Artists Council

Phillipa worked at Britten Pears Arts (formerly Snape Maltings and Aldeburgh Music) from 1999 to 2021. Under her leadership, the Community Department became an award-winning year-round programme, delivering high-quality music projects with an increasingly important contribution to the health and wellbeing agenda. In 2018, Phillipa became Director of the Music Programme, responsible for all music teams at Britten Pears Arts: Artist Development, Community, Performance, Public Engagement and Shared Thinking. She was responsible for programme development and partnership building in order for Britten Pears Arts to be the leading national resource for music, health and wellbeing, bringing together different sectors and professional communities to connect research and practice.

Phillipa studied at Liverpool University and Bath College of Higher Education. After teaching music in a large comprehensive school in Liverpool she went on to work at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Glyndebourne Productions. Until recently, Phillipa sat on the National Centre for Creative Health working group as part of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Arts Health & Wellbeing, and was a member of the Advisory Group for the Cambridge Institute of Music Therapy Research.

She is currently a Trustee of Streetwise Opera and the Sing Up Foundation, an Involvement Champion for The Brain Tumour Charity, a Strategic Advisor for SoundVoice, a member of the Lived Experience Expert Panel for the National Centre for Creative Health, a Lived Experience Reviewer for the Arts & Humanities Research Council and is involved in various voluntary roles within her local community.

Nicola T. Chang is an award-winning composer/sound designer for stage and screen. She was the Composer/Sound Designer on the 2020/21 Old Vic 12 cohort and a current BAFTA Connect Member (Film Composer). She was a co-winner of the Evening Standard Future Theatre Fund (Audio Design) in 2021.

As a performer, she plays Keys 2/Percussion in Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World (UK Tour), and has previously appeared in Six the Musical (West End) as deputy MD/Keys 1 and in STOMP! (West End/World Tour) as a cast-member. She has performed with the Chineke! Orchestra, the Women of the World Orchestra and the London Film Music Orchestra, and at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Festival Hall and the Shakespeare’s Globe.

She currently works with various theatre and dance companies as a composer/musical director, including National Youth Theatre, British Youth Musical Theatre, National Youth Ballet, Rambert and House of Absolute. In 2021, she scored the short film LAID, which won Best Sci-Fi at Cannes Shorts and was an official selection at the New York Film Festival. In January 2019 she premiered her Concerto for Ping Pong and Piano Trio at Queen Elizabeth Hall, which was then performed in Shanghai later in the year. In 2017, she conducted the London Film Music Orchestra playing her original soundtrack to The Perfect Dinner, accompanied by a live screening of the film.

She also works extensively in audio plays and radio dramas. Her work on the “Fully Amplified” Podcast Series for Futures Theatre was awarded Silver at the British Podcast Awards in 2022. She co-created the audio work Mooncake with Isabella Leung as part of 45North’s “Written on the Waves” programme in 2021, and co-created Sonic Phởwith Anna Nguyen in 2022.

Selected theatre credits include: For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Hue Gets Too Heavy (Apollo Theatre/Royal Court/New Diorama), My Neighbour Totoro (RSC/Barbican), Kerry Jackson (National Theatre), Top Girls (Liverpool Everyman), Of the Cut (Young Vic), The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs (Soho Theatre), The Swell(Orange Tree Theatre), Macbeth (Leeds Playhouse), All Mirth and No Matter (RSC), White Pearl (Royal Court), Dziady/Forefather’s Eve (Almeida Theatre), 15 Heroines (Jermyn Street Theatre/Digital Theatre), Miss Julie (Chester Storyhouse), Funeral Flowers (Camden Roundhouse/Hackney Empire/UK Tour), Wild Goose Dreams (Theatre Royal Bath), Little Baby Jesus (Orange Tree Theatre), The King of Hell’s Palace (Hampstead Theatre), The Death of Ophelia (Shakespeare’s Globe), Summer Rolls (Park Theatre), The Tempest (Orange Tree Theatre), No Man’s Land (Square Chapel Halifax) and A Hundred Words for Snow (Arcola Theatre).

Selected film credits include: Mei (Sundance 2022), Baked Beans (2022), Twitching (2022), The Fight in the Dog (2022), The Bicycle (2022), Devi (2022), IRL (2021), LAID(Cannes Shorts: Best Sci-Fi, New York Film Festival 2021), Getting Away with Murder(s) (2021), Seafruit (2020), A Dose of Happiness (2019), Boundaries (2019), You Wouldn’t Adam and Eve It (2019), Postcards from the 48% (2018) and The Perfect Dinner (2017).

Raghad Haddad is a Syrian musician with a degree in music and in English-Arabic translation. She studied viola at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus, graduating with an excellence degree in 2005. She later became a viola teacher in the conservatoire and remained based in Syria until June 2016.

During that time Raghad combined performing and teaching both in Syria and internationally. She was a member of the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra and led the violas in Mary Orchestra for female players. Raghad was a member of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Opera house in Damascus since its establishment in 2012 and performed at the Tucia Opera Festival in Viterbo, Italy (2008). One of the highlights of her career was being part of the West-Eastern Divan orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

In June 2016 Raghad travelled with the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians with Damon Albarn on a European Tour – their final destination was the UK. This was during the escalating war in Syria and in order to seek a safer place, Raghad chose to stay in the UK and rebuild her life and career.

Raghad now works in her adopted country performing, teaching and translating. She plays with the Musicians of All Saints in Brighton and Lewes and with the London Syrian Ensemble, a group of Syrian professional musicians performing traditional and classical Eastern music.

In March 2018, Raghad performed the Bruch Concerto for clarinet, viola and orchestra with the London Phoenix Orchestra conducted by Lev Parikian in St John’s Smith Square. In November 2021 Raghad gave the first performance of Music of Exile for viola and thirteen solo strings by Peter Copley in Lewes with the Musicians of All Saints, conducted by Andrew Sherwood. Funded by Arts Council England, this work was composed for her, and combined Arabic folk scales with Western European music traditions. In March 2022, Raghad performed this piece with the Brighton Youth Ensemble and with the London Phoenix Orchestra conducted by Lev Parikian in St John’s Smith Square in October 2022.

Raghad also collaborates with the songwriter Sam Slutcher who runs a project for the City of Sanctuary, producing an album ‘Stories of Sanctuary’ in November 2018. She is also a member of OWO (One World Orchestra).

Raghad is an experienced community musician, particularly with supporting SEND children and children and young people who have also experienced war and displacement. This has involved working with Surrey Arts for Up Orchestra (lead tutor) and I Speak Music (musical director); Sinfonia Viva ‘Destinies’ project (creative practitioner); Fantastic Journeys CiC (music leader); Stories of Sanctuary (music facilitator); Cloud Cuckoo Land Theatre (Music facilitator).

Raghad won the Youth Music Award in 2022 as the inspirational music leader.

Click here for a demonstration of Raghad’s work for Surrey Arts as a Musical Director. Walk with Me was a music project that started in Surrey and grew into a global participation project during the first Covid lockdown.

Prof Nathan Holder is an award winning author, international speaker, musician and education consultant. With over a decade of experience, Nate has been advocating for inclusive and diverse music education globally through speaking engagements, writing, and consultancy.

As an experienced public speaker, Nate has led numerous CPD training, workshops and lectures for schools, universities, and hubs to tackle issues including pedagogy and critical perspectives in music classrooms, departments, and boards. His collaborations include working with top artists such as Ghetts, KOKOROKO and Arkells, as well as with leading companies and organizations like BBC, Hal Leonard Europe, Oxford University Press and Harper Collins.

Nate’s contributions extend beyond his consulting work. He serves on the board for F-flat books (US), Music Teacher Magazine, and is a member of the Advisory Group to the Africa APPG’s Inquiry into Africa in the UK Curricula. Currently, he holds the position of Professor and International Chair of Music Education at the Royal Northern College of Music.

As an author, Nate has written nine books, including ‘I Wish I Didn’t Quit: Music Lessons’ (2018), ‘Where Are All The Black Female Composers’ (2020), and the award-winning ‘Listen and Celebrate’ (2023). His work aims to inspire and empower learners and educators to embrace inclusive and diverse music education.

Anahi began her professional career at the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra after completing her degree in Music Education at the University of São Paulo. Her passion for exploring the intersection of music and other disciplines led her to Italy, where she pursued a specialisation in the relationship between music and mathematics as a tool for innovative music teaching methodologies.

In 2010, she completed her master’s degree with a dissertation focused on the music learning processes of children with Down syndrome. Her commitment to breaking down barriers in music participation culminated in a PhD from the University of Leeds in 2021, where she critically examined the effectiveness of education and outreach programmes in allowing or inhibiting participation in classical music and opera.

Her professional journey includes collaborations with prominent cultural organisations such as the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, the National Foundation for the Arts under the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. These roles have equipped her with deep insights into the complexities of implementing participatory music projects in diverse socio-economic environments, as well as a broad understanding of public policies impacting the arts.

Anahi is thrilled to join the City of London Artist Council and to contribute her expertise to support the organisation’s mission, and looks forward to collaborating with colleagues to enhance the organisation’s commitment to inclusivity and its creative vision.

Dr Sita Thomas is a Welsh-Indian cultural leader and creator based in Cardiff. She is Artistic Director and CEO of Fio, a theatre company that focuses on creating work with Welsh Global Majority creatives and participants. She is Creative Associate at Wales Millennium Centre and Associate Artist at National Youth Theatre.

​Sita holds a PhD from the University of Warwick and a Masters in Movement Direction from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, both funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council. She is a trustee of Emergency Exit Arts and Young Vic, and is part of the advisory groups for Refugee Week and Movement Directors’ Association. Sita is also a presenter of Channel 5’s milkshake!

​Directing credits include: The House of Jollof Opera, a pop up food hip-hopera experience for Fio and Music Theatre Wales, The Shoemaker, an immersive opera co-created with refugees and asylum seekers in Wales for Welsh National Opera, Oasis Cardiff and Fio; Coventry Embraces, a large-scale site-specific production as part of Good Chance’s The Walk with Little Amal; Go Tell The Bees, a feature film about Pembrokeshire for National Theatre Wales; Press Play Here, short films for Theatre Royal Stratford East; Under The Mask, a binaural audio drama about the NHS for Tamasha and Oxford Playhouse. As assistant, associate and staff director, Sita has worked at National Theatre, Royal Court, Theatre Royal Stratford East and Royal Festival Hall. Sita was previously Co-Artistic Director (maternity cover) of Common Wealth theatre. Sita was a Headlong Origins Director 2022, and was part of the National Theatre Director’s Course 2022 and Royal Opera House Jette Parker Director’s Course 2021. She was a recipient of an MGCfutures award in 2019.

​Movement directing credits include: Brown Boys Swim by Karim Khan (The North Wall, Soho Theatre); The Glee Club (Stockroom, Cast, Kiln); Much Ado About Nothing, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin (Watford Palace).

​Sita is particularly passionate about supporting the development of the next generation of creatives from the Global Majority. She leads artist development programmes including ‘Arise – Wales Creates’, a partnership between Fio and Wales Millennium Centre that pays ten producers and ten directors from underrepresented backgrounds to increase their skills, networks and confidence, and Tamasha Directors’ Programme.

Matthew Kofi Waldren is a conductor of mixed British and Ghanaian ancestry, renowned for his detailed, responsive and collaborative approach to music-making. ENO Mackerras Fellow (2016-18) and nominated at the International Opera Awards (2017), he is recognised for an innate sense of theatre, equally at home in the concert hall, recording studio and theatre pit, even recording the soundtrack to London’s new Elizabeth Line.

Recent engagements include Ainadamar and the acclaimed world premiere of Will Todd’s Migrations (WNO), the British premiere of award-winning American opera Blue and Olivier nominated Paul Bunyan (ENO), a semi-staged concert tour of The Pearlfishers (Opera North), concerts with the LPO, WNO Orchestra, the CBSO and CBSO Chorus, concerts and recordings with Chineke! Orchestra – including a disc of Grant Still’s Symphony No.1 and Price’s Symphony No. 3, a new orchestration of Jonathan Dove’s Flight and Les mamelles de Tirésias (RCS Opera), L’elisir d’amore (West Green House), Opera Holland Park’s La traviata, Pelléas et Mélisande (Scottish Opera), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Opera Linbury, Signum Classic, OHP).

Described by The Sunday Times as ‘one of the most adept and dynamic young British Verdians’, Matthew Kofi has conducted highly acclaimed readings of Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, La rondine, La bohème, Gianni Schicchi, Zanetto, Il barbiere di Siviglia (also Lakmé, Les pêcheurs de perles and Fantastic Mr Fox) for Opera Holland Park, La bohème, Don Giovanni, La petite bohème (Opera North), Le nozze di Figaro (English National Opera), La cenerentola (West Green House) and Gianni Schicchi (RCS).