LOAM
Linking Outdoors And Music
our mission:
to connect people and planet through music
Our Core Principle:
to integrate outdoor learning with shared music making
our story
We, Alma and Bonnie, attended the residential music course Magdalen Farm Strings as children since its inception in 2008. The course instilled such a deep love of music in us that we both went on to have varied musical careers, where Magdalen Farm Strings then became an equally important part of our lives as music tutors on the course. We came to realise how important the unique integration of music making and outdoor learning is at Magdalen Farm Strings, and decided to make sure the course can continue to offer this for generations to come.
In 2026, we founded LOAM (Linking Outdoors And Music C.I.C.), an organisation within which we can ensure the longevity of Magdalen Farm Strings whilst also broadening our reach to more young people across the country. In 2027, LOAM will launch a new course in the Peak District - Thornbridge Music - founded on the same principles as Magdalen Farm Strings, whilst increasing the provision of partially and fully funded places, striving to reduce inequality of access to music and nature.
As music educators and outdoor enthusiasts, we are committed to exploring ways in which LOAM can reach more people moving forward.
Loam is a nutrient rich soil which provides the ideal environment for young plants to thrive.
our objectives
To inspire participants with a love of making music together.
To nurture respect and appreciation of nature by having fun outdoors.
To teach music with a holistic approach to ensure that we are educating the whole musician.
The team
Alma Orr-Ewing
artistic Director
Alma is a musician, educator and environmental activist. LOAM is the culmination of her two passions: the viola and the environment. From a young age she has loved playing music with others, hugely influenced by attending Magdalen Farm Strings every year. Magdalen helped her develop into the professional chamber musician and orchestral player that she is today, leaving her with a life-long love of music, which is why she is so committed to ensuring it can continue. She freelances with some of the top UK orchestras, such as the Hallé, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Manchester Camerata, and also enjoys performing chamber music with colleagues and friends.
She is dedicated to passing on the joy that music has brought her through teaching, mainly in her role as Course Leader and musical facilitator at Magdalen Farm Strings. In the past she has worked for Birmingham Music Service and at various schools in Birmingham and Manchester.
At age 10, Alma set up an “eco-club” for her friends, and was nicknamed Eco Warrior by her family. Now, she is an active volunteer for Manchester Friends of the Earth, and can be found all over Manchester running stalls, delivering talks or workshops and organising events to boost Friends of the Earth’s campaigns.
Bonnie Schwarz
Managing Director
Bonnie is a singer, cellist and creative facilitator with a wide ranging career in music. She mainly performs as Good Habits, her folk fusion band with whom she has played Glastonbury Festival and WOMAD, toured the UK, Australasia and Europe, and released a UK Top 40 charting album. She has also collaborated as a session singer, cellist and composer with a range of accomplished artists, bands and theatre shows, including Clare Sands, Keisha Thompson, Morgan Harper Jones, The Trouble Notes, The Royal Exchange, Contact Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre.
Bonnie graduated with First Class Honours in Music and Drama from the University of Manchester, and completed the course with Theatre in Prisons and Probation. Work as an educator and creative freelancer continues to weave an important thread through her life as a touring musician, at festivals and events internationally and with organisations across the UK including Concerteenies, Contact, OddArts and Magdalen Farm Strings. Beyond music creation and performance, Bonnie runs the operations of Good Habits, their label Colour Plum Records, and BB Music, a booking and management company for contemporary folk artists.
LOAM is where her two great loves meet: music and the outdoors. From a young age she has loved making music with others. Magdalen shaped her into the singer, cellist and composer she is today, and taught her how to get totally lost, whether that's in a woods or in a piece of music. It played a huge part in developing her lifelong belief in music's power to build confidence and connection, which is why she is so committed to keeping that opportunity open to others. She believes that discovering ourselves through creativity and our connection to nature is fundamental to our sense of self, self worth and wellbeing, a belief she now carries into her role as Managing Director of LOAM.
poppy Orr-Ewing
Pastoral Lead & Outdoor Activity Coordinator
Poppy is a Forest School Practitioner, musician and nature conservationist. For the past five years she has worked across various childcare and outdoor
education settings during her Psychology degree and Forest School training. This has shaped her understanding of how children learn and develop best. She strongly believes in the power of using music and outdoor environments to support holistic development. Music has become an integral part to her forest school provision, using song to solidify learning and boost moods.
Poppy is passionate about providing fun and enriching experiences, always keeping the children’s learning, development and safety at the heart of her provision. With six years as Pastoral Lead at Magdalen Farm Strings, she is confident supporting children not only through the practical responsibilities of in loco parentis, but doing this with genuine care and attention to their health
and wellbeing. Alongside her love for nature and facilitating engaging outdoor experiences, Poppy is also a musician, playing regularly with the Dulcet
Quartet and Avon Concordia orchestra in Bristol.
Having attended Magdalen Farm Strings for nine years as a participant, Poppy knows first-hand the lasting impact that music-making with friends, embedded within engaging outdoor activities, can have on young people’s wellbeing and development. Magdalen Farm Strings played a significant role in shaping both Poppy’s musicianship and career, and she is thrilled about facilitating similar opportunities for the next generation.
Pete Shaw
Media and Graphic Design
Pete is a multi-instrumentalist with an expertise in oral tradition. Originally a classical pianist, a love for accordion developed from his focus on folk traditions (Irish, Klezmer and Balkan), jazz and composition. His classical training, paired with his traditional Irish music background, gives him a multi-layered approach to teaching that aims to develop oral and improvisational skills as well more traditional performance skills, helping people find the joy in creating music together without sheet music. As a performer and touring musician, he explores an innovative fusion of accordion and synthesiser, and performs full time as an accordionist and drummer in groups including Good Habits and The Trouble Notes (DE).
Since graduating from studying music at The University of Manchester in 2019, Pete has performed at some of the the world’s largest festivals, including New York Klezmer Festival, Glastonbury and WOMAD, and has recently become a brand partner for Hohner Accordions. Alongside Bonnie, they run the operations of Good Habits and Colour Plum Records, and Pete often works across their music community as a videographer, photographer and film maker, with an array of digital art skills including graphic design and product production.
Pete grew up on a farm in Shropshire and when not playing the accordion can be found climbing trees and pottering in the greenhouse.
our Patron
Colin Matthews
We are extremely grateful that the internationally renowned composer Colin Mattews is our active and enthusiastic patron.
Colin has been patron of Magdalen Farm Strings since the course began in 2008, and has composed a new work for each course since then. We are delighted that he is continuing his support for LOAM.
Colin Matthews was born in London in 1946. In the 1970s he was assistant to Benjamin Britten, and worked for many years with Imogen Holst. His collaboration with Deryck Cooke on the performing version of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony lasted from 1963 until its publication in 1975.
Over five decades his music has ranged from solo piano music through six string quartets and many ensemble and orchestral works. From 1992-9 he was Associate Composer with the LSO, writing amongst other works a Cello Concerto for Rostropovich. In 1997 his choral/orchestral Renewal, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of BBC Radio 3, was given a Royal Philharmonic Society Award.
Since 2000 he has written works for the San Francisco SO, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Philharmonia, City of Birmingham SO, BBC SO, London Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus. He was Composer-in-Association with the Hallé from 2001-10, and orchestrated Debussy’s 24 Preludes for them. Three recent major vocal works are Spleen: A Land of Rain, As time returns and Seascapes, all recently recorded for the Onyx label. A large-scale orchestral work, Mosaics, was composed in 2020 and performed by the LSO in May 2023. His opera, A Visit to Friends, with a libretto by William Boyd, was first performed at the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival. His Oboe Concerto for Olivier Stankiewicz and the LSO was given its first performance in February 2026.
Colin Matthews is Founder and Executive Producer of NMC Recordings, Executive Administrator of the Holst Foundation and Music Advisor and Joint President of Britten-Pears Arts. With Oliver Knussen he founded the Aldeburgh Composition Course in 1992, and he has been composition director of the LSO’s Panufnik Scheme since 2005. He holds honorary posts with the Universities of Nottingham and Manchester and is Prince Consort Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music.