Sian Edwards (OCC Director in 2010) studied at the RNCM and with Professor A.I. Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire. She has worked with many of the world's leading orchestras including Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland, Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Berlin Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Flanders Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, the Hallé, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. She has a close relationship with Ensemble Modern in Germany. Future concert engagements include the Ensemble Modern, Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich , SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg and MDR in Leipzig . Future operatic engagements include The Rape of Lucretia for the Theater an der Wien.

Charles Peebles (OCC Assistant Director) studied at Cambridge University, the Guildhall and as a conducting fellow at Tanglewood. In 1992 he won the first International Cadaques Conducting Competition and has since conducted virtually every Spanish orchestra. He has worked with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Latvian National Symphony and National Orchestra of Mexico as well as with many of the leading British orchestras. In the opera house Charles has conducted productions for English Touring Opera, Broomhill, Garsington, Glyndebourne and the Bavarian State Opera.

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Based at City Halls at the heart of Glasgow's Merchant City, the orchestra takes live music to towns and cities across Scotland every season, is in demand at major UK festivals and plays every summer at the BBC Proms. It has appeared in many of the great musical centres of Europe and has toured the USA, South America and been twice to China, most recently in May 2008. In Scotland, as well as being the leading supporter of living composers and new music, the orchestra is extremely active in the community with an innovative learning programme dedicated to bringing the inspiration of great music to people of all ages and backgrounds.

Hebrides Ensemble
The Edinburgh-based ensemble is Scotland's foremost contemporary music group, specialising in new, twentieth and twenty-first century chamber music, music theatre and chamber opera.

Led by the cellist and conductor William Conway and drawing upon the finest musicians within Scotland and Europe, Hebrides Ensemble tours frequently to venues from the far North of Scotland to the Wigmore Hall, performs at international festivals and broadcasts and records regularly. Acclaimed for its imaginative and innovative programming and outstanding quality of performance, the group has recently been invited to join the prestigious Re:New network of European contemporary music ensembles.

Its recent nomination for the Chamber Music category in the 2009 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards confirms recognition of the group's success.