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Dancers performing at the World Performing Arts Festival 2006, Lahore, Pakistan.
Photo © Waheed Khalid
Northern Broadside Theatre Company performing A School for Scandal.
Photo © Nobby Clark
A cellist performing.
Photo © Nana Kofi Acquah
Street performer 'The Space Cowboy' performing at Edinburgh Fringe in The Meadows.
Photo © Kenny Maths
Mime artists from the Cho-In Theatre Company of South Korea, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006.
Photo © Kenny Maths
Richard Price: Chair of BAPAM and a chartered accountant who spent the main part of his career building the education group BPP Holdings plc which prepares graduates for professional qualifications in accounting, banking, law etc. Richard is currently non-executive chairman of Education Development International plc. He is a tenor singer, former chairman of the Bach Choir, a council member of the Royal College of Music and a trustee of Action Medical Research. Richard has been a trustee of BAPAM since 2001.- Margaret Bowler: Treasurer, is a chartered accountant and partner in Grant Thornton. Margaret says that she ‘doesn’t do anything artistic except enjoy’. She is passionate about good business behaviour in charities and other not-for-profit organisations and enjoys working with an organisation which helps performers as they give us so much joy. As regards health care, she has an interest in complementary therapies. She came on to BAPAM’s Board in 2004.
Penny Wright: Honorary Medical Director. Graduated from Cambridge in natural sciences in 1982, qualified in 1986 and was a hospital doctor and GP in Tower Hamlets till 2001. Penny started working as volunteer clinician with BAPAM in 1989. She was an AMABO (Association of Medical Advisors to British Orchestras) doctor to English National Opera orchestra 1992-2002. For the last six years she has taught injury-prevention and vocal health to students at Trinity College of Music and Guildhall. She sings choral music and lieder, and describes herself as a poor cellist and very poor pianist. Penny became a BAPAM Trustee in 2005 and
Honorary Medical Director
a year later.
- Marcus Lewis: Is a GP in North West London and sessional doctor at the City of London Migraine Clinic. After qualifying as a doctor in 2001, Marcus spent a year pursuing his long standing love of music as a postgraduate student at the Royal Academy of Music. He plays the saxophone and the piano and has worked mostly as a jazz musician but has also written music for various ensembles, as well as composing music for a classical Indian dance company and for a couple of short films. He became a BAPAM trustee in 2008.
- Mike Shipley: Has been a consultant rheumatologist at University College Hospital for twenty years and a long time senior NHS manager. He is keen to help people with long term painful conditions and work- or activity-related pain. His clinical method combines a medical approach to disease with an attempt to understand the impact of psychological and social pressures on symptoms and the way people cope or fail to cope with pain and disability. He believes it is key that the person takes an active role in managing his or her own pain. Like many, Mike got to Grade five piano, played recorder at school and sang at university before coming to terms with the fact that he lacked the natural talent to go further! An inspirational teacher in the sixties helped him to develop his interest in and love of the arts, particularly opera and music.
Jonathan White:
Qualified 1978 University of Birmingham Medical School. Senior Partner at Penn Manor Medical Centre and Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Birmingham. Jonathan has a keen interest in all performing arts and very wide musical tastes. He is an organist, playing for his own amusement and (he says) everyone else’s detriment. Jonathan became involved with BAPAM in 1997. He was appointed AMABO doctor to the CBSO in 2003 and, having already forged links with Birmingham City University advising students with performance related problems, started BAPAM’s Birmingham clinic in 2007. His education work at BCU includes seminars to new students on performers’ health and fitness, and workshops for the string and woodwind departments. In 2006 BCU made Jonathan an Honorary Fellow and in 2007 BAPAM appointed him as a trustee.- Ian Winspur: Graduated from Edinburgh university Medical School, then undertook specialist plastic and hand surgery training in the UK and USA. He lived in the USA for 20 years specialising in hand surgery. It was in the musically rich environment of Southern California that he began working with musicians, while himself learning jazz and improvisational piano. Returning to London in 1994 he immediately linked up with BAPAM. He is co-author of the highly regarded book ‘The Musician’s Hand’ with Dr Kit Wynn Parry. He has written and lectured extensively in this country and internationally on musicians' upper limb problems.
- The Musicians Benevolent Fund, which contributes 75% of our monetary income, chooses to have an observer to the board rather than a trustee. The Fund's observer attends all meetings of the BAPAM board and her biography is provided below.
- Diane Widdison: (Musicans' Union).
- Ruth Esther Elliott: (Equity).
Paul Brenells: A solicitor in both public and private sectors, most recently for the Probation Service from which he is now retired. From 1980-1990 he focused on Information Technology, pioneering IT use by lawyers. He was a JP for 25 years in Youth and Family Proceedings Courts in Inner London and is now a part-time Immigration Judge. When working in the solicitors firm which acted for the Musicians Union he became interested in BAPAM. Paul says that, unlike the rest of his family, he is ‘totally illiterate’ musically but loves classical music, especially opera and also theatre. He joined BAPAM’s Board in 1998, though his legal advice involvement extends back far further.
Deborah Charnock:
Deborah lives in Sandwich, Kent with her husband and daughter. She grew up in Australia and moved to the UK in the 1980s. She has a PhD. in psychology and has held posts as a health educator and researcher in the voluntary sector, local government and academic departments. Most recently, Deborah has worked as a consultant and trainer with a special interest in health empowerment and patient safety. She was Co-founder and Director of Kendra Development CIC (a social enterprise providing health information in the community) from 2003 to 2008 and was a founder member of the British Medical Association (BMA) Patient Liaison Group from 2003 to 2007. She remains on the judging panel of the annual BMA Patient Information Awards. She is currently a Non Executive Director of Eastern and Coastal Kent NHS Primary Care Trust. Deborah is also a qualified piano accompanist. She works with young musicians in her local community and regularly organises and performs at community arts and fundraising events in Kent. She is preparing to enter the performance-based Master of Music Programme at Canterbury Christchurch University in late 2008 and recently commenced bass guitar lessons.- Fran Nevrkla: Chairman/Chief Executive of Phonographic Performance Ltd and Video Performance Ltd (not for profit companies which collect and distribute airplay and public performance royalties in the music industry). Born in the former Czechoslovakia, Fran studied music at the Conservatoire and the Academy of Music and Fine Arts in Prague and the RCM in London. He was a classical violinist with the English Chamber, London Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras till he had to give up playing following injury in 1976. He worked for Warner Music UK till 2000 when he moved to PPL and VPL. He is a Fellow of the Radio Academy, a Governor of the BRIT School and a member of the Government New Deal for Musicians (NDfM) Advisory Group. At the request of the then General Secretary of the MU, Fran came on to the BAPAM Board in 1998.
- David Sulkin: David is the Chief Executive Officer of our major funder, the Musicians Benevolent Fund, and represents the Fund as an observer at BAPAM board meetings.