Our people
Our work is carried out by a small and talented in-house team bringing together a diverse range of professional and musical experience.
We are supported in our work by our Trustees and Advisory Board and by our Patrons, between them all providing a wonderful pool of knowledge for us to call on.
Our Founding Chairman – Sir Roger Gifford
Sir Roger Gifford, banker and champion of green finance, Lord Mayor of London 2012-13, accomplished amateur musician and tireless supporter of music and musicians, died aged 65 in May 2021 from multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. He leaves a great legacy – in climate-linked financial services, and in the world of music.
When Roger was preparing for his year as Lord Mayor, he and his wife Clare, who met singing in the Holst singers in the world premiere of Tavener’s Veil of the Temple, wanted their Lord Mayor’s Appeal to support a musical charity – and ended up founding City Music Foundation to fulfil their vision. CMF’s mission, ‘turning talent into success’, was in part realised through combining two strands of the City’s greatest areas of excellence – culture and finance – providing mentoring in the business of music for emerging artists.
More about Sir Roger
In demand for his great skills as a chairman and moderator Roger was chair of the English Chamber Orchestra from 2001 and of Tenebrae Choir from 2010. More recently he chaired the City of London’s Green Finance Initiative and was founding chairman of the Green Finance Institute. The GFI said, “His contribution to the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss, and advancing green finance in the UK was enormous.”
Roger was born in St Andrews, Scotland, and educated at Trinity College, Oxford. After starting his career at SG Warburg he moved to the Swedish bank SEB where he remained for over 30 years until his death. SEB’s chief executive said, “With his winning personality and great depth of knowledge he was immensely important in… establishing SEB’s position as the leading Nordic bank in London.” He served as Alderman of Cordwainer Ward, trustee of St Paul’s Cathedral Foundation, past master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and also the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, governor of Sedbergh School, honorary fellow of Trinity College Oxford and honorary consul of the Republic of Lithuania in the county of Dorset. Roger was knighted in 2014 for services to international business, culture and the City.
Roger is greatly missed, but his energy, vision and sense of fun will remain with all the people whose lives he touched.
Our team
Dr Clare Taylor
CEO
Clare is a co-founder of CMF (along with Sir Roger Gifford) and has been a Trustee since the beginning, before taking the helm in 2015.
More about Clare
Clare trained as a doctor at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and spent time in laboratory research obtaining a PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund before going on to become a consultant haematologist and a Fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pathologists. Before deciding on a career break to support Roger in his role in the City, Clare was a medical director with the UK blood services, and a consultant to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, as well as holding an international role in Haemovigilance.
Alongside her medical career, Clare has been immersed in music all her life having musical parents and musical children. She sang with the choir of St Bartholomew the Great for many years, and with the Tallis Chamber Choir, as well as Collegium Musicum for whom she was a soloist in St John’s Smith Square. In 2000 she was a founder member and then a trustee of the Choir of the 21st Century. She has sung under the baton of many conductors including Thomas Adès, Steuart Bedford, Martyn Brabbins, Hilary Davan Wetton, Mark Elder, John Gardner, Roy Goodman, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Richard Hickox, Neeme Jarvi, Stephen Layton, John Lubbock, Charles Mackerras, Roger Norrington, Andrew Parrott, Jeffrey Tate, and Guy Woolfenden.
Clare is also a director of Ludlow Song and a trustee of Two Moors Festival. She is a liveryman of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. Clare has hugely enjoyed the opportunity to make this career change from medicine to music.
Fleur Chaffé
Communications & Events Manager
Fleur is City Music Foundation’s Communications & Events Manager.
Milly March
Social Media Manager
Milly joined the team in September 2022 as the Communications & Events Manager on a freelance basis.
More about Milly
Milly was born in Portsmouth, UK and raised in Stavanger, Norway. She read Creative Music Technology at the University of Surrey, where her biggest regret was not auditioning for the University Challenge team.
For over 5 years, Milly worked at Britten Sinfonia, where she worked her way up to the role of Marketing Manager. In 2022 Milly decided to embark on a freelance career in arts marketing. Milly’s clients have included NW Live Arts, Newbury Spring Festival, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Cambridge Live, Academy of Ancient Music, Rebecca Yates London and Kings Lynn Festival.
When not in her natural habitat of Glastonbury Festival, she can be found knitting, playing video games or taking photos on her DSLR camera.
Daniel Gethin
Programme Manager
Daniel joined the team as Assistant to the Managing Director, combining his writing and research work for City Music Foundation with a career as a freelance countertenor.
More about Daniel
After reading English at university, he embarked on a career as a musician, singing first at New College, Oxford as a lay clerk before moving to London, where he sings with St Paul’s Cathedral, Temple Church and the Brompton Oratory. He has worked with vocal ensembles such as EXAUDI, Ex Cathedra and Oxford Bach Soloists, and has sung for conductors including David Skinner, Laurence Cummings and Eamonn Dougan. He is a member of Vox Medicea, an ensemble founded by the Medici Archive Project which seeks to revive Florentine Polyphony during the era of the Medici family, singing from part-books.
He has also worked for the charity Pimlico Musical Foundation as a Teacher-Singer since its conception in 2018, combining his love for singing and education. In his spare time, he is a keen golfer, failing to improve year on year.
Trustees
Peter Tompkins
Actuary Peter works on overseas pension plan design in developing countries in association with Callund Consulting.
More about Peter
Peter became founder editor of The Actuary magazine from 1990 and chairs its Advisory Panel to this day.
He is a past chairman of the Pensions Board, chair of the Awards Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
He is a trustee and committee member of a number of charities and Renter Warden of the Wax Chandlers Livery Company.
He is a qualified City of London Guide, a hobby beekeeper and former Chairman of the Society of Young Freemen of the City of London.
He is also a trustee of the New Music Players, which exists to promote the performance of contemporary serious music and I serve on the Finance and Investment Committee of the Children’s Society.
Peter is the compiler of The Tompkins Table of college rankings at Cambridge.
Kate Gee
Kate Gee is a Psychologist and Research Fellow in Performance Science at the Royal College of Music (RCM) and an honorary Research Fellow at Imperial College London.
More about Kate
She has worked on the £1m AHRC funded HEartS project, exploring the impact of the arts and culture on health and wellbeing, from individual, social, and economic perspectives. She also taught Arts and Health and Research Methods and Ethics courses at the RCM.
Between 2013 – 2018 Kate spent five years as a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, where she established the first cross-faculty undergraduate course in music psychology, whilst teaching research methods and postgraduate courses on critical perspectives on mental health and wellbeing. She also became program director for the UKs first part-time Psychology Conversion Course. Kate has supervised numerous PhD and MSc students.
Prior to lecturing she undertook postdoctoral research with the Sheffield Performer and Audience Research Centre, as well as working for the Sheffield Cognitive and Neuroimaging Laboratory within Academic Clinical Psychiatry.
Kate trained as a psychologist at the University of Sheffield, completing a BSc (2003), MSc in research methods (2005), and PhD in social psychology and music (2010). Kate’s PhD research was carried out under the tutelage of Prof Chris Spencer and Prof Stephanie Pitts, examining musical identities and portfolio careers in artists.
Her current research focusses on music-making, musicians’ careers (the nature of portfolio working), and wellbeing (particularly performance anxiety and perfectionism). She uses applied methodologies and lifespan, career, and social identity frameworks to understand musicians’ lives and work. She was a previous trustee for the British Association for Music Therapy.
Stephen Kirk
Stephen is a seasoned CEO who has built several successful tech-based businesses.
More about Stephen
A seasoned CEO who has built several successful tech-based businesses, Stephen now specialises in board-level leadership where he can apply his knowledge to the application of technology, especially in addressing the challenges of climate change. Stephen acts as an advisor and Non-Executive Director to a number of companies; as well as being a Trustee of RoSPA (The Royal Society for the prevention of Accidents). He has been actively involved in the life of the City of London for many years and is a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights, a City Livery Company. He enjoys listening to all kinds of music and is passionate about supporting young people to make the best of their talents. Stephen lives in Hampshire and enjoys outdoor sports including golf, and skiing.
Advisory Board
Sir Mark Boleat, Former Chairman of Policy for the City of London
Susan Blum, Management Consultant, individual and team coach and workplace mediator
Paul Max Edlin, Composer, Artistic Director of Deal Festival and former Director of Music at QMUL
Wim Hautekiet, Board Member of Quantessence Limited
Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE, Former Managing Director, Barbican Centre
Alastair King, Founder and Chairman of Naisbitt King Asset Management Limited (NKAML) and Alderman for the Ward of Queenhithe
Dame Kathryn McDowell DBE DL, Managing Director, London Symphony Orchestra
William Palin, CEO, Barts Heritage
Sir Andrew Parmley
Seb Scotney, Editor, London Jazz News
Adrian Waddingham CBE, Former Partner, Barnett Waddingham
Patrons
City Music Foundation is very happy to have wonderful patrons who understand our mission, and why it is so essential, and help us to support outstanding musical talent.
