NCO welcomes five new Trustees to the Board

It was announced this week that five new members have been appointed to the Board of NCO.

Brian Weir, Fiona Harvey, Miranda Francis, William Norris and Jonathan Mayes will join the six existing members following a recruitment campaign earlier this year.

The music education charity, which is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary, has recently embarked on a phase of visionary development under the inspirational guidance of the executive team - Sophie Lewis, Managing Director, and Catherine Arlidge MBE, Artistic & Educational Director.

Peter Stark, Chairman of NCO, commented: “I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to be welcoming five new Trustees to the Board of NCO. The significant skills, expertise and experience they each bring will provide superb support for NCO’s new executive team and the future development of the organisation”.

Biographical Details

Brian Weir

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.

Fiona Harvey

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.

Miranda Francis

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.

William Norris

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.

Jonathan Mayes

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.