Peter King, Chair

Peter King is a lawyer and a civil servant. He is the Legal Director at HM Treasury, responsible for a team advising ministers and officials on all relevant legal matters, including new legislation and the management of public money.  Until 2017, he was a lawyer in private practice advising multinational companies on corporate matters. He is a trustee of several charities, a frequent attender at concerts and opera, and plays the clarinet and saxophone in small groups.

Sally Groves MBE

Sally Groves was, until June 2014, Creative Director London with Schott Music. She has always played an active role in British musical life, serving as a Board member with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Royal Northern College of Music, of which she is an Honorary Member, and the Music Publishers Association, which awarded her their Gold Medal in 2014. Sally now chairs the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, Opera Ventures and the Music Libraries Trust, is a Governor of the Royal Society of Musicians, serves on the RVW Trust and the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation and is a trustee of the Nash Ensemble, Listenpony!, and UPROAR. Sally was given the Lesley Boosey Award, honouring champions of new music, in April 2013. In July 2015 she was awarded an MBE for services to music. In 2016 Sally was given the ABO and IAMA Awards.

Roisin Hughes

Roisin Hughes is the Executive Producer for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK’s largest international festival dedicated to new and experimental music. With nearly two decades’ experience in fundraising, event management, marketing & communications and strategic development, she has played a pivotal role in delivering the hcmf// commitment to widening access to new music and identifying and working to remove barriers to participation in its creation and performance. Roisin studied Music & Art History at The Open University and is also a Trustee at CoMA (Contemporary Music for All), a national music organisation dedicated to encouraging amateur musicians to participate in contemporary music-making.

Louise Carles

Louise Carles is Music & Performing Arts Manager at the French Institute in London, where she works on music programming and international performing arts projects. She develops and delivers projects with artists and partners across France, the UK and Ireland, following them from the first idea to the final production. She also manages the Diaphonique fund, a trilateral France–UK–Ireland programme supporting new contemporary music. Alongside this, she accompanies a number of international artistic projects, advising artists and organisations and helping projects grow from early ideas into sustainable collaborations. Originally trained as a classical pianist, she began her career in festival and orchestral environments, where years spent working on touring, production and international projects gave her a lasting understanding of the artistic, logistical and human dimensions of making music happen. Alongside her institutional work, she advises emerging artists across classical, contemporary, jazz, pop and alternative music, and hosts a podcast celebrating the producers, managers and cultural workers who make artistic projects possible behind the scenes.

Emma-Jane Azkoul

Emma-Jane is Deputy Finance Director at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). Before moving into the cultural sector, she worked in the finance team at the John Lewis Partnership and went on to hold senior leadership roles at a law firm and a venture capital fund. She began life as an oboist, training briefly at the Royal College of Music, and now enjoys music from the other side of the concert stage. She studied Music at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, and also serves as a trustee of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Daniel Lewis

Daniel Lewis is a copyright and music publishing professional from Merthyr Tydfil. He is currently the classical relationship manager at the UK’s leading royalty collection society, PRS for Music. In his role, he supports composers and publishers to grow their royalty income and promotes classical music to new audiences. Previously, Daniel led the contemporary editorial team at the publishing house Edition Peters, where he delivered commissions by composers including James Dillon and Rebecca Saunders. He began his career in music as flautist and composer, and studied music at the University of Oxford.

Matthew Butt

Matthew Butt is a software engineering leader working at Zopa Bank, who has experience creating highly collaborative cultures and resilient software systems to solve complex organisational challenges. An active educator, he ran 7digital’s Technical Academy, facilitated several editions of the SoCraTes UK conference, and has run workshops exploring the social, creative and technical aspects of software engineering. He has a lifelong interest in contemporary music, studied composition with Robert Saxton and Sinan Savaşkan, and has had several pieces commissioned and performed. He plays the piano and is also a trustee of the Walbrook Music Trust.

David Taylor

David Taylor is a senior leader with a legal background.  He spent two decades helping to build and shape the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the lifeboat for failed company pension schemes, including as a Board member and General Counsel.  He is also a trustee of Roundabout Dramatherapy, a charity dedicated to transforming the lives of vulnerable people using creative methods to enhance mental health.  David is a keen amateur musician, playing the clarinet in orchestras and other groups, and singing in various choirs and vocal ensembles.

Andrew Kurowski

Andrew Kurowski joined the staff of the BBC in 1979 and became a producer with Radio 3 in 1982. Having worked across the full range of programmes, from concert relays to crafted documentaries, he became the Editor of New Music in 1991 and took responsibility for all aspects of the Network’s contemporary music output, including Jazz and World Music. A key role was the commissioning of new work for all of Radio 3’s performance areas, along with sitting on panels with partner organisations, such as RPS, BASCA, PRSF and Sound and Music, to help further the exposure of new music to as diverse an audience as possible. He left the BBC in 2013 and continues to work with contemporary music organisations to encourage and promote new work.

Helen Palmer

Helen’s background was originally in theatre marketing and PR, before becoming a marketing consultant in 1999 and setting up Palmer Squared consultancy in 2015. Helen works with individual artists, collectives and small to large-scale arts and heritage organisations to help them build and deepen their relationships with audiences for the long-term.

She was part of the founding management teams of Manchester International Festival, Cultureshock (Commonwealth Games North West Cultural Programme, Manchester 2002), British Ceramics Biennial, Asia Triennial Manchester and Lowry. From 2007-9 Helen led Marketing Manchester’s Marketing Coordination Unit as the Director of Strategic Marketing. 

Helen was a Director of CTConsults for 10 years up to 2021, an agency providing strategic guidance in culture, tourism, heritage, and brand development to places and destinations across the UK and internationally. Helen is currently a part-time Teaching Associate at the University of Sheffield.

She is the Chair of hÅb live art agency, a Trustee of Olympias Music Foundation, and Co-Chair of What Next? Greater Manchester. She also writes a Substack newsletter, PalmerSquared on Festivals.

Helen has a B.A.(Hons) Tourism Studies, Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma and is a Chartered Marketer, Masters in Humanities with Distinction (Film Studies) and a PhD in Film Studies.