Born into one of Britain’s most recognisable media families, Myleene Klass’s eldest daughter has spent years quietly building a musical career serious enough to stand entirely on its own.
At 18 years old, Ava Bailey Quinn sat a competitive audition at one of the world’s most prestigious music institutions and walked away with an undergraduate place. Her mother Myleene Klass, who trained at the same Royal Academy of Music on scholarship decades earlier, was direct about what that meant: her daughter earned it herself.
“She practices the piano for eight hours a day,” Myleene told the Daily Mail in September 2025. “She had to take an exam. They didn’t just say ‘Myleene Klass’s daughter, give her a spot.’ She really had to pass the exam.”
That distinction matters, and it is the thread that runs through everything worth knowing about Ava Quinn.
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Who Is Ava Bailey Quinn?
Ava Bailey Quinn was born on 16 August 2007 at the Lindo Wing of St. Mary’s Hospital, London, arriving three and a half weeks early and weighing 5lb 9oz. Her mother had been presenting The One Show that evening, felt unwell heading home, and was told at the hospital she was already in labour. The first photos of Ava were shown exclusively on The One Show a week after the birth.
She is currently 18 years old, a classically trained pianist and cellist, and an undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music as of autumn 2025.
Her Parents and the Family She Grew Up In
Ava’s father is Graham Quinn, who was working as a bodyguard for pop group Hear’Say when he first met Myleene around 2001. The two were in an on-and-off relationship for roughly a decade before marrying on 21 October 2011, when Ava was four years old. The marriage lasted six months. Their divorce was finalised in April 2013, with Myleene citing unreasonable behaviour.
Myleene has spoken openly about raising both daughters largely on her own after the split, describing herself as a single mother through most of Ava’s formative years.
Ava has two younger siblings:
- Hero Harper Quinn — born 26 March 2011, plays trumpet and was working toward piano Grade 7 as of 2022
- Apollo — born 1 August 2019, Myleene’s son with fiancé Simon Motson
Her godmother is Suzanne Shaw, former Hear’Say singer and Myleene’s closest friend.
A Musical Education That Most Conservatoire Students Would Struggle to Match
Classical music runs through the Klass family for six generations. Myleene trained at the Guildhall School of Music and later the Royal Academy of Music on a scholarship. Ava followed a path that, in certain respects, surpassed the standard timeline considerably.
She secured a place at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, studying both piano and cello. The progression from there was striking:
- Age 12 — Sat two Grade 8 examinations. The standard entry age for Grade 8 is 16.
- Age 14 — Sat her Cello Diploma, a qualification normally attempted at 17 or 18 years old, and passed with distinction.
- Returned to school having secured three separate scholarships.
- Autumn 2025 — Began her undergraduate degree at the Royal Academy of Music, having passed the institution’s competitive audition.
When Myleene shared the diploma result on Instagram in 2022, she wrote that Ava was “phenomenally dedicated, super talented and conscientious.” Her daughter’s Instagram, @pianos_our_forte, reflects exactly that.
Myleene has also mentioned that Ava once learned to play the piano backwards, quietly taking over what her mother had always called her own party trick.
At 11 Years Old, She Played Alongside Lang Lang
On 7 March 2019, Myleene posted behind-the-scenes footage on Instagram of Ava — then just 11 years old — performing Beethoven’s Für Elise on a grand piano with world-renowned Chinese pianist Lang Lang standing beside her, guiding her through the piece. Myleene’s caption: “Ava’s first music video! (I’m the entourage).”
The timing gives that session real weight. Lang Lang released his landmark album Piano Book on 29 March 2019, three weeks after the footage was filmed. Für Elise was the album’s centrepiece. The music video built around it went on to win the Opus Klassik award for Video Clip of the Year in Germany — the country’s highest classical music prize. Piano Book topped classical charts in the US, UK, Germany, France, China and Japan.
Classic FM, which reported on the filming session in March 2019, noted that Ava had already caught Lang Lang’s attention through her playing. She was 11.
A-Levels, a Place at the RAM, and a Very Public Send-Off
In summer 2025, Ava sat her A-Levels and received results Myleene described to the Daily Mail as “four points off perfection” in English. Her old school reportedly planned to use her exam paper as a teaching resource for future students.
She then applied to the Royal Academy of Music for undergraduate study. She auditioned. She was offered a place.
On 9 September 2025, Myleene posted an emotional video from her car after an optician’s visit, explaining she had broken down in tears when asked her children’s ages: “My 18-year-old daughter is going to university in a few days. I literally flooded it with tears.”
By February 2026, Myleene celebrated her 20th anniversary as a Classic FM presenter at a party held at The Cadogan hotel in London’s Knightsbridge. The string quartet performing that evening were confirmed by Hello! Magazine as friends and contemporaries of Ava at the Royal Academy of Music. The musical world she now belongs to was in the room.
The Nepo Baby Backlash
When Ava left for the Royal Academy of Music in September 2025, critics publicly labelled her a “nepo baby”, arguing that her mother’s profile in British classical music had opened doors ordinary applicants could not access.
Myleene pushed back at length in the Daily Mail:
“You could call my children nepo babies all day long but they can play Rachmaninoff concertos like the best of them.”
She added that both Ava and Hero work at weekends, and that she has been clear from the start there would be no financial handouts. “I know they will be okay in life because they will always be able to make money. But I can’t play the piano for them.”
Ava herself has not responded publicly to any of it. She has accompanied Myleene at a number of high-profile London events — the UK premiere of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Caught Stealing gala screening in August 2025, and the Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning global premiere — but she has kept her musical life entirely separate from that circuit.
Her Father’s Side of the Story
Graham Quinn currently lives in Ibiza, where the Daily Mail reported he works as a security manager. In July 2025, Myleene claimed on the We Need To Talk podcast that she had walked in on Quinn with an unnamed celebrity at her birthday party before they married. Quinn’s representatives told the Daily Mail he would not comment on what they described as “fantasies.”
Quinn has spoken publicly about being estranged from Ava and Hero, claiming he spent £20,000 in legal attempts to re-establish contact and lost a £40,000 work contract partly as a result of the dispute. He has expressed hope of eventually reconnecting with his daughters through their aunt Lisa Duffy, who is married to Boyzone singer Keith Duffy.
Where Ava Bailey Quinn Stands in 2026
As of March 2026, Ava is seven months into her undergraduate programme at the Royal Academy of Music. She was present at Windsor Castle in 2025 when Myleene was awarded her MBE for services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and charity, standing alongside her sister Hero and half-brother Apollo.
She came into the world ahead of schedule at a hospital associated with Royal births. She spent the next 18 years at the piano and cello, sat exams years ahead of the standard age, passed a conservatoire audition on merit, and is now building her career from inside one of the most respected music institutions on the planet.
Whatever people want to call that, it is a record she built herself.
