Meet The Team
Tom Kirkham
Tom is a writer and musician, and the co-founder and Publishing Director of The School Musicals Company. A qualified English and Drama teacher with fifteen years’ experience, Tom is the writer of numerous musicals, including The Wizard Of Oz, Luna And The Skyrocket, Pantastic, A-la-la-la-la-laddin, Sherlock & Cinders, Paws & Claws. Tom loves the process of creating stories and seeing them come to life on stage or screen. He also enjoys working with other writers, composers, illustrators and designers in a publishing and editorial capacity.
Tom co-founded The School Musicals Company with Matt Crossey in 2016.
Matthew Crossey
Matt has worked in the music industry for twenty-five years. His early career was as a pop songwriter for Bryan Morrison Music Publishing, Polygram and Eaton Music and also as a touring musician in a number of bands. Matt moved in to the field of Music Publishing in his late twenties and held roles at Warner Chappell (IMP) as Marketing & Creative Manager and then for the past decade at Out of the Ark Music Ltd where he was Sales & Marketing Director. Matt has also worked at Penguin Books and Little, Brown Books where he was Head of Lifestyle Communications and Marketing fr the Piatkus, Constable and Robinson imprints.
During that time Matt has continued to write music and has composed and produced songs for contemporary artists as well as having numerous songs published for the schools market by Out of The Ark Music.
Matt co-founded The School Musicals Company with Tom Kirkham in 2016.
Niki Davies
Niki Davies is the bestselling author of 'Whoops a Daisy Angel', 'The Nativity' and 'Higgledy Piggledy Nativity'. She has a degree in Music & Education and twenty years practical classroom experience. She has been a professional songwriter for twenty years and written for the BBC, Faber, Music Sales and Out of the Ark Music.
Niki's extensive experience writing for young children, alongside her many years of teaching and leading workshops, can be seen throughout her writing. Her songs are perfectly pitched, accessible and great fun to perform.
Niki is married to Andrew, has two grown-up children and lives in Yorkshire. Niki is a partner is The School Musicals Company.
Contributors
Jane Carr
Kate Belcher
Kate studied Drama at the University of Hull, followed by an Acting Diploma at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. She worked professionally as an actor for ten years during which time she toured a number of Theatre-in-Education projects. She was the director of the Youth Theatre at Forest Forge and worked for several years at Southampton Stagecoach.
Kate has been writing and directing musical plays for young performers for over 15 years. She feels passionately about providing high quality, inclusive material for the performers, helping them to learn the benefits of teamwork, empathy and creativity.
James Welch
Emma Greenfield (formerly Davies)
Emma Greenfield (formally Davies) is a composer, musician and educator, originally from Lancaster, UK and currently based in Berlin. She has created the backing tracks for many Niki Davies musicals, including ‘Plastic Pirates’ and ‘Honky Tonky Donkey’. Emma’s wide range of musical experience includes over a decade of live performance as a singer and instrumentalist, eight years of teaching music in kindergartens (age 3-6) and writing children’s music for various projects and publishers.
John Maul
John Maul has been a professional musician for over 35 years having graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with a skill set ranging from pianist, keyboard player, musical director to composer, arranger and programmer. He has worked on TV, in the West End on many musicals and performed worldwide on stage for over 100 famous Rock and Pop artists including Kylie Minogue, Howard Jones and Rick Astley.
Clare Kirkham
Clare is currently Head of Junior School at Downsend School in Leatherhead, Surrey, and advises on all things educational. She is an English specialist and has experience of putting on numerous school musicals and nativities.
Angela Chan