Biography

Gaynor began learning music at home from her father and started formal violin lessons aged 8. Aged 16 she went to the Coventry School of Music, studying performance in violin, piano, singing and flute.

While raising her family in the Midlands, she enjoyed the local music scene of pit orchestras, big bands and jazz, and also played orchestral concerts in venues such as Birmingham Symphony Hall, The Royal Albert Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Whilst playing violin with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra for several years, she was encouraged to pursue a music degree by conductor Michael Lloyd and also by jazz musician Nikki Iles. Gaynor moved to Glasgow in 2009, joining the Graduate Diploma in Jazz course at St Andrews University and the Bachelor in Music degree at Edinburgh Napier University, graduating 2013.

Gaynor is currently taking Masters in Music composition at the University of Edinburgh. She teaches and plays professionally in many of Glasgow’s big bands on saxophone and flute, and also violin and viola for various orchestras. Her favourite part of the week however, is running a ‘world music’ group for babies in a community café.

Gaynor has recently completed music for the Newhaven community in Edinburgh; it is a contemporary, traditional Scottish set which includes parts for professional and amateur players of all abilities, with an additional classroom project about the community’s unique social history. A recent grant awarded to her by Arts Trust Scotland will enable this project to take place in 2015. Her compositions and arrangements are available to browse, hire or buy from the Scottish Music Centre and single reed music also available from Pack a Punch Publications, Ipswich.