Fiona McLean (Violin, Creative Director - South West Camerata; Joined Up Thinking Projects.)
Fiona trained at the Royal Scottish Academy in Glasgow, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. On completing her studies in London she embarked upon a highly successful career as a soloist and chamber musician, performing at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and touring around Europe, Russia and the Ukraine for the British Arts Council. She was appointed professor of violin at the Junior Guildhall School of music soon after leaving the Academy, and became a pro-active member of the school’s external examination team, writing and developing marking systems for the schools external examination system, as well as examining, lecturing, and training new examiners. In addition to her work for the Guildhall School of Music in London, Fiona lectured and was a professor at Colchester Institute, Goldsmith’s college, visiting tutor for National Children’s orchestra and Head of Strings for London Borough of Bexley.
Since moving to Devon, Fiona has founded and was course director for the Dartington Plus Summer Youth Strings Programme, performed as soloist with Exeter Music Group, given performances in the Bude festival with string Quartet, “The four seasons”, and is a member of the Ten Tors Orchestra. She has lectured for the European String teachers Association, Cardiff University and for South West Sound. Her freelance work in the South West includes London Gala Concert Orchestra, the Katherine Jenkins show and the St German’s festival. She has been a member of the visiting professorial string teacher’s panels of Dartington College and Cardiff University,  is currently a senior string teacher at Exeter School and is a freelance adjudicator for music festivals.


The teenage piano student finished playing his piece of music to his teacher in his piano lesson.
“Well, that wasn't very good, was it!” exclaimed the four year old child, who had been avidly watching and listening to her mother teaching one of her piano students
A long, uncomfortable silence followed this completely congruent outburst, and the four year old was asked to “maybe see if daddy needed any help in the kitchen?”
The small child reluctantly left the music room, still protesting, “But it wasn't very good, it wasn't”

My mother, a well known concert pianist and teacher of the time, did agree with me, after the student had left, that I was quite right in my assessment, “but there were ways to say things, without being nasty,” and my father, who was a music critic, shared the same philosophy.
So, this was my musical upbringing, surrounded by professional performances and tours given by my mother, and many evenings away for my dad, especially at the time of the Edinburgh Festival when he often had to write music reviews on “difficult ones”. These were the performances at which he felt that as “mister average listener” he wanted to be positive, despite the fact that the performance had not gone as well as it might, and particularly when he felt, that damaging words could potentially bury a young person’s career before it had even started to take off.
Idealistic, realistic, yet positive, my father always managed to find something good in every performance, as he said, “anyone who can even get on a stage, in front of lots of people and perform deserves a medal!”

I'm quite sure this philosophy shaped my own musical beliefs and values, and that my sometimes radical, quirky approach to teaching in particular, has roots here.
My dogged belief for instance, that repetition, without thought, has little value in some cases, and there are many ways, some direct, some lateral in concept, to solve many varieties of technical problems experienced by students. To acknowledge this, is to recognise that each student is a human being and is, therefore, his or her own unique musical self. We are different shapes and sizes, have different backgrounds and levels of understanding, therefore we as teachers, or “helpers”, as I really believe we should rename ourselves, have the unique joy of working with fellow musicians, and helping them realise their own potential.

In the therapeutic world, particularly in the language of Carl Rogers, this concept is known as “self actualisation”.
Rogers believed that all human beings have the potential to become their own true selves, to reach the fullest of their potential, if they are offered the core conditions, unconditional positive regard (understanding, non judgmental acceptance) empathy, (a feeling of connection with others) and congruence, (honesty)

My way of working has always had those principals at their heart, so I was thrilled when soon after re locating to Devon with my family from London on 2004, I met Jill Bird, who was at the time Head of Education for Dartington Plus. It was a fantastic experience to meet someone, who shared the same feelings around teaching and working with young people. In that one, very quick initial meeting, we had decided that we could and should, put together a package of opportunities for young string players, and 7 months later, I had written a programme of study, for the first Summer Youth Programme for the Dartington International Summer School.
This fantastic opportunity, gave me the space I needed to share and develop my beliefs and writings with fellow musicians and students.  I had a feeling at the start of this opportunity, that a musically based, person centred ensemble could have potential to exist, and as the week progressed, and we explored ways of working in a way which helped others, experimenting with use of positive language and developing good listening skills, my hopes became more and more a reality.
Such was the impact on the students, who had previously not really been asked to actively participate, or be seen as an equal within a learning environment, that they wanted to stay together as a group after the course ended, and here the seeds of the South West Camerata and JUTP Music were sown.