Trustee Profiles

Louise is Chief Executive of Bristol Music Trust, which was which was created by Bristol City Council in 2011 to manage Colston Hall, the south west’s largest concert hall, and take a regional overview of music promotion and formal music education and where she is currently overseeing a £48.8 million building transformation. 

Previously, Louise was the Director of the Glasgow UNESCO City of Music and Director of Glasgow Concert Halls, where she spearheaded the regeneration of two of the city’s most revered venues, the City Halls and The Old Fruitmarket, in a substantial £8.3m redevelopment. She has also had a series of high profile positions in the classical music world including Concerts Director for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Assistant Director at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Louise is also a board member of Destination Bristol and Paraorchestra and Friends, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a past Board Member of the International Society for Performing Arts & Association of British Orchestras.

She joins National Children’s Orchestras board of Trustees at a time when the charity is embarking on an ambitious new strategy to increase diversity and embed wellbeing, creativity and child voice across its orchestral training programme. Louise will also play a key role in the charity’s relocation to Bristol in 2020 as it seeks to develop partnerships and networks with Bristol’s thriving education and arts sectors and beyond.

Beth is a percussionist, educator, and advocate for gender equality for instrumentalists. Her recent performing credits include; Inala (West End and international tour 2019), Amadeus and Common at The National Theatre (2016-18)and Macbeth (2020) and Othello (2018), at Shakespeare’s Globe.

She teaches percussion at Junior Trinity Laban and has delivered workshops for the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Proms, and Britten Pears Arts, amongst others. She is passionate about equal opportunity in music education and is also a known advocate for gender equality amongst instrumentalists. She conducted data collection and held a roundtable discussion at the Wigmore Hall in March 2019, and has since been appointed as a Senior Manager with SWAP’ra (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera).

Director of Student Experience at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, music graduate Brian Weir has over 20 years’ experience working in arts education. His areas of expertise include widening participation, equality and diversity, safeguarding, specialist learning support and charity governance.  A member of the Board of Directors and Senior Management Team at RWCMD, his previous association with the National Children’s Orchestra includes several years working as a Course Manager.

By profession Christine is a lawyer, specialising in commercial and technology law, and currently holds a senior role for a major global consumer technology company. Christine has extensive experience operating within non-profit organisations, having spent time providing legal advice on a volunteer basis for a children’s charity and at community legal centres such as Toynbee Hall, a London-based charity working alongside people facing poverty and injustice. Christine also has safeguarding experience, having recently been the Welfare Officer for one of London’s leading badminton clubs.

Fiona studied music at Sheffield University and spent most of her career in the professional music sector. Hawthorn Consulting - her arts consultancy company - works in the areas of music education policy; charity governance and operations; organisational change; strategic development; and project management of leadership development programmes. Fiona currently holds roles with the Association of British Orchestras and PRS Foundation. She is committed to ensuring that children and young people should have every opportunity to develop musically and creatively.

I am pleased to join the board of Trustees. I have combined a career as an oboist and a music educator since 1970, and have worked with many of London’s major orchestras as well as holding senior positions at the Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and Codarts Rotterdam. I continue to teach oboe at Birmingham Conservatoire and am the President of the Barbirolli International Oboe Competition.

I am very pleased and excited to be joining the NCO as a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer. I have worked with many organisations as a Senior Consulting Partner and a Non-Executive Director, and live in the West Midlands with my daughter Katie and partner Ivor. Katie is 10 years old, and has been part of the NCO family for the last three years (2016 Under 11s Clarinet). I have learnt so much from Katie’s musical journey over the last 5 years, and we have all made many great friends on the way. I am honoured to support an organisation that provides an amazing experience for children passionate about music, and which has created such a strong musical family.

Jonathan Mayes was born in Cheltenham and educated at Bristol University. His career began in the USA, where he worked in the management team of both the Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies. When he returned to the UK, he worked in producing roles at the Barbican and Southbank Centre prior to six years at Arts Council England.  Since 2016 he has held the position of Director of Residencies and Regional Programme with the Philharmonia Orchestra. 

Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason lives in Nottingham and is a former lecturer in English at The University of Birmingham. She has recently published the memoir, 'House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons'. Kadiatu has seven children, all of whom are classical musicians and the family has been the subject of several documentaries. Kadiatu is on the Board of Trustees for ESTA String Teachers Association, The Nottingham Education Trust, Real Talk TV, Music Masters, Music in Secondary Schools Trust, and on the Advisory Council for the Royal Philharmonic Society. Kadiatu is continuing to write and gives talks, interviews and lectures around the UK on diversity in classical music, music education, issues of race and inclusion, literature and parenting.

Since studying at Oxford University and the Guildhall School of Music, Letty Stott has had a diverse performing career and is in-demand as both a musician and educator. Letty is passionate about music education and widening access to classical music. Her areas of expertise include grass-roots whole-class brass projects such as ‘Bold As’ in the South East of England; Gender and brass-playing, working with organisations including SWAP’ra; and Partnership work, including forthcoming projects with LAET Academy in Tottenham, North London, the Brass Foundry project with the Royal Academy of Music, and Brass for Africa. Letty teaches at Trinity Laban, North London Collegiate School and Highgate School, where she is Head of Brass.

Lucy Maguire is the founder and CEO of The Nucleo Project, a “music for social action” project in the North Kensington area of London. Nucleo launched in 2013 and currently delivers a free, immersive, ensemble-centred musical programme to over300 children aged 0 to 20. Many Nucleo students are past or current members of NCO! Lucy’s interest in social impact through music began in her teens, while studying at Phillips Academy Andover (in the US). After leaving school, Lucy gained experience of a number of different programmes in this field and ultimately spent a year in Caracas, Venezuela where she played, studied and taught in El Sistema. She returned to London in 2012 to finish her degree at King’s College London, and of course to setup The Nucleo Project, which has kept her busy ever since!

Miranda joined the academic professorial staff of the Royal College of Music as Area Leader in Aural Training in 2008. She studied Double Bass, Organ and Piano Accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music, winning several academic prizes. Over the past thirty years, she has led music departments in both state and independent schools, and was formerly Head of Academic Music at the Purcell School, where she founded the Jazz Department.

A passionate advocate of music education, she was appointed RCM Head of Junior Programmes in 2013. In addition to her extensive teaching and lecturing commitments, Miranda was Principal Examiner of Performance at Advanced Level for Edexcel for seventeen years. She has been a member of the ABRSM Music Advisory Group and she is currently an advisor for the London Music Fund.

Dr Rosie Benneyworth is Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care at the Care Quality Commission where she is responsible for regulation of General Practice, Dental services, Health and Justice, Children's services, and Independent Health providers in England. Rosie worked as a GP in Somerset for many years before joining the CQC, and has also held several other senior roles in the NHS as a senior clinical leader and manager. She was non-executive Director on the board of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and held the role of Vice Chair of NICE between 2016-19. She is currently a trustee for The Nuffield Trust. Rosie lives in Somerset with her family and loves music, running and spending time with her teenagers.

William took up the role of Managing Director of Southbank Sinfonia in July 2018. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra in Toronto, Canada.

In over ten years with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, he developed The Night Shift, a ground-breaking series attracting new, younger audiences, as well as reshaping the Orchestra’s public image and presiding over a 150% increase in ticket sales. Prior to this, at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he launched the NOISE student programme.

Uchenna Ngwe studied oboe and cor anglais at Trinity College of Music and since then, her playing has taken her across Europe, Africa and Asia. Solo engagements have included recitals at Lauderdale House and St Alfege Church in Greenwich, while orchestral work includes Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and KwaZulu- Natal Philharmonic Orchestra. A keen interest in music education has resulted in recording music for educational use including Abracadabra Oboe (A&C Black Publishers) and Ready, Steady, Blow (Oboe Classics). Uchenna is Artistic Director and founder of Decus Ensemble - much of their repertoire has emerged from her PhD research that investigates perceptions of historical Black classical musicians in Britain. This also developed into the plainsightSOUND project that uncovers hidden stories of historical Black classical musicians in Europe. Uchenna has also appeared as a presenter and contributor to several BBC Radio 3 programmes, including Sounds Connected and Inside Music.