Who we are
Kuljit Bhamra MBE Hon DMus is an award-winning composer, record producer and tabla player. He is best known as one of the record producers who pioneered the British Bhangra sound and for his many collaborations with musicians from different genres and continents.
Kuljit has worked collaboratively and individually on numerous Hollywood film scores, West End Musicals and recordings and well over 2000 recordings.
Passionate about bringing the joys of playing Indian instruments to everybody, Kuljit’s mission is to democratise Indian drumming.
He is currently Professor of Tabla, Indian Rhythm & Improvisation at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.
Phil Eddershaw BSc (Hons) is an expert in Design Management, Prototyping, Intellectual Property, Product Safety Compliance, Far-East Manufacture, Business Management and Development.
He has over 25 years of experience working in rapid prototyping and new product development. In 1987 he set up one of London’s leading modelmaking companies and worked for clients such as Norman Foster, Jonathan Ive, English Heritage, Sony and Apple.
Phil also works as a design and project management consultant for small start-up businesses to large international companies.
Graham England BSc (Hons) is a dynamic designer whose wealth of experience enables him to contribute successful, innovative design solutions to the Keda product range.
Working with partners in America, he designed a number of products for the gaming community including the EA Active 2 Heart Rate Monitor for use with the Xbox, Playstation and Wii consoles.
Graham also worked with the internationally renowned Oculus VR to produce the industrial design for their successful Kickstarter campaign and subsequent development kits, helping to launch the new revolution in Virtual Reality.
Our Team
Dr. Laurel S. Pardue is an expert in sensors, electronics and software prototyping, real-time interaction design, and machine learning.
Instruments designed by Laurel have won awards at prestigious international competitions such as the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, One-Handed Instrument Trust, and at the New Instruments for Musical Expression Conference.
The Gamelan Elektrika, which she helped design and build, was featured in concert with with the Kronos Quartet at NYC’s Lincoln Centre. She has previously worked at industry leaders Avid and recently joined Ableton as a software engineer. Laurel is also part of the QMUL’s Bela team and has played and taught violin professionally, including performances on BBC Radio and touring with Sam Lee and Friends, and Mishaped Pearls.
Dr Duncan Menzies is a London-based musician and electronic engineer.
Graduating from the University of Glasgow with a master’s degree in Electronics with Music (MEng), he later obtained a PhD at Queen Mary University of London. His research included examining new technological approaches to teaching the Great Highland Bagpipe. This led to the development of the P-bROCK Digital Bagpipes hardware and software system.
Born in Scotland and surrounded by traditional music, Duncan learnt to play the violin and bagpipes at an early age. Currently, he performs nationally with a variety of bands including folk/bluegrass trio Copper Viper, pagan speed-folk pioneers PerKelt, and Banjöverkill.
Duncan continues to work in the field of digital musical instruments and is further developing his digital bagpipes in association with the One-Handed Musical Instrument Trust (OHMI).
Hazel Correa studied the violin at the Royal Northern College of Music, and has since enjoyed a busy and varied career as a freelance violinist. She works regularly with orchestras such as the Ulster Orchestra and London Mozart Players as well as taking part in collaborations with musicians such as Courtney Pine (saxophone) and Kuljit Bhamra (tabla).
She runs the Bombay Gold Orchestra, and has recorded for film, television, CD and radio broadcast, and regularly performs chamber music with members of the Northern Lights Symphony Orchestra and the London Novello Ensemble.
With a strong commitment to music education, Hazel teaches violin, and conducts the Camerata string orchestra, at Harrow Young Musicians, London. She has also given many solo performances with HYM Philharmonic Orchestra including concertos by Bruch, Piazzolla and Vivaldi.
Qin Le Lee Electronics Engineer
Qin Le Lee graduated from The University of Manchester with a masters degree in Mechatronics Engineering.
His areas of interest are Machine Learning and Optimisation Techniques, Robotics and Autonomous Systems,
Power System Analysis, Control Systems, Power Electronics, Digital Image Processing and Digital Signal Processing.
Qin Le has an avid interest in badminton, cycling, chess and playing piano and guitar.
Xerxes Dastur Director (India)
With more than 30 years of global experience in providing innovative and result-oriented solutions in finance and business consultancy, partnering with some of the most reputed Indian and international firms, Xerxes has hands-on experience in finance, accounting, taxation, management audits and internal audits, business process offshoring, project management, process management and strategic planning, for start-ups and growth organisations. He serves as a Director India Board, World Zarathusti Chamber of Commerce which is closely working with the youth to instil in them the spirit of entrepreneurship.
Joley Cragg Music Education Officer
Joley Cragg trained as an orchestral percussionist at the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Joley has worked as Musical Director for theatre shows at the National Theatre, The Globe and Regents Park Open Air Theatre. She has a special interest in Indian music and regularly performs on the tabla. She has worked on new operas, in theatre and in contemporary settings using the instrument. Some of Joley’s compositions for the tabla are featured in Kuljit Bhamra’s ‘Read & Play Tabla’ series.
Joley is also an exam board advisor for Trinity College, London.