Our Governors
As a registered charity the Elgar School of Music is governed by a Board of Trustees who are responsible for ensuring that the organisation is run properly and within the law. Complimenting the Board of Trustees are additional people that bring their unique expertise and skills in the running of the school. Together these people make up the Board of Governors.
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The Head of School reports to the Governors on a regular basis and ensures that the information flows both to and from the Board appropriately.
Peter Sheeran
Chairman of the Board
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CEO of the English Symphony Orchestra until August 2016, joint Head of the Elgar School of Music 2007-2014. Currently manages the Worcestershire Music Library on behalf of the Elgar School of Music.
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Outside interests include setting up a website (www.swigatha.com) and writing a blog (www.swigatha.blog) dedicated to the work of Agatha Christie.
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John Brierley
Trustee
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John has a strong business background as well as being an accomplish organist, musical director, and teacher.​​​​​
David Best
Trustee
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David was a Senior Consulting Partner in Deloitte in London, and was also partner in charge of consulting in Manchester and Leeds Offices. He was a Board Adviser to AngloAmerican plc, Director of Digital, Methods and Technology at the Office for National Statistics and Director of Analysis and Insight at UCAS. Musically, David has played classical double bass from the age of thirteen and has played continuously for more than 60 years. He taught Bass at both Malvern College, Malvern Girls School, Worcester Royal Grammar School and Repton School.
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He studied with Leroy Cowie, then Principal Bass of the CBSO, and with Rodney Slatford OBE, founding Bass Player of the Nash Ensemble and Professor at the Royal Academy. He has played as principal bass with amateur and semi-professional orchestras in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Worcester, and London and widely across the West and East Midlands. He studied conducting under Maurice Miles conducting a string orchestra at Aston University, and across the West Midlands with the Dorian Chamber Orchestra. He was founding Chair of the Board of what is now Sinfonia Viva from 1982-1992. He founded The Beauchamp Chamber Orchestra in 2024.
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Majory Bissett
Trustee
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Marjory Bisset has been involved in amateur music-making since she was seven. She plays the violin and the viola de gamba, regular attending sessions at the Elgar School of Music, and sings in local choirs. Marjory had a successful career in the IT industry, first as a software developer and then as a technical author and manager, ending with a period of freelance editing and proof-reading. She moved to Worcester late in 2014. During the years that have elapsed since then, much of her focus has been on local politics. She has made a major contribution to the success of Worcester Green Party (from two city councillors to twelve), and sat on Worcester City Council for five​​​​​
years. During her final year she was joint leader of the council. She represented the council on bodies ranging from the Worcester Arts Council to the University of Worcester. She is currently a trustee of the English Symphony Orchestra and the Elgar School of Music.
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Susan Humes
Trustee
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Originally from Northern Ireland, Susan has been with the Worcester Family Law Practice since 2010 as an Associate Solicitor and purchased the company with Marisa Hackett in October 2015.
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She is a gold patron of Worcester Live, a trustee of the Elgar School of Music, Worcester Municipal Charities, and Kinship Carers UK, as well as being on the board of Asha, a women's centre for vulnerable women in Worcestershire.
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Ian Venables
Trustee
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Ian Venables is a British composer of art songs and chamber music. He studied music with Professor Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with Andrew Downes, John Mayer and John Joubert at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music. He has lived in Worcester since 1986.
His compositions encompass many genres, and in particular he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as ’Britain’s greatest living composer of art songs’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘…a song composer as
fine as Finzi and Gurney…’ (BBC Music Magazine), he has written over 80 works in this genre, which includes eleven song-cycles. His many chamber works include a Piano Quintet Op.27 (1995) and a String Quartet Op.32 (1998) as well as smaller pieces for solo instruments and piano. He has also written works for choir, organ, brass and solo piano.
He is an acknowledged expert on the 19th century poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, and apart from having set five of his poems for voice and piano, he has contributed a significant essay to the book John Addington Symonds – Culture and the Demon Desire (Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000).
He is President of The Arthur Bliss Society, a Vice-President of the Gloucester Music Society, Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society. His continuing work on the music of Ivor Gurney has led to orchestrations of two of his songs (2003) – counterparts to the two that were orchestrated by Herbert Howells – and newly edited versions of Gurney’s War Elegy (1919) and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody (1921), with Dr Philip Lancaster.
His music is broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and he is a regular guest on ‘In Tune’ Ian Venables’ music has been recorded on SOMM, SIGNUM, REGENT, NAXOS, EM RECORDS, DELPHIAN and is published by Novello (Wise Music Group)
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Andrew Willetts
Trustee
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Andrew Willetts is a Chartered Accountant who has had a career in senior finance and management roles in the healthcare, retail, wholesale and charity sectors.
He is also a Trustee of the Chatham Maritime Trust, a charity which manages and maintains the regenerated area of the old Royal Naval Dockyard in Kent.
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Andrew is married with two boys, both now at university. He enjoys walking in the Malvern Hills where he lives, and also history, theatre and watching football.
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Katie Dixon
Trustee
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John Everard
Trustee
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Alan Walker
Trustee
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