Creative Futures: behind the music with UofG Music alumni
Our guest panel made up of recent Music graduates shared their insider insights on forging a career in the arts and music sector.
Monday, 26 January 2026, 4-6pm
We were delighted to be in conversation with Aaron Hawthorne (Silent Film and Concert Organist + Arts Development Officer at North Lanarkshire Council), Emilie Boyd (Frontwoman, Composer, Arranger, Educator + MD), Emma Hunter (Head of Artistic Planning & Production at Scottish Ensemble) and Fergus Hall (Musician, Composer, Multidisciplinary Artist + Educator). From this conversation, attendees heard about real work journeys post-university, explored approaches to career decision-making, discussed opportunities and challenges in the sector, and had the chance to ask their own questions.
Dr John Williamson, Lecturer in Music and specialist in the music industries and music labour, facilitated the conversation.
Behind the scenes with UofG Music Alumni - Aaron Hawthorne
Behind the scenes with UofG Music Alumni - Emma Hunter
“I really enjoyed the genuine, laidback, honest approach that the panellists provided. It felt very relatable and realistic.”
“I felt as though I learnt more about the value and achievability of working within community music scenes. The panel highlighted the importance in their careers and lives of working with music in their local communities, and I think this is really inspiring.”
“It changed my perspective about creative careers; it doesn’t have to be a direct pathway and everyone feels a bit directionless at times.”
Student attendees
Aaron Hawthorne
Aaron is a sought-after silent film and concert organist from North Lanarkshire, Scotland, with an MA in Music from the University of Glasgow. He performs regularly across the UK, Europe, and the USA, and is known for his engaging organ recitals and silent film accompaniments. Since 2017, Aaron has been a house organist at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. In 2019, he won the Young Theatre Organist Competition in New York, and later received the Ian Sutherland Award for his promise as a theatre organist. He is also active in organ preservation societies. Aaron has completed four annual UK silent film tours, performing classics such as The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), earning praise for introducing new audiences to silent films and the pipe organ's unique soundworld.
Emilie Boyd
Emilie is a versatile artist, at home as a frontwoman and also as a composer, arranger, teacher and MD. Emilie has honed her creative vocal talent over the years, working within Glasgow's famously vibrant music community. She’s sold out venues with many of her own projects, such as ‘Radiohead Re-imagined’, as well as being a backing vocalist and creative collaborator with incredible musicians such as Roddy Hart, Rachel Sermanni, Corinne Bailey Rae, Natasha Bedingfield, Mica Paris, Hamish Stuart (Average White Band), Andy Alston (Del Amitri), Kathryn Joseph, and Tom McGuire and the Brassholes. Emilie’s work has featured on STV’s What’s On Scotland, and championed by Alistair Braidwood (Scots Whay Hae, Radio Scotland), and 6Music’s Jamz Supernova and Gilles Peterson.
Emilie is currently performing and releasing original music with acclaimed vocal trio 'Little Acres' (Rachel Lightbody, Cariss Crosbie), with jazz/folk/electronic artist Dan Brown under the moniker ‘Glassworks’ (new album coming in 2026), and with DJ/producer Rebecca Vasmant for the renowned ‘New Soil’ label. She is also the co-creator of ‘Jazz at the Glad’, a monthly jazz night held at Glasgow's Glad Cafe, recently nominated for a Scottish Jazz Award.
When not performing, Emilie works in community music, for which she has a great passion. She’s worked in a myriad of environments, from prisons to universities, tiny community centres to the Caird Hall, Dundee. Her belief in the inspirational and transformational power of community music-making runs so deeply that in 2025 she began a Master’s degree in Music Therapy, which she is currently completing at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with First Class Honours in Music and Philosophy in 2013.
Emma Hunter
Emma is Head of Artistic Planning & Production with Glasgow based, Scottish Ensemble. Prior to this Emma worked at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in several roles in orchestra personnel management and concerts administration. During her time with the RSNO, Emma had extensive experience across various areas of the organisation, including in international touring, education and outreach work, the music library, planning & scheduling, health & safety, and line management of professional musicians. Emma now puts this breadth of knowledge to good use in her role at Scottish Ensemble, where she is responsible for oversight of the ensembles’ diary of activity, developing interesting collaborative projects, production logistics and working closely with the ensembles’ artistic director to deliver a wide range of innovative performances for strings, both in the UK and mainland Europe.
Emma graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2014 with an MA (hons) in Classics & Music. Outside of work Emma is a keen amateur violinist and runs a unit of Girl Guides.
Fergus Hall
Fergus is a Musician, Composer, Multidisciplinary Artist and Music Educator from the West of Scotland. He is happiest navigating the intersections of musical practices, particularly those of jazz, sound art, Scottish traditional music, free improvisation and contemporary classical music. Much of Fergus' work focuses on the natural environment, ecologies and conservation, particularly around the coastlines and seas of Scotland.
He has been commissioned by Glasgow New Music Expedition, Nevis Ensemble, Sound and Music, Making Music UK, An Tobar, Sound Festival and CoMA. In 2023 Fergus was selected to take part in the Royal Philharmonic Society Composer Program and to create a new work for The Hermes Experiment. In 2025 Fergus was awarded the Young Classical Artist Trust Composer Fellowship for 2025/26 for which he will create new works for the Fibonacci Quartet and cellist James Morley. These new works will be premiered this coming season at Wigmore Hall in London. His music has been performed by Sequoia Duo, Emily Davis, Fergus McCreadie, Matt Carmichael, The Edinburgh Quartet, Marie Schreer and the University of Glasgow Chapel Choir.
Fergus is also the recipient of the 2025–26 McEwen Commission.