Honorary Patron: Lady baRBARA Bear

Lady Barbara Bear and her husband Alderman Sir Michael Bear served as the 683rd Lord and Lady Mayoress of the City of London 2010/11.  During their Mayoral year, she worked closely with The Concordia Foundation, embarking on a programme of Cultural Diplomacy to complement the Lord Mayor’s programme of Commercial Diplomacy, building bridges of friendship in China, Vietnam, Kenya and South Africa.  She became Honorary Patron of The Concordia Foundation in 2010.

She has a particular interest in the Arts and is an accomplished musician and sculptor.  She was awarded an LTCL (piano) while at university in South Africa and has taught piano for many years.  She composed a children’s educational musical story which premiered in 2008 and became a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2009.  As a sculptor, she has a 9’ bronze sculpture in a public square in the East End of London.

 She is a practicing craniosacral therapist and has been active in setting up Craniosacral Therapy Clinics, offering assistance to military veterans and their families, with post traumatic stress.

Dame Evelyn Glennie OBE

Evelyn Glennie is the first person in history to successfully create and sustain a full-time career as a solo percussionist, performing worldwide with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. She fondly recalls having played the first percussion concerto in the history of The Proms at the Albert Hall in 1992, which paved the way for orchestras around the world to feature percussion concerti. She had the honour of a leading role in the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Evelyn regularly provides masterclasses and consultations designed to guide the next generation. She is also a leading commissioner of new works for solo percussion, Evelyn has more than 170 pieces to her name from many of the world’s most eminent composers. The film ‘Touch the Sound’ and her enlightening TED speech remain key testimonies to her approach to sound-creation.

To this day, Evelyn continues to invest in realising her vision – to Teach the World to Listen – while looking to open a centre that embodies her mission: “to improve communication and social cohesion by encouraging everyone to discover new ways of listening. We want to inspire, to create, to engage and to empower”. www.evelyn.co.uk 

Sir Curtis Price

Curtis Price is a musician and historian whose particular interests are performance practice, 17th- and 18th-century English music, Italian opera and English theatre history. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including Henry Purcell and the London Stage (Cambridge), Italian Opera in Late 18th-century London (co-author, Oxford), and he edited The Early Baroque Era (in Macmillan's Man and Music series) and well as the Norton Critical Score of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.

He was King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London from 1988-1995, and Principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1995 to 2008, Curtis also has considerable experience in performance training (particularly string chamber music and early music) within the academic environment. He is a trustee of Musica Britannica and until recently the Wigmore Hall.

Curtis is married to the composer Professor Rhian Samuel, who teaches at Magdalen College, Oxford. Please visit her website at www.rhiansamuel.com

Dame Janet Ritterman DBE

Dame Janet Ritterman is a prominent academic and musician with a global reputation as a champion of the arts.  Now a Vice-President of the Royal College of Music London, one of the UK’s most prestigious arts institutions, she spent 12 years as its Director. Prior to this, she was Principal of Dartington College of Arts.
 
Her reputation for expertise in the arts has led to invitations to sit on a wide range of influential cultural and educational bodies and to advise governments and educational institutions all over the world. This includes serving on the British Arts & Humanities Research Board, as a founder member of the Creative Industries HE Forum for the Department of Culture Media and Sport, as an Associate Fellow and member of the Advisory Council for the Institute of Musical Research of the University of London and as chair of a funding review panel for the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
 
Her international work includes being appointed to the Austrian Government’s Wissenschaftsrat, which advises on the development of the Austrian higher education system, and chairing the Austrian Research Council’s international board for the funding of arts research, as well as advisory roles with educational institutions in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Belgium and Switzerland.
 
An experienced pianist and accompanist, she was appointed Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2002 for services to music.

The Marquess of Zetland

Lawrence Mark Dundas, 4th Marquess of Zetland, less formally known as Mark Zetland, is a British peer, known before 1989 as Earl of Ronaldshay. He was educated at Harrow School and Christ's College, Cambridge.