24th May 2020
The new role of Director of Artistic Planning at the Philharmonia Orchestra will be taken by BEN LARPENT. He will join the senior management team in June, leaving Southbank Centre where he is Head of Classical Music. He joined Southbank in 2010 as Classical Music Programmer, prior to which he was Tours & Projects Manager at Intermusica Artists’ Management.
FIONA FRANCOMBE has been appointed as the new Principal/CEO of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She is currently Director of The Bottle Yard Studios, where she has championed Bristol as an international hub for film and TV production and established on-site classrooms where young people study Film & TV Production and Stage & Screen Production Arts Diplomas in a working environment. Her earlier career included stage...
RAVI GUPTA, Co-Head of Rothschild & Co's UK business and Global Industrials sector, will be the new Chair of Governors at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), starting in January 2021. He will take over from NICHOLAS PRETTEJOHN, who steps down after three terms in post.
17th May 2020
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama has announced that KATE STOKES DAVIES, currently Director of Communications and Stakeholder Relations at Qualifications Wales, will be joining the College as its new Director of External Affairs. When she takes up the post in September, she will take on responsibility for Marketing, Public Relations, Student Recruitment, Communications, Creative Programming, Partnerships and Outreach....
Three new Board members have joined Manchester International Festival: writer JEANETTE WINTERSON (left), journalist NGOZI UGOCHUKWU (centre), and Chief Executive, Food, at The Co-op, JO WHITFIELD (right). As well as planning next year’s Festival, the organisation is developing plans for The Factory, and earlier this year appointed Executive Director RANDEL BRYAN, whose background...
LEONORA THOMSON (pictured) has been appointed as interim Artistic Director of the Barbican Centre following the departure of LOUISE JEFFREYS from the role last month. Thomson joined the Barbican in 2008 as Head of Communications, and became Director of Audiences and Development two years later. In 2015 she joined Welsh National Opera as Managing Director, where she worked until last year.
CATHIE PILKINGTON has been elected as the new Keeper of the Royal Academy following a remote ballot among members. She will be responsible for guiding the Royal Academy Schools, the longest established postgraduate art school in the UK, and will succeed REBECCA SALTER.
As the Vienna-based Max Steiner Orchestra (MSO) becomes the first orchestra to reopen its doors as lockdown restrictions are eased in Austria, VICK BAIN (pictured far right), former CEO of the Ivors Academy, has joined as UK Business Development Consultant. The contemporary film and TV orchestra will be restarting its work with musicians and producers to create and capture new recordings.
10th May 2020
After more than five years leading the Eden Project, GORDON SEABRIGHT becomes Chief Executive of the Creative Land Trust, the charity that seeks to secure affordable workspace for artists in perpetuity and is currently aiming to secure 1,000 affordable workspaces in London. His career includes working with the national cycling charity and the Royal Horticultural Society, and he has held senior positions at English Heritage,...
DEEN HALLISSEY has become Disability Arts Online’s Digital Influencer as part of a leadership development project in partnership with Access All Areas. For the next 18 months he will be using his social media skills to support the organisation’s aim of improving accessibility and audience reach.