Trustee Profiles

Alison is Director of Guildhall Young Artists and Safeguarding and has over 25 years’ experience in music education across both school and conservatoire sectors. Launched as a national network in 2023, Guildhall Young Artists provides progression opportunities for 1900 young people through our network of centres and holiday orchestras.

She is currently an Arts Council of Wales Council Member and a member of the London Music Fund Education Committee and is delighted to join the NCO Board.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Roger Tomlinson started his career in marketing, before setting up and running Aberystwyth Arts Centre, and then Theatr Clwyd. He was Drama Director of the Welsh Arts Council before becoming an arts management consultant, working internationally.

Some say he is obsessed with audience development and public engagement & new techologies.

Stuart is an arts and charity sector specialist, leading innovative cross-disciplinary work as Executive Producer at Scottish Ensemble. A former civil servant, he was previously Executive Director at music education charity Orchestras for All and works as Associate with Take Note, supporting cultural organisations and funders to maximise their impact.

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.

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.