Laura Cross, BA Hons (Performing Arts - Music Major), PGCE (Primary), is a primary teacher with City of Edinburgh Council and also worked for 12 years with the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS), teaching Kodaly musicianship in Edinburgh primary schools. She has twice travelled to Hungary, to observe best practice in Early Years and Primary music in the home country of the Kodaly method. She studied violin with Maurice Memmot and has played with the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra since moving to Edinburgh in 1986.

Mairi Cross was one of EYM's first pre-school pupils at its inception in 1998, attending classes for 12 years, before becoming an assistant & subsequently joining the teaching staff. She studied both Music Performance and Technical Theatre at Edinburgh College & has several years' experience working in childcare, specialising in early years education. Mairi is the director of Thistle N' Thorn Productions musical theatre company and also takes freelance work in various aspects of theatre.

Helen Egan, BMus Hons, studied violin with Claire Docherty and Philip Burrin at Edinburgh Napier University. She has been teaching violin & viola in schools all over Scotland for over 25 years, working in City of Edinburgh Council schools for the last 19 years. Alongside a full-time teaching commitment, family and 2 dogs, Helen is also a freelance violinist and enjoys playing a variety of music including with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, in the theatre pit and all sorts of orchestral music.

Anne Giles, B.Ed, LTCL, worked with the younger pupils at St. Mary's Music School for many years, and taught violin & viola to pupils of all ages and stages at ESMS schools. She currently teaches violin & viola privately and enjoys being a violin tutor with the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust. She sings with the Chapter House Singers, plays violin with Scottish Sinfonia and specialises in playing medieval and renaissance music on early string instruments with the Edinburgh Renaissance Band.

Alex Goskirk, BA Hons (singing teaching endorsement), ALCM, studied singing at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) in Glasgow, winning the Prize for Vocal Ensemble with the Athena Quartet in her first year. She is a freelance soprano soloist, has worked as a Kodaly musicianship teacher in primary schools and is currently a full-time singing teacher in Stirling Council High Schools. She is a vocal coach for the NYCoS National Girls Choir and was on the music staff of NYCoS Stirling Choir for many years.

Sarah Kegerreis, BA(Hons), has been playing cello, flute and piano since primary school, and teaching all three in Edinburgh since 2019. At the University of York she ran and arranged music for numerous chamber groups, received the David Blake prize for orchestral contributions, and generally performed in every context she could, from cathedral concerts to children's musicals. In 2025, she gained a scholarship to pursue an MMus in Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, hoping to work in orchestral playing in the future alongside her teaching.

Heidi Kuehne, MSES, PhD, trained as a violinist with Walter Levin, Jens Elllerman, Taras Gabora and LaSalle Quartet and attended masterclasses conducted by Dorothy DeLay. She has performed with the San Jose Symphony Orchestra and enjoyed an active freelance career in USA, including three years playing and touring with commercial artists including Andy Williams, Charles Aznavour, Pia Zadora, Burt Bacharach and Dionne Warwick. After retraining and spending many years as a research scientist in evolutionary biology, she now plays as a semi-professional violinist in the Edinburgh area and has a private violin teaching practice covering all ages and stages.

Yasmin Mair, BA Hons (Music), MSc (Music Therapy) is a music therapist and teacher of piano and singing.  She studied at The School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London as well as Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.  She is trained in Western Classical music and has studied music from around the world with a focus on music from South Asia. She has organised, led and sung in choirs, played the French horn in wind bands, wind ensembles and orchestras and was a pupil at EYM from age 4 to 9. 

Tess Moran, BMus (Hons), specialised in classical violin performance with a second study in piano at Edinburgh Napier University and is also a passionate Scottish traditional musician. She teaches violin and viola in Edinburgh primary and secondary schools and conducts the Edinburgh Schools String Training Orchestra as well as the James Gillespie’s High School String Orchestra and Trad Band. Under her direction, these groups have performed at prestigious Edinburgh venues such as the Usher Hall, Queens Hall, Central Halls, and the Royal Highland Showgrounds. Tess also performs with Music for Scotland wedding bands and plays with various Edinburgh orchestras.

Jean Murray, B.Mus, has been organising extra-curricular musical activities for children for over 30 years.  As a freelance flautist she plays at weddings and other functions as well as concerts.  She has taught the flute at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and her private flute-teaching practice covers all ages and stages.  She is a Trustee and former Director of the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust which runs residential courses and occasional days of orchestral playing for children aged 8 to 15.

Simon Rennard, MMus, BMus (Hons), LTCL, is a woodwind instructor in Edinburgh schools & takes private recorder & bassoon pupils. Since completing his studies in Edinburgh, Glasgow & Amsterdam, his work as a freelance bassoonist has included playing with orchestras including the Scottish Chamber, Royal Scottish National, London Philharmonic, Britten-Pears, British Youth Opera, Flevolands Symphony & Manchester Camerata. He has also been a double reed specialist for Sistema Scotland in Stirling.

Helen Robbie, BMus (Hons), is a music graduate of Edinburgh Napier University, where she studied saxophone with Sue McKenzie and wrote her undergraduate dissertation on the Kodaly method of music education. She teaches musicianship for NYCoS, is Music Director of Accord, an Edinburgh-based female choir, and has worked for a number of Youth Music Initiative projects in nurseries and primary schools. Helen has twice travelled to Hungary to observe best practice in Early Years and Primary music in the home country of the Kodaly method and has completed post-graduate modules in Kodaly Pedagogy with NYCoS and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.