15 Female Founders of Classical Music Organisations
Here are some of the women who have forged their own paths within the UK classical music industry by creating their own organisations: agencies, businesses, orchestras and ensembles. If you enjoy our content - cool! Please consider supporting us on Ko-fi, where anyone can gift us with £3, no strings attached. Thank you.
Hannah Fiddy & Hanna Grzeskiewicz
Alternative Classical (founded in 2018)
@Hannah_Fiddy and @HGrzeskiewicz on Twitter
Starting in the obvious place: right here. Creative freelancers Hannah Fiddy and Hanna Grzeskiewciz co-founded Alternative Classical. Despite never living in the same city at the same time, we found ourselves working together on a variety of alternative classical projects in the UK and further afield. Discovering our shared vision for classical music and our complementary skillsets, we set up shop in 2018 and developed into an artist management agency in 2020. In the meantime we’ve created Concert Roulette and Humans of Classical Music, published a monthly events guide, hosted monthly drinks for the classical music industry, written a series of articles and interviewed a host of interesting people. There’s much more to come, so sign up for the mailing list and watch this space!
Kate Whitley
Multi-Story Orchestra (founded in 2011)
Kate Whitley is the co-founder of the Multi-Story Orchestra (the only orchestra based in a car park!), and has been hailed as part of “the most exciting development in classical music for decades, if not centuries” (The Times). The groundbreaking orchestra is made up of outstanding young musicians who share a commitment to widening accessibility to classical music. Performing in car parks across the UK, they attract huge, diverse audiences. Whitley is also a celebrated composer, winning a British Composers Award in 2015. Her piece Speak out, to words by Malala Yousafzai, was commissioned by the BBC for International Women’s Day 2017 in support of the campaign for better education for girls.
Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE
Chineke! Foundation (founded in 2015)
@chichinwanoku on Twitter
Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE is a double bassist and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Chineke! Orchestra, the first professional orchestra and junior orchestra in Europe made up of majority Black & Minority Ethnic musicians. In 2018, BBC Woman’s Hour placed Nwanoku in the top 10 of the world’s most powerful women in music (in which Beyoncé was number 1) and in both 2019 and 2020 she was included in the ‘Powerlist of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People. A huge champion of diversity in the classical music industry, Nwanoku was awarded an OBE for her services to music in 2017. Read our interview with Chi-chi Nwanoku.
Marianna Hay MBE
Orchestras for All (founded in 2011)
Marianna Hay founded Orchestras for All to break down barriers to the life-changing experience of ensemble music-making for 11-18 year olds. The London-based organisation runs the National Orchestra for All, a youth orchestra of 100 musicians facing barriers to music-making, as well as providing training for music teachers and community music leaders to develop their ensemble leadership skills. Hay was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music education in 2020.
SWAP’RA team
SWAP’RA (founded in 2018)
@swap_ra on Twitter
SWAP’RA (Supporting Women and Parents in Opera) has not one but five female co-founders: Sophie Gilpin (stage director), Ella Marchment (director), Anna Patalong (soprano), Madeleine Pierard (soprano) and Kitty Whately (mezzo soprano). The under-representation of women in senior leadership roles is significant. SWAP’RA was established to redress unconscious gender bias and to provide a supportive platform to effect positive change for women and parents in opera.
Katie Manasse
Polyphony Arts (founded in 2018)
@ktmanasse on Twitter
Katie Manasse is the founder of Polyphony Arts, an arts and artist management organisation with a focus on inclusivity, flexibility, and making life and work be the best it can possibly be. The team is fully flexible, allowing employees to have this work as part of their lives in the way that works best for them. Manasse also hosts the Music Works podcast, which looks at how the classical music industry works today and explores how it can work better in the future both for those who work in the music sector and the audiences who support us.
Music in Offices (founded in 2007)
@marchingtessa on Twitter
Tessa Marchington is the Founder of Music in Offices, Co-Founding Director of the Investec International Music Festival, and Artistic Director of the Setúbal Music Festival. She also curates The City Culture Corner at City AM, where she shares news on cultural events in London. Music in Offices uses musical solutions to develop engagement, create thinking, health and wellbeing and employee retainment. Marchington is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and is currently a finalist in the National Business Women’s Awards 2020.
Genevieve Raghu
Into Opera (founded in 2017)
@GenevieveRaghu on Twitter
Stage director Genevieve Raghu founded Into Opera to get more people ‘into’ opera. The Norfolk-based organisation creates unique opera experiences designed to offer imaginative and empowering first encounters of opera for new audiences. During lockdown, Raghu started the How did you get into opera? podcast, talking to professionals from the opera industry about their journeys into the artform, the big choices they have made during their careers and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives, work and creativity.
Kathleen Alder
WildKat PR (founded in 2008)
@KathleenAlder on Twitter
Kathleen Alder is founder and director of WildKat PR, a creative PR agency for music and culture with over 30 clients. Following a near seven-figure investment in 2019, it’s become the only performing arts agency working internationally, with five offices (London, Berlin, Paris, New York and Los Angeles) across two continents. More recently, Alder created post-Kultur.com in Germany, coming soon to Europe and worldwide. She was a finalist in the Arts & Culture Category for Women of the Future Awards 2018 and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Catherine Manners
Manners McDade (founded 2001)
Catherine Manners founded Manners McDade, an independent music publisher and composer agency based in central London. Their roster includes Nils Frahm, Max Cooper, Poppy Ackroyd, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, AVAWAVES and Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres. Manners is a former cellist, a full voting member of BAFTA and in 2017 she was voted onto the Board of the Music Publisher’s Association. She runs an unofficial mentorship programme for young people in the music industry called The Park Walks.
Hannah Fiddy is a creative entrepreneur, developing new audiences for classical music. She has created and promoted numerous concerts outside of traditional spaces, including warehouses, pubs, clubs, museums, hospitals, prisons and even in Primark. Hannah also hosts monthly drinks for the classical music industry and runs a choir in Stoke Newington. Her alter ego is the Founder of London Flashmob, producing quirky events from wedding proposals to cultural pranks for up to 1,000 people.
Follow Hannah on Twitter @Hannah_Fiddy.