since the joining of the St. Luke's and St. Giles' parishes. 

With Royal Opera House Learning Dr Berryman assisted with re-writing the Fanfare competition (2015 - 2017) and has been a judge for the final entries for two years. In 2018 he will be the Composer-Educator and lead the workshops developing the finalist entries with students and the team of mentors. He has also acted as a consultant for 'Create and Sing Carmen', writing materials for teachers. He is presently a member of the Create and Sing Steering Group and worked on the writing of ‘Create and Sing Hansel and Gretal’ in 2018-2019.

For London Philharmonic Orchestra Education Dr Berryman wrote and presented a concert on an A-level Music set work with musicians from the orchestra (2017). In 2018/19 he wrote and presented short films on aspects of composing at GCSE for LPO suitable for teachers and students. For NMC Recordings he devised resources to assist with the teaching of composition (2016-2017) and a new app R:Strng (2017). With researchers from Guildhall School (2016), he devised and led a project that connected with the 'Understanding Audiences' research group at Guildhall, investigating school-age students' attitudes to chamber music. 

Teaching 

Dr Berryman currently teaches on the Art, Culture & Education module for MA Education in Arts and Cultural Settings. 

Publications 

Berryman, S. (2018) ‘Knowledgeable Skills or Skilful Knowledge?’. Impact, Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching, Issue 4. 

Berryman, S. 'Pre-Higher Education Creativity: Composition in Schools' in Haddon, E., & Burnard, Pamela, editors. (2016). Creative teaching for creative learning in higher music education. 

Terry, P., & Berryman, S., (2016) Edexcel GCSE music study guide, Rhinegold Education

Berryman, S., Doan, M., Guinane, D., (2016) OCR GCSE music study guide, Rhinegold Education

Berryman, S., (2014) 'Good in Theory? Steven Berryman compares and contrasts the ABRSM and TCL courses'. Music Teacher., 93(8), 29-31.

Berryman, S., (2011), 'Composing Across the Spectrum': Piano Professional Autumn 2011, Journal of the European Piano Teachers Association UK

Berryman, S., (2012), 'Voice from the Front: Short article responding to the Henley Review', Music Education UK Issue 3, September 2012. 

B͚erryman, S., (2009) 'A good composer does not imitate, he steals͛: Steven Berryman on composition in schools', Piano Professional Spring 2009, Journal of the European Piano Teachers Association UK.