Coaching

Carmel has 20 years of experience coaching and leading individuals and teams, helping people thrive in their roles and overcome challenges. She trained with the NeuroLeadership Institute and is a member of the International Coaching Federation.

She specialises in working with women in leadership roles, particularly those navigating the challenges of menopause, chronic health conditions or balancing work life and family life. She regularly delivers ‘return to work’ coaching programmes and works pro-bono as a coach for Breast Cancer Now, supporting women who are working through cancer treatment.

She also provides strategic consultancy for cultural sector organisations, facilitating business planning, evaluation, funding applications and research. She brings this, and her two decades in senior leadership roles in the cultural sector, to her coaching work, as well as insights from her PhD in Social Medicine at King’s. You can find testimonials from past coachees here.

Music Mark will fund up to three coaching sessions per person with Carmel.

Having begun her career after Cambridge University as a teacher and freelance musician, Marion held senior management positions in prestigious organisations for over twenty-five years, including as Director of Junior Trinity at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and at Wigmore Hall, BBC Television Music and Arts and Philharmonia Orchestra. This range of knowledge and experience informs her work as a coach, mentor, facilitator and consultant. Clients range from students to chief executives, teachers, administrators, performers and composers. Marion has worked with hub leads and other senior staff including at conferences (Music Mark, Music Teachers Association, Musicians Union) and for Sound Connections and Music Mark. Marion’s coaching and mentoring focuses on professional development, and offering support in building skills and confidence.

Music Mark will fund up to two coaching sessions per person with Marion.

Gary Griffiths worked in music services for twenty years, managing the peripatetic service in Essex and then leading the Music Education Hub for the London Borough of Havering. He has a wide range of experience and is available to provide 1:1 support in the following areas:

• Business planning
• Organisational change and restructuring
• The interface between Local Authority finances and the Arts Council
• Grantium
• Health & Safety (IOSH trained), especially Covid-19
• HR: pensions, TUPE, IR35, Parental leave
• HR: investigations (disciplinary, safeguarding, grievances)
• Writing trustee and staff handbooks
• Intermediate to advanced Excel skills

He is also happy to be a sounding board and/or a critical friend and can make links with other Music Hubs across the country.

Kitty Bazalgette is a versatile British Soprano recently graduated from the Masters programme at
the Prince Claus Conservatoire, Groningen under the tutelage of Hanneke de Wit.

“Coming into connection with your true self is how I like to consider coaching. There can be a lot of noise around us that distracts us from recognising or acknowledging our real self. In my coaching practice, I want to enable creatives to cut through the noise and create a life and career which sparks their authenticity, creativity and curiosity and starts to unlock their potential.

“Often we consider coaching as a goals-orientated process and while that can be true, I take more of a holistic and person-centred approach. My belief is that behind every person, artist and musician is a thinking, feeling person and we must look at the person as something that informs artistry and growth.

“Since 2022, I have been working as an elective leader for a new subject called Authentic Artistry in which I aim to develop the self-awareness of students and be able to enter the stage with a deeper knowledge of themselves and how to share that in front of an audience.”

Åsa is a coach and facilitator working with a range of leaders, executives and creatives across the creative and charity sector. With 30 years’ experience of working as a charity leader, producer and project manager, Åsa is passionate about creative collaboration for clarity and purpose, believing that we all have a creative core, and that tapping into that creativity will enable us to thrive in our businesses and lives. Åsa works with people who are curious, driven and committed to make positive change to their lives, businesses and communities. Åsa set up Coach & Create Ltd in 2019 and offers bespoke coaching programmes and tailored facilitation workshops:

• Coaching – bespoke programmes of one-to-one coaching, designed to help you gain clarity on your values, goals and ambitions, discover your purpose and help you design your route ahead.
• Facilitation – working creatively with leadership teams, boards or at conferences and events, collaborating with you to design and discover your next steps. We use a range of creative and interactive tools and activities, tailored specifically to your needs, unlocking the creativity of you and your team, enabling you to find solutions quicker.

Åsa qualified as an ACSTH coach in 2020 and became an ACC Accredited Coach with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) in 2022. As a member of the ICF, she complies with the ICF Code of Ethics. She is a Certified NLP Practitioner with Neuroscience and has recently completed Disruptive Change Maker training. A member of the International Teaching Seminar Resource Team, she trains future coaches on their Mastering the Coach Approach Programme.

Samantha Stimpson is the Founder and Chief Executive of SLS 360. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion consultants who specialise in working within the Arts & Music sector. Sam founded SLS 360 in 2021 after 20 years working in the Music Education sector as Assistant Head of a Music Education Hub in London, Music Advisor and Ethnic Minority Achievement Consultant. She, and her team of associates, deliver bespoke consultancy services for organisations and training and workshops on a range of topics including inclusive leadership and the diversification of the music curriculum. Sam also provides coaching to senior leaders, EDI leads and individuals from racially underrepresented groups.

In April 2021, Samantha created the first report on Workforce diversity within Music Education Hubs in London, commissioned by Music Mark, which explores the inequality and disparity that exists in the sector. The report highlighted a need to take action and lead to a sector-wide response and the creation of the Talk into Action movement.

Having spent most of her working life as the only one, or one of few leaders of colour in this sector, driven by a desire for change, she now uses her voice, knowledge and expertise to challenge and support individuals and organisations take action to affect meaningful change in the field of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Susannah delivers powerful, creative, transformative coaching, drawing on her extensive leadership experience in the arts and media world. Having trained and qualified as an Associate Certified Coach ten years ago with the NeuroLeadership Institute, her coaching focusses on goals, journeys and positive solutions to challenges. Specialisms include working with established and emerging leaders on managing change, transforming executive/work environments, navigating workplace and social relationships, achieving work/life balance, aspirational career development, breaking habits, and more.

She also runs engaging and inspirational leadership workshops, seminars and webinars around the world, including at Accenture, Google, Sky, BBC and the women’s senior leadership programme at Cisco. You can find testimonials from past coachees here.

She combines her coaching work with a successful career in theatre and radio – working as a theatre director specialising in European theatre; founding ARIADNE, an international network working with women making theatre in conflict-affected countries; and as an audio producer for BBC Radio 4, BBC World Service, and The Guardian. She brings that expertise directly to her coaching practice, and finds them enormously compatible skillsets for coaching.

Music Mark will fund up to three coaching sessions per person with Susannah.