About our co-founders

James Botcher

James Botcher is an experienced music director, workshop leader, and teacher, (employing his diverse skillset across the industry) from conducting classical choirs to running beatboxing workshops.

James combines leading and teaching with a growing international singing career, performing globally with Grammy award-winning vocal ensemble The Swingles. He sings regularly across Scandinavia with the Mogens Dahl Kammerkor and the Trondheim Vokalensemble. Closer to home, James is a founding member of The Lyons Mouth and is an active ensemble singer with some of the UK’s finest choirs, including the BBC Singers, The Gabrieli Consort, and Polyphony.

James read music at The University of York and stayed for a further year of postgraduate study in the Solo Voice Ensemble Singing pathway, during which he also held a choral scholarship in the York Minster. He owns a small dog and a very large cat.

Olivia Foster Vander Elst

Olivia Foster Vander Elst is a PhD research fellow at The Center for Music in the Brain (Aarhus University, Denmark), and affiliated researcher at The Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing (Linacre College, University of Oxford, UK).

An accomplished musician, playing both violin and viola, Olivia studied at Wells Cathedral School, one of 5 schools to take part in the UK Government’s Specialist Music Scheme. She went on to read Chemistry at the University of Oxford, graduating with a 2.1 MChem. She is also an accomplished dancer.

Olivia’s principal research interests are using neuroscience and motion capture to study dance, dance therapy, music, groove (the aspect of music which makes one want to move), and interpersonal interaction, particularly in partner dancing.

Robert Opoku

​Robert Opoku is a professional bass singer and currently a baritone cantor soloist at Douai Abbey. He is also a freelance parish church organist in the Windsor and Maidenhead area.

Robert was most recently a member of the Choir of New College Oxford, where highlights included singing the role of Jesus in the choir’s liturgical performance of Bach’s St John Passion (March 2025) and performing as the bass soloist in a concert performance of Bach’s Cantata BWV 128 with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the Sheldonian Theatre under the baton of John Butt (May 2025); Robert also took part in a recording of music by Tallis, which is due to be released in 2026, and he toured with the choir to Sweden. He stepped down from the post in order to move closer to London, and future musical plans include taking up a postgraduate place on the Royal Holloway MRes Composition course under the tutelage of Dr. Nina Whiteman.

Robert received his formative training as a chorister (later Head Chorister) at St George’s Chapel Windsor Castle (1998-2004), music scholar (piano and violin) and academic scholar (2007-09) at Harrow School (2004-09), and choral scholar at Christ Church Oxford (2009-12), where he also read for an honours degree in musicology.

Outside music, Robert is a dual qualified chartered accountant and trained in private practice (2013 to 2018). He has worked in government finance since 2018 alongside his musical and entrepreneurial activities.