Alumni News: April 2026 Edition

Tell us about yourself, what you currently do and what inspires you.

I am the Executive Director of a classical music agency called Vincero, based in Seoul. In a nutshell, we invite international orchestras to Korea, organising and promoting their concerts here. After graduating from UWCSEA Dover in 2009, I moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, to study Hospitality Management at EHL Hospitality Business School. It may sound like an unusual path to the music industry, but the connection is actually quite natural — it's all about human connection. I have always loved working with people, and sharing and learning about different cultures has been at the heart of everything I do.

Can you recall any specific teachers, activities, classes, or other experiences at UWCSEA that helped shape where you are now?

My daily life at UWCSEA was shaped enormously by the experience of being a boarder at the Senior House. Sharing a room with three others taught me respect, acceptance of differences, and what multiculturalism truly means in practice — not just as a concept, but as a lived reality. Being immersed in such an international environment, experiencing different cultures through events like Cultural Nights and UN Night, made it feel completely natural to be part of a diverse community.

As boarders, we were given a great deal of freedom, but always with responsibility attached to it. That balance instilled in me a discipline that has served me well to this day.

One teacher who left a lasting impression on me was Mr. Q, who taught Theory of Knowledge. He had a remarkable way of teaching us to see the world from different angles — never assuming that we all share the same depth of knowledge or experience, and never judging a book by its cover. More than anything, he embodied what he taught. He was a living example of responsible freedom, and that has stayed with me ever since.

Can you share a little about your journey from UWCSEA to building a career in the classical music industry in Seoul?

After UWCSEA, I headed to Switzerland for my studies. Back then, my only goal was to open multiple restaurants and bars around the world. Upon completing my degree, I was offered a position with a major hotel group in Saipan — an opportunity I was genuinely excited about. However, it required a US visa, and without having completed Korea's mandatory 21-month military service, I was unable to obtain one. The opportunity slipped away, and I enlisted in the army.

Looking back, what felt like a detour turned out to be one of the most meaningful periods of my life. During service, we were not permitted to possess any electronic devices and had very limited access to the outside world. Our only windows to it were the TV and radio, used sparingly — and the radio was fixed to a classical music channel. With no other choice, I listened, and listened, and slowly began to develop a genuine love for classical music. It was the most unexpected turning point of my life.

Something I had never imagined myself joining. But given my newfound passion, I decided to give it a chance. That decision eventually led me to where I am today.

For current UWCSEA students, especially boarders and aspiring musicians, what advice would you give about pursuing a path in music?

First and foremost, always be open to new ideas. I have been fortunate enough to speak with many of the world's most celebrated conductors, and there is one thing we all have in common: they always find something new in the pieces they have been conducting and studying, even after 20 or 30 years. The scores have not changed — but because they remain open to new ideas and never stop learning, the music continues to reveal something fresh every time. That is a beautiful lesson for life, not just music.

Second, learn how to deliver your ideas clearly. One of the things that separates the good from the truly great is the ability to communicate — not just through music, but through words. Practice public speaking. It may feel uncomfortable at first, but one day, when you find yourself standing in front of an audience needing to share something meaningful, you will be grateful you did.

And to the boarders especially — cherish every moment of living with people who are different from you. That experience is rarer and more valuable than you might realise right now.

For over three decades, Brigadier Anna has been a vital force in the British Army, paving the way for future generations of women in the military. Her leadership for D-Day 80 was a huge success, resulting in her being awarded an OBE in 2025 for her services to the nation and military.

Beyond her accolades, Anna holds a special place in our community as the daughter of Brian Carpenter, who taught Chemistry and was the Housemaster of Carpenter House at Dover from 1977 to 1986.

Anna is currently thriving as the Deputy Governor and Head of Operations at the Tower of London. What a leader, a pioneer and a true UWCSEA inspiration.

I first encountered Three Sisters a couple of years after leaving drama school. It was a production at the National Theatre in London and I was so struck by the depth of longing under the surface of that production's slightly cold, late-Victorian aesthetic. For a long time I've wanted to translate Chekhov's work into an Asian setting because at the heart of that particular play, once you've stripped away the class and the cultural specifics, is a tightly bonded family. And family bonds are such a strong force in this part of the world.

I removed the backdrop of military and war from the original (given the current geo-political landscape we find ourselves in, I didn't want to disappear down that particular rabbit hole); instead, the character's in my version, Force Majeure, are a different kind of warrior – they are a family of creative artists, and this landscape of art became a really fundamental thematic. As someone from Singapore, who's lived and worked in a number of countries in Europe, I wanted to explore what it means to be an artist, to believe in the transformative power of art somewhere where it's not easy to make a life as an artist.

As an award-winning playwright, how has your creative voice evolved since your early days as a student exploring the arts?

I remember always loving creative writing, and that was really nurtured in me as a young student of English and Drama. But I want to return to the idea of confidence, because the greatest barrier to creative work is how easy it is not to do it; not to make things. When we're young, we can be quite quick to judge ourselves, our ideas or our creativity as not good enough, not cool enough or funny enough – and so we stop altogether.

The more you do and make, the better you get. And the more your confidence, courage and skill grow. I'm lucky to have had a really robust training (at LAMDA where I trained as an actor on a scholarship, from 1998–2001) and then build a career in the UK where there is a big industry and where, if you're resilient enough and keep picking yourself up after the failures (and there are many, many failures), there are some amazing pathways to creative work.

Over the years, with a lot of trial and error, I have become much more confident and assured in my own voice; my particular, unique lens on the world. This led me to build on my career as an actor and so into playwriting, to be right at the start of the creative process.

What advice would you give to current UWCSEA students who are passionate about the arts and hoping to pursue creative careers?

My first piece of advice to young artists, always, is to be very honest with yourself. Why do you want a creative career? If the answer is because you want it to lead to either fame or money, I'd suggest you find an alternative path through life! The only reason to be a professional creative is that it is the only work you can do. It's a vocation. So your heart, soul and spirit have to be fully invested.

Then, I'd tell you that you need enormous resilience and discipline. You need those qualities to sustain you when you're between jobs (if for nothing else, to be able to pay your bills); you also need them when you land a job. I've just finished filming on a TV series in Northern Spain, which sounds very cushy, but in fact was immensely tough work. The scripts were being rewritten throughout, so we had new lines to learn at night (after working a full day) before shooting the next day; we had one day on set this week in a gale-driving rain and it was an exterior scene. We had to get it shot, no matter how wet and freezing we all got. You have to be able to dig deep and have the resources to sustain some really tough work.