Tom Culling

Tom Culling is a Birmingham-based composer, keyboard player, and community musician who has spent the last several years teaching in settings ranging from large group workshops to one to-one tuition. He has led keyboard and melodica sectionals as an orchestral tutor with Orchestras For All, tutored keyboard sections at Soundlab, and taught 1-1 piano lessons at a music school called The Music Spot, as well as privately. 

Following his classical piano training, Tom fell in love with music through playing with bands and in improvising settings, and so is able to offer various gateways into piano playing, catering to each individual's interests. 

Separately to his keyboard tuition, Tom works in community music settings, exploring group devising and composing, often using music technology. An example of this is his annual summer school with Full of Noises, where he leads group music-making and devising sessions that culminate in recording an album with the participants — an approach he brings into piano lessons too, giving students the chance to record their pieces to a professional standard. 

Tom recently completed his undergraduate degree in composition at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire – receiving the Undergraduate Pedagogy Prize. His work sits at the intersection of composition, live-electronic performance, and improvisation. Often performing keyboards in his own works, he has collaborated with Quatuor Bozzini, the Mela Guitar Quartet, the Thallein Ensemble, and members of BCMG and Orchestra of the Swan. 

Accessibility runs through much of Tom's practice. Through Quench Arts he has taught creative piano playing and music software to neurodivergent children, and he has supported accessible technology training through Drake Music's Future Leaders scheme. He also works with Colourscape, running music technology sessions built around interactive sensor-based instruments in SEND schools. He is currently developing an accessible browser-based synthesiser through an internship with Conductive Music CIC, building on skills developed while designing various distance and motion sensor-based instruments, which he uses regularly in sessions with disabled students.