Our Patrons

Linn recording artist and BBC Radio 3 presenter Claire Martin has spent the last 30 years honing the craft of jazz singing. To worldwide critical acclaim she has established herself as a tour de force on the UK jazz scene gaining many awards, including winning the British Jazz Awards seven times, along the way. Click for more info ...

Howard Goodall is an award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores, is well known as a TV and radio broadcaster, and from 2007-11 was England's first ever National Ambassador for Singing, leading a programme (Sing Up) to improve the provision of group singing for all primary-age children. His best-known TV & Film themes & scores include Blackadder, The Gathering Storm, The Borrowers, Red Dwarf, Q.I., Mr Bean, Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, Mr Bean's Holiday, Island Parish and The Vicar of Dibley. His score for the HBO film Into the Storm won him the Primetime EMMY award for Original Dramatic Score in 2009. Click for more info ...

Rachael McShane is a cellist, fiddle player and singer based in the North East of England. An original member of folk big band Bellowhead, Rachael has toured internationally with them as well as making several TV appearances, including Later with Jools Holland and the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall. Bellowhead's latest album 'Broadside' went into the official UK album charts at No. 16 (No. 1 in the UK Independent Album Charts) and won 'Best Album' at the BBC Radio 2 folk awards 2013. Click for more info ...

At the age of 18 Ben was a Concerto Finalist in the BBC Young Musician Competition, where he performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. Highlights since then include his debut at the BBC Proms in 2018 (commissioning a new work by David Bruce for four soloists and orchestra), appearances as soloist with the Lucerne Symphony, Britten Sinfonia, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Manchester Camerata, the Prague Philharmonia and Sinfonie Orchester Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. Ben has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, James Gaffigan, Nicholas Collon, Mark Wigglesworth, Kristiina Poska, Radek Baborak , Andrew Gourlay and Jessica Cottis. Click for more info …