‘IT’S INSPIRING THAT A PLACE LIKE THIS CAN EXIST’
EVAN CHRISTOPHER
BLACK VOICES
DEBASHISH
BHATTACHARYA
FRIGG
ACADEMY OF
ST MARTIN IN
THE FIELDS
LARRY
“STONEPHACE”
STABBINS
BOARD RECRUITMENT PACK
-2016-
BRADFORD ROOTS
MUSIC FESTIVAL
Board Member Recruitment
June 2016
Introduction
For the last 18 years, Wiltshire Music Centre has been providing outstanding programmes of live
professional concerts across classical, folk, jazz and world music as well as an international quality venue for
young people to rehearse and perform music.
The Centre attracts international performers such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, violinist
Nicola Benedetti, jazz singers Jacqui Dankworth and Stacey Kent, guitarist John Williams, folk artist Kathryn
Tickell, tenor Mark Padmore, pianist Stephen Osborne and jazz legend Courtney Pine. The artistic
programme presents approximately 100 concerts a year, involving more than 1,000 professional, community
and young musicians. We showcase young talent from school children to young professional artists and
welcome the very best musicians from across the globe.
The Centre offers residencies and programmes to support outstanding young artists and those early in their
careers who have reached the required level of excellence to achieve their ambitions. We give these young
artists opportunities to work with young people and be inspired by their interest and support to stretch their
own talent.
The Centre also provides a permanent home for a range of local orchestras, choirs and other music groups
and works extensively with local schools. Over 800 local young musicians rehearse here weekly, and
regularly perform to packed, receptive audiences. Our facilities include practice and teaching spaces, digital
labs for composition and listening, and instrument storage.
Since we were founded 18 years ago, the Centre has built an enviable reputation as a professional concert
hall of exceptional quality rooted in community participation and involvement.
...From the very outset in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings, the brightly resonant
acoustic of the Wiltshire Music Centre's auditorium highlighted the ASMF's discipline and
vibrancy...
The Guardian (Academy of St Martin in the Fields concert)
...Having the opportunity to play in such a wonderful venue from the beginning of our
professional career has been very important because it has given us invaluable experience of
playing in a fantastic concert hall...
Doric String Quartet
‘Every county should have one’
Wiltshire and Swindon Youth Orchestra Director
...One of the best models of arts participatory practice for people with learning disabilities in the
country and that is down to the quality of the artists involved and the tailored, informed support
of the Centre in making it happen...
Zone Club, Independent Evaluator
The inspirational people who thought up, built and developed the Centre created a sustainable business
based on earning 53% of total income from ticket sales and lettings, 29% from fundraising and 18% from
Arts Council England (as a National Portfolio Organisation) and local authorities. The Centre is a registered
charity (1026160) governed by a Board of Trustee Directors, managed by an Executive and Artistic
management team, and supported by a small team of 9.5 full-time equivalent professional staff and over 100
dedicated volunteers.
Concert Programme
The Centre was founded on a commitment to nurture musical ability and interest, regardless of age or
background. We provide the opportunity for people who may never have heard live music like this before to
experience the inspirational power of music.
We welcome over 60,000 people to the Centre every year, which includes a mixture of people from all walks
of life, background, ages and abilities. Our pricing policy means that we are accessible for everyone. Our
popular family concerts programme provides a much needed service through giving thousands of children,
young people and their families, many of whom live in rural isolation and/or are on low income, the
opportunity to attend concerts at an affordable price, to participate in and enjoy a wide variety of music.
We are founder members of the Wiltshire Music Hub and the next stage of our development will see an
extended Creative Learning programme of outreach activity including young curators and promoters
projects. This aims to embed our educational outreach work much more closely with the main concert
programmes through projects such as residencies and artist master-classes.
In 2013 the Centre went through a major change with the retirement of the founding Artistic Director and
recruitment of his replacement, James Slater. This marks the start of a new stage in the development of the
Centre based on expanding different areas of programming and achieving the closer integration of the
artistic and creative learning programmes.
The concert programme will continue to offer a broad mix of classical, jazz, folk and world music. We will
maintain our relationship with numerous world class international artists and ensembles, including Mark
Padmore, Steven Osborne, the Doric String Quartet, Schubert Ensemble, the Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment, and the Britten Sinfonia, whilst developing new relationships with other leading artists and
ensembles including Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque and English Touring Opera.
Nurturing young talent and forming ongoing relationships with artists at the start of their careers is an
extremely important part of our work. The Young Artist programme will continue to support around 12
performances per year and will offer two week-long residencies, involvement in school workshops through
the Wider Opportunities scheme, and lunchtime concerts devoted to young artists (e.g. Berkeley Ensemble,
Michael Petrov and Alexandra Deriescu).
Creative Learning Programme
Our key priority now is to focus on audience refreshment and development so that we can continue to offer a
high quality programme to our core audience whilst introducing new artists and formats, and providing ways
for new audience members and young people in particular to engage for the first time.
During 2013 we undertook a review of our Creative Learning outreach work with a view to refocussing it on
better integration with the core artistic programme. The result of this work is a three-year development plan
for this area of work covering the following areas:
Talent development : a Young Curators Programme leads to a series of events for and by young people.
We manage the West of England Youth Orchestra and the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra. We provide
masterclasses by professional musicians and we have a Young Artist development programme for
professional artists at the beginning of their careers offering residency and performance opportunities.
Schools Programme: we undertake workshop projects in schools with professional musicians; we run a
small schools festival involving rural primary schools with limited musical teaching expertise of the staff; we
work with partners such as the OAE and WOMAD to provide significant project opportunities for schools; we
are piloting digital delivery of teaching to remote rural primary schools.
Special Educational Needs Programme: we will continue to develop our existing Special Schools Music
Festival – developed through additional activity for the students through the year both in the form of WMC
visits and concerts and additional musician sessions in the schools. Zone Club – our monthly club for adults
with learning difficulties will be developed through visits to gigs at other venues (following a successful pilot
in 2013) and further connection for participants between clubs through their own protected website
Family Programme: We programme three concerts each season aimed at a family audience; we undertake
projects such as a two-year performance-based project from Spitalfields Music with Strategic Touring
support from Arts Council England. The project has CPD funding attached that could embed work & provide
a base from which to work following the initial programme. We deliver a Science and
Music Fair to encourage interest in science and music and the connections between them for primary school
pupils.
Role of Board Members
We have an active and engaged voluntary and non-executive Board led by a Chair with 10 other members
and we are looking to recruit a new Chair to take office in Autumn 2016.
We are seeking an inspirational Chair to work closely with the Executive Director and Artistic Director to lead
the organisation through its next stage of development. The Chair must have a strong interest in the arts
(not necessarily music) and be committed to the objectives of Wiltshire Music Centre. Ideally the Chair
should be well networked in the local and regional area and have a strong interest in supporting the profile
raising and fundraising activities of the Centre. In particular the Chair must be able to:





Harness the skills and experience of the Board to the benefit of WMC and chair four Board meetings
a year, generally held at the Centre.
Shape the strategic direction of the organisation and take a leadership role in the development and
implementation of the business plan.
Line-manage the Executive Director and act as a sounding board and guide to support them in their
role in leading the staff team.
Ensure appropriate governance and lead the Board in carrying out its legal, financial, employment
and other responsibilities
Act as an ambassador for the Centre and bring a range of high level contacts and networks in
supporting the work and profile of WMC
Board Trustee Duties
The Chair (and all the Board Trustees) must be willing to:









Attend and contribute to 4 Board meetings each year, normally held at the Music Centre in Bradford
on Avon and currently on Friday afternoons.
Support the staff within their particular area of expertise
Support the artistic policy objectives of the Centre, with specialist knowledge if appropriate
Understand the legal and financial responsibilities of Board members
Understand the Centre’s financial accounts and other management tools
Act as an ambassador for the Centre
Maintain and use personal knowledge of the corporate and individual networks in the Centre’s
catchment area and wider region
Use professional business and / or arts networks to the benefit of the Centre
Participate in the Board Development Programme and undertake training if required .
Essential skills, experience and qualities
The Chair (and all the Board Trustees) must:
 Have at least three years’ experience working at senior management or partner level in an
organisation or at least three years professional experience of arts fundraising or marketing at a
significant level as a senior manager or consultant, or other relevant professional arts experience or
at least three years relevant experience as a professional arts practitioner
 Demonstrate a close empathy with the aims and objectives of the Wiltshire Music Centre
 Have an active interest in and commitment to live music of all genres
 Have the ability to think and plan strategically and a commitment to the successful delivery of the
Trust’s Business Plan
 Be a team player with excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills, comfortable in
appearing in a wide range of public forums
 Have leadership and visionary skills that complement the Executive Director and Artistic Director’s
skills
 Provide access to a range of people of means and influence in areas relevant to the Trust and the
willingness to use these networks to advocate for and promote the interests of the Trust
How to apply
If you would like to have an informal, confidential conversation with Harriet Feilding (Vice Chair) or Clare
Jack (Executive Director), please call Clare on 01225 860110 to arrange this. If you would like additional
information such as audited accounts, recent brochures and annual reviews please request these by
telephone or email info@wiltshiremusic.org.uk giving your postal address.
Application is by CV and a supporting statement outlining the reasons for your interest in the post and why
you believe yourself to be suitable. Please include full contact details including daytime and evening
telephone numbers.
Please send your application by email to clare.jack@wilthsiremusic.org.uk or by post to Clare Jack, Wiltshire
Music Centre, Ashley Road, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, BA15 1DZ attaching the equal opportunities
monitoring form included in this pack. The deadline for receipt of applications is 14 March 2016. Shortlisted
applicants will be invited for interview in the week commencing 11 April 2016.
Equal Opportunities
Wiltshire Music Centre is committed to promoting equality of opportunity and inclusion across the
organisation’s work. To achieve this, the organisation understands and approaches diversity in its broadest
and inclusive sense. This includes differences defined by social and cultural categories including gender,
religion, sexual orientation, disability, ‘race’ and age.
The organisation further acknowledges differences that cut across social and cultural categories but are
equally significant to equality of opportunity and inclusion such as health, education, economic and
material disadvantage.
Equal Opportunities and Diversity monitoring form (2 pages) – please return with your application
Recruitment and selection procedures are monitored to ensure that individuals are selected on merit and
that there is no unfair treatment. This data is collected solely for equality monitoring and will not be used
as part of the selection process.
Your reply will be treated in confidence (this sheet will be removed before any assessment of your
application takes place). You are under no obligation to answer all the questions below.
Position applied for: ..................................................................................................
How did you hear about the role?:.........................................................................
_________________________________________________________________
Age
How old are you? (please circle):
Under 20 20-29
30-39 40-49
50-59 60+ Prefer not to say ……….
..........................................................
Disability
In general, a person is considered disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 if he or she has a
physical or mental impairment which has a substantial, long-term and adverse effect on his or her ability to
carry out normal day-to-day activities.
Do you consider yourself to have a disability? (please circle):
Yes
No
Prefer not to say ……….
..........................................................
Gender
Are you (please circle):
Female
Male
Prefer not to say ……….
..........................................................
Sexual orientation
Which sexual orientation category best represents you? (please circle):
Lesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Heterosexual
Prefer not to say ……….
……………………………………………………….
Religious belief
Do you have a religious belief? If so, please state what it is:
................................................................ Prefer not to say ……….
Monitoring Ethnicity
Please select the ethnic category that best represent you. As you make your decision, please think about
what ethnic group means to you, that is, how you see yourself. Your ethnicity is a mixture of culture,
religion, skin colour, language and the origins of yourself and your family. It is not the same as nationality.
A White
British
Any other White background, please state .............................................................................
-------------------------------------------B Asian or Asian British
Bangladeshi
Indian
Pakistani
Any other Asian background, please state ...................................................................
---------------------------------------------C Black or Black British
African
Caribbean
Any other Black background, please state ..................................................................
---------------------------------------------D Chinese or other ethnic group
Chinese
Any other, please state .............................................................................
----------------------------------------------E Mixed Heritage
Asian and White
Black African and White
Black Caribbean and White
Chinese and White
Any other Mixed background, please state .............................................................................
F Prefer not to say ……….
Thank you – please include this form with your application