Michael Tippett Musical Foundation appoints chair

Grant-giving organisation, The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation, has announced the appointment of Tippett biographer Oliver Soden to the role of chair. This appointment is one of several changes to the foundation’s board.

Soden, whose biography of composer Sir Michael Tippett was published in 2019, will succeed opera director Anthony Whitworth-Jones who has held the role of chair since 1998. Whitworth-Jones will continue his relationship with the foundation in the role of trustee.

The foundation was established in 1979 with funds from the sale of Tippett’s manuscripts to the British Library. The library’s lead curator of music manuscripts, Chris Scobie, is now also joining the board alongside Katie Tearle MBE, director of new music at Edition Peters Group who has been appointed Deputy Chair. Writer and broadcaster Lucy Walker, will take up the newly created role of administrator from 1 September.

Foundation creator Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was a 20^th century English composer and contemporary of Benjamin Britten. He was also a strong advocate of music education, and worked as a radio broadcaster and music writer. The foundation has, in its first twenty years, given more than 500 grants to organisations across the UK to support young musicians and composers, new music and music education initiatives.

Conductor Edward Gardner OBE will also be joining the foundation in the role of patron, joining politician David Cairns CBE, pianist Paul Crossley CBE, and conductor Sir Andrew Davis CBE who also hold this role. Gardner’s recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra will be released later this year.

You can find out more about The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation here.