Founder and leader of the Saxophone Orchestra Manchester.

Saira was born in London and spent her early years studying Saxophone and Clarinet at the Purcell School and The Royal College of Music before completing her undergraduate and masters degrees in Saxophone Performance at the Akademie für Tonkunst in Darmstadt, Germany under the tuition of Linda Bangs-Urban, founder member of the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet.

After her studies in Germany Saira returned to the UK where she completed a PGCE in Primary Education at the University of Hertfordshire before beginning a career as a school teacher in Buckinghamshire.

In 2014 Saira left classroom teaching and relocated to the North West in order to develop her profile as a freelance musician. Saira has now built a highly successful private saxophone teaching business that she runs from her home in Cheadle Hulme. She also gigs most weekends as a House Saxophonist under the pseudonym “SairaSax.” Since becoming a House Saxophonist Saira has played extensively throughout the UK and abroad, representing some of the industry’s top names including Hedkandi and Ministry of Sound.

During Covid Saira retrained as a woodwind repair technician and converted part of her private music studio into a workshop. She now specialises in saxophone maintenance and repair under the name FixMySax, fitting her saxophone repairs around her teaching and gigs.

In 2021 Saira founded the Saxophone Orchestra Manchester in order to give her students more performance opportunities and to further build on Manchester’s booming saxophone reputation. The orchestra has quickly grown to become the largest saxophone ensemble in the UK.

Assistant conductor and resident composer of the Saxophone Orchestra Manchester.

Adam’s musical background and education started as child when he learnt to play Cornet in his local brass band. After discovering a passion for singing, Adam went onto to study a joint honours degree in Music and German at Cardiff University with his main musical foci being Voice, Ethnomusicology and Composition.

Following his studies, he went onto Canterbury Christchurch University to complete a PGCE in Secondary Music. He has now worked in the classroom for 14 years, the last 10 of which as one of the academic music teachers in an independent school in Greater Manchester.

Away from the classroom Adam still plays in brass bands as a Soprano Cornet, gigs as a freelance musician and is a published composer and arranger of brass band and choral music in the UK and USA. Adam is also a well respected conductor and is currently the Musical Director of the Poynton (Royal British Legion) Concert Band, a role is assumed in October 2022.

Since joining the Saxophone Orchestra Manchester Adam now focuses on arranging music that is accessible for all levels of saxophonists, creating pieces that are enjoyable to play and fun listen to. He has also learnt to play the saxophone and passed his grade 3 with distinction in 2023. He enjoys trying to put in the Tenor 2 parts in the SOMonthly group or playing in the percussion section at big SOM Weekends. Adam also oversees the group’s social media channels.