Here you can find a list of previous MUBS Musical Directors (MDs) over the years! We've done our best to fill in the gaps and not miss out any information, but will be updating the website continuously to ensure an accurate record is being held.
BELLA KANJOO (2024-present)
Bella (she/her) has been Musical Director (alongside Dylan Gunasekera) for MUBS since 2024. She had been interested in directing for years, and the role came up at a time when she felt confident enough to take it on. With years of barbershopping experience from her time at Durham University, she was eager to share her musical knowledge, teaching skills, and fresh perspectives with the chorus.
She has enjoyed helping to create a friendly, safe, and welcoming space for members to connect in. Watching people grow in confidence and hearing the chorus’s musical journey unfold over the year has been one of her favourite parts of the role.
Bella has sung in various groups since childhood and also plays piano and alto saxophone (Grade 8). She loves acting in plays and pantomimes whenever she has time and teaches swing dance, having been part of that community for six years. Outside of MUBS, she teaches in primary schools, sings both solo and in quartets, and finds joy and connection through swing and salsa dancing.
DYLAN GUNASEKERA (2024-present)
Dylan (he/him) has been Musical Director (alongside Bella Kanjoo) for MUBS since 2024, after previously serving on the Committee and Music Team since 2021. MUBS has been a big part of his life since he joined university in 2020, and under Ciaran Wilson's guidance he developed his skills as a director.
After graduating, he wanted to continue giving back and felt that stepping into the MD role was the right next step to support the chorus. He enjoys seeing people flourish throughout the year, coming out of their shell, growing in confidence, and discovering the joy of singing within the MUBS community.
Dylan has sung in choirs since primary school, covering a range of styles from traditional choral music to pop. He also played tenor and bass trombone to Grade 8 standard, which was his main musical focus before joining MUBS. Having only done a bit of a cappella singing before, he joined when he discovered the group was continuing rehearsals online during COVID. Outside of work, Dylan sings with several other barbershop groups and enjoys running whenever he can, as long as it’s not too cold or wet!
CIARAN WILSON (2018-2020, 2022-2024)
Ciaran (he/him) has directed across multiple MUBS ensembles over several years, Mantunian Way, Ultraviolet, and the main Mixed Chorus from 2018–2019, then Mantunian Way & Mixed in 2019–2020, and finally returning to direct the Mixed Chorus again from 2022–2024.
For Ciaran, stepping into the MD role felt like a natural progression. He joined the University of Manchester fully intending to get involved with MUBS from the start, taking on various committee roles including Chair before expanding into directing. He kept rehearsals going through COVID and even returned in 2022, despite commuting long distance, simply because he loved the role and the members so much. His favourite part of being MD was seeing the music develop throughout the year, and getting to relive the excitement of barbershop through members who were discovering it for the first time.
Ciaran is a hobby pianist and singer with A Level Music and piano/singing grades, but says most of his musical education has come from experiencing barbershop directly. He now lives just north of London and sings with the award-winning Meantime Chorus. He works as a Physician Associate in general practice and is slowly expanding his cocktail collection for his home bar.
SEB MARSHALL (2015-2016, 2019-2020)
Seb (he/him) has held several directing roles within MUBS over the years, co-directing Mantunian Way with Tom Guyer from 2014–2015, then serving as Musical Director from 2015–2016, and later returning as Ultraviolet MD from 2019–2020.
Seb loves barbershop and he loves conducting, a perfect combination for the role. He found it difficult to choose just one favourite part of being MD, but highlights include the huge sense of musical fulfilment after every rehearsal and performance, getting to sing with friends, and starting Northern Quarter (award winning quartet).
Coming from a musical family, Seb was involved in every music-related extracurricular he could through school. He then studied Music at university and went on to complete a master’s degree in clarinet performance. Seb is now a freelance conductor and clarinettist. He conducts three orchestras and two choirs every week, and regularly performs with professional orchestras and ensembles. He lives in London with his fiancée Emily and still sings in a barbershop quartet that he founded over ten years ago with three other ex-MUBS members while he was directing Mantunian Way.
PIPPA GOODALL (2012-2014)
Pippa (she/they) founded Ultraviolet in 2012 during their second year of university, helping Manchester University Barbershop Chorus (MUBC) evolve into MUBS, since the chorus couldn’t become an official university society without being open to all genders. They directed the group until their graduation in 2014.
Their first encounter with barbershop was seeing Encore perform at the start of their very first music lecture, and they were instantly hooked. When friends later joined MUBC and formed Tagline, Pippa spent a year soaking up barbershop knowledge before starting a new female chorus: originally named Amethyst A Cappella before becoming the much better-named Ultraviolet (Pippa’s words!). Pippa loved everything about being Music Director, especially the enthusiastic members from all kinds of degrees who were always fully on board. They also felt that Introducing newcomers to barbershop and watching them become just as obsessed was a real joy. The chorus sang great songs, learned fun choreo, and built something special together.
Before university, Pippa was a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral, and then a music scholar at secondary school, racking up five Grade 8s (four distinctions and one theory). Pippa studied Music (first study violin) at Manchester and got deeply involved in conducting while there, running several choirs including Ultraviolet. They also performed in L'chaim Kapelye, a klezmer band, after taking the klezmer module as part of the degree. Today, Pippa is a Chartered Accountant and works as a finance lead in tech startups. After uni, they directed Capital Chorus in London for five years before stepping back before the pandemic to focus on their career. They also served as Director of Finance for the British Association of Barbershop Singers (BABS) 2018-2021, helping guide the organisation through the pandemic. They’ve taken a small break from barbershop since, but will be at UK Harmony Brigaide 2026, and are really looking forward to it!
AnTOINE KaISERMAN (2009-2011)
Antoine (he/him) was the very first Musical Director of MUBS, leading the group from 2009 to 2011. At the time, he had just started singing barbershop, particularly with the National Barbershop Youth Chorus, which inspired him to get more young people involved. While studying music at the University of Manchester, and surrounded by plenty of talented friends, he decided to take a chance and put up a sign-up sheet for a new chorus. To his surprise, people actually turned up! Although MUBS wasn’t an official society yet (that came later, around 2012 under Tom Jarvis & Matt Church), Antoine and the early members managed to find rehearsal space wherever they could and even performed several public gigs. The biggest, and last, was at the Martin Harris Centre, which famously ended with someone falling off the stage during the climax of Vocal Spectrum’s Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho.
Antoine loved starting something new and introducing people to the world of barbershop. He was amazed that anyone showed up at all, and everything after that felt like a bonus. He remembers plenty of late-night tagging sessions in the Martin Harris stairwells, though probably to the dismay of staff and other students.
At the time, Antoine was studying music, with cello as his main instrument. He still plays regularly with orchestras and bands and continues to sing barbershop, now 13 years and counting with The Emerald Guard. After university, Antoine worked in student administration at Guildhall and Imperial College before moving into audio post-production for film and TV. He’s currently working at a studio called Molinare in Soho, still keeping one foot in the world of music.
