Meet Our Creative Team
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Elliot Mainwaring
Musical Director
Elliot Mainwaring aka Aspie is returning for his second season as MD. A respected and well known name within both the UK acappella and beatboxing scene, Elliot is excited to continue his acappella journey. In his tenure thus far Elliot has written over 20 arrangements for the group including the ICCA set for 2025 and 10 songs performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival across 2024/25. Elliot is not new to arranging and composition as prior to his time in the group Elliot had co-composed a piece for symphony orchestra, beatbox and choir which was performed as the opening piece to the Hertfordshire Arts Gala at the Royal Albert Hall. Elliot has in the past also received the Sue Cracknell Vocal Grant, the title of UK Beatboxing Vice-Champion, Adriatic Beatbox Battle Champion, the first Open Acappella Beatbox Champion and ICCA Outstanding Vocal Percussionist 4 times. Elliot is also a member of the vocal group Elision.
Ella Connolly
Musical Director
Ella Connolly is returning to Illuminations for her first season as MD. Ella had a deeply musical upbringing surrounded by traditional Irish music. Ella as a result developed a deep musicianship which can be seen in her award winning singing, fiddle and harp playing. A 5 time Irish singing and fiddle playing champion, Ella is an exceptional musician. She also has experience arranging for string ensembles, as well as long history of performances with close harmony vocal groups. Within her first season with Illuminations she not only earned an ICCA solo which garnered much acclaim, but also made her arranging debut at the Edinburgh Fringe with her arrangement of Juice by Lizzo becoming an audience favourite night after night. Ella is looking forward to leading this generation of Illuminations through our rehearsals, performances and competitions.
Mackenzie Gilmore
Performance Director
Mackenzie Gilmore is returning to Illuminations for his first season as performance director. As performance director Mackenzie is in charge or choreography, the look of Illuminations on stage and our overall performance. Mackenzie as a trained dancer and musical theatre performer with LAMDA Grade 5 devising and experience choreographing as a director on various projects. As one of the Musical Supervisors for Exeter's Footlights, Mackenzie is well equipped to lead Illums in putting on our performances. Refining the look of our performance gear, creating the choreo for our competition set and leading performance and choreo workshops have already been on the agenda for Mackenzie and his professional yet fun approach to acappella performance has been very well received by audiences of Generation 15 so far.
