Sally Alexander was appointed MBE for services to Education. She is Executive Headteacher of Kimichi School in Birmingham and Kimichi School Worcester, two independent music-specialist schools she founded and continues to oversee. Kimichi teaches a full mainstream curriculum, based on Music as the core subject and thread that runs through the school. Classes have no more than ten students, include individual instrumental tuition in their fees, and the school works extensively with young people who have special educational needs or for whom mainstream schooling has not worked. She is founder and Orchestral Manager of the Kimichi Symphony Orchestra, which performs large-scale concerts and has toured to the Lake District, Prague and Krakow. Sally founded and ran the Antigua and Barbuda Youth Orchestra in the early 2000s, and in September 2026 opens Kimichi’s boarding house, one of only two boarding provisions in Birmingham. She is very much looking forward to being a part of Spitalfields Music’s trustee board.
More about Sally…
Furthest you’ve been from home?
Japan, but the next farthest place is Vietnam; a country I absolutely love!
A fun fact?
Kimichi School is named after my two daughters, Kiera and Michelle, though it’s sometimes fun to pretend it’s an obscure musical pedagogy
Go-to piece of music?
Rite of Spring – I’m obsessed. It’s definitely not the easiest thing to hum along to though.