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MICHAEL A J SALTER FCA - CHAIRMAN
Mike Salter has recently retired as Chairman of Celtic Inns Limited. Prior to this appointment, he was group Managing Director of SA Brain & Co. Ltd and Crown Buckley Ltd. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and until these latter appointments acted as Finance Director of a number of large public companies.
Mike was a Board member of Arts & Business Cymru for 17 years (12 years as Chairman) he has also served on the advisory board of St. David’s Hall, on the Council of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales and in the past was on the Board of both the Diversions Dance Company and Music Theatre Wales. |
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HELENA BRAITHWAITE MBE
A former principal cellist with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, Helena graduated from University College, Cardiff, with an MA degree specialising in 20th Century Music. She has been a secondary Head of Music and lectured in Music Education at Cardiff University from 1972 to 1979. Helena was Music Adviser to South Glamorgan County Council from 1979 to 1993, winning many national awards from the Association of LEAs and County Councils for the best provision for music in Britain.
From 1993 to 1998, as the first Education Officer for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, she organised and led projects using Welsh composers and BBC NOW players in schools and communities throughout Wales. She lectured on a part-time basis at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and in 2000 was made a Fellow of the College. As founder and Musical Director of the South Glamorgan Youth Choir and Cardiff Ardwyn Singers, she has conducted in Eastern and Western Europe, Japan, Malta, South Africa, the West Indies, Canada and the USA.
Helena’s choirs have been extremely successful in major competitions. The Ardwyn Singers have won the mixed choir competitions at the Llangollen and Cork International Festivals while the Youth Choir won the Choir of the Year Award at the National Youth Choral competition at the Festival Hall in London and the Youth Choir prize at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod.
In 1994, Helena received the John Edwards Memorial Award from the Guild for the Promotion of Welsh Music for Outstanding Contribution to Welsh Music and Music Education. She was awarded the MBE in 1998 for services to Welsh Music. |
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LUCY STOUT
Lucy Stout is a professional arts fundraiser with over 25 years experience and track record, creating and leading sustainable Development operations to support artistic growth for a number of major arts organisations. She is currently Head of Development for Wales ’ international contemporary arts initiative, Artes Mundi.
Prior to this she ran the Development Department of the Royal National Theatre in London and was Director of Development for Welsh National Opera, establishing the Department and leading the fundraising team thirteen years. |
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Brian Peeling CBE
Brian Peeling, a retired Consultant Surgeon, is a great supporter of the Arts, especially in his home town of Newport and is Vice-Chairman of the Newport International Piano Competition. Throughout his professional life, he has maintained an active interest in piano and chamber music and recently has promoted regular concerts at St. Woolos Cathedral in Newport with a particular emphasis on opportunities for students and younger musicians. Some of these have been in association with the Newport Music Support Group for Schools and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. Until recently, he was Chairman of St. David’s Foundation for Hospicecare. |
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DAFYDD BOWEN LEWIS
Dafydd Bowen Lewis was Founder Chairman of Centre Cymru Ltd. Past public service includes Chairman of ‘10 Top Attractions of North Wales’ (PR and Marketing) and member of Prince of Wales Design Council and Welsh Craft Council.
Dafydd was formerly Vice Chair of the Arts Council of Wales, Board Member at the Wales Millennium Centre, a Council Trustee of the National Museum and Galleries of Wales and Chair of the Museum Enterprises |
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GAYE WILLIAMS
Gaye Williams came to Wales as a student at Welsh College of Music and Drama. During the 1980s she worked in public relations, media and the hospitality industry, spending several years in arts administration and planning at St David’s Hall. From 1991-98 she ran the conference department at Cardiff Marketing, where she was responsible for marketing Wales’ capital city as a conference destination to the business tourism market.
She worked extensively with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and other Government agencies on the Cardiff European Council of Ministers. In 1998 she joined RF Hotels to help launch St David’s Hotel and Spa in Cardiff Bay. Gaye served on the Management Committee of BACD, the UK conference trade association; and represented Cardiff and St David’s Hall internationally with the WTB, BTA and within ICCA. Since moving to Fishguard in 2003, Gaye has been elected to the Board of Pembrokeshire Tourism and become involved with music and other arts organizations in West Wales and is Trustee of the Lower Machen Festival. |
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ROY J. THOMAS
Roy has many interests in Wales and having been a lawyer for twenty years in London and Cardiff formed the Public Trust Partnership which works on corporate, public and government affairs on environment and property projects. He is Chairman of The Kidney Wales Foundation and was appointed recently to Chair the Donate Wales Campaign for organ donation in 2008.
He chairs the Wales North America Business Chamber and sits on many boards including Cardiff Business Club and the marketing and investment agency Cardiff & Co. He is a founder Member of the Industry and National Assembly for Wales Group (est. 2000).He has been a Trustee of Sinfonia Cymru for some years. |
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GERAINT LEWIS
Born in Cardiff in 1958 Geraint Lewis was a student at the Junior School of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and later went on to read Music at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He works as a composer, writer, lecturer and broadcaster and is currently completing a PhD study on the music of William Mathias. In a varied career he has lectured in Music at Bangor University (1980-87), been a record producer and music director at Nimbus Records and Concert Hall (1988-2002), Music Chairman and Member of The Arts Council of Wales (1992-2003) and Artistic Director of the North Wales International Music Festival (1992-2004). He is a committee member of Arts and Business Cymru, Live Music Now and a trustee of Music Theatre Wales.
In 1999 he was commissioned to write the music for Welsh National Opera to sing when Her Majesty The Queen opened The National Assembly for Wales, and in 2003 the Swansea Festival commissioned his Dylan Thomas tribute ‘Nearly in Heaven’ for the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Only Men Aloud. In July 2009-10 he is working on piano music for Llyr Williams and Iwan Llewelyn-Jones and a Harp concerto for Catrin Finch. |
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SOPHIE LEWIS (General Manager)
Sophie has worked in Arts Management for 13 years. Having worked at English National Opera and the Arts Council of England in London, she moved to Wales in 1998 to join Welsh National Opera primarily as Assistant Orchestra and Concerts Manager and latterly as Orchestra Manager until 2004. Sophie joined Sinfonia Cymru as Orchestra Manager in 2006 having taken time out to look after her daughter.
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