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Mark Davyd FRSA, CEO
Mark is the co-owner of Tunbridge Wells Forum, a venue he founded in a toilet over 20 years ago. Since then, Mark has split his time between various music activities; he is the owner of Outstanding Music, a 360 degree music company with a specialism in alternative latin music and a portfolio of clients that includes Disney, Warner Brothers, CBS, ABC and leading US brands; loudmouth band manager to a stable of Spanish acts, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, the charity that seeks to secure the future of UK live music venues, and has been the CEO of Rhythmix since its inception fifteen years ago. Mark has overseen the development of the organisation from a concept to its position as one of the UK’s leading music charities working with young people. Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a regular speaker at international conferences (ILMC, SXSW, LAMC, Eurosonic). In his spare time he likes to sit in a corner and mutter the phrase “what spare time?” over and over again.
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Mark Randall, Operations Consultant
After leaving Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys in 1978 with one ambition; to be a pop-star, Mark was slowly brought down to earth when after years of being in criminally under-rated , and commercially under-achieving bands, he sadly realised that the job had already been taken. Taking with him golden memories of having supported the original Bay City Rollers at the London Lyceum, and being heckled by 800 skinheads and punks at the Hammersmith Clarendon, Mark then decided to take up gainful employment and became a guitar technician, then later, chief buyer for UK’s leading musical instrument wholesaler. In the meantime Mark was able to fulfil his creative bent by appearing as a singer/dancer in various productions of the musicals; La Cage aux Folles, City of Angels, and Anything Goes. However, ten years and four stone later Mark confines his involvement with the entertainment world by running a comedy club and new band night at a local venue, as well as singing and playing bass in a 60s/country rock band. |
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Lucy Stone FRSA, Strategic Consultant
Lucy is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Clore Leadership Programme Short Course graduate. Over her career Lucy has raised over £2.5 million in funding from a range of Trusts and Foundations including Arts Council England, Youth Music, Awards for All, Comic Relief, Amy Winehouse Foundation, Sussex Community Foundation, Global Grants, Local Network Fund amongst others. Lucy’s key strengths include developing relationships whether that is working in partnership or managing staff; recognising and cultivating potential in people and programmes; strategic thinking and; an ability to find creative solutions seeing connections, patterns and issues.Organisations Lucy has worked with include Carnival Collective, Brighton Jewish Film Festival, Brighton University, West Kent Arts Partnership, Raft PR, Making Space, All Ways Learning, Brighton & Hove City Council, Brighton & Hove Music Trust and Brighton & Hove Music Arts and Study Support. |
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Nora Mzaoui, Office & Project Manager
Nora has been an active member of the community and voluntary sector in Brighton and Hove for over 10 years, specialising in grant giving and supporting local community groups and activities. She has worked with many projects and organisations in the city such as Scarman Trust (People Can), BHIP, Community Works and the BME Health Forum. Nora sits on her local GP patient group hoping to develop a voice for communities through engagement. Committed to Rhythmix ethos and aims, she now provides support to the team.
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Jo White, Wishing Well Project Manager
Jo has 13 years experience working as a Musician in community settings, and as a Project Manager, creating music programmes to help children and young people find their voice. A lifelong musician, she is committed to developing the reach of the Wishing Well programme into Healthcare settings, encouraging the use of live music to create environments where people feel safe and heard. |
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Sam Halligan, Project Manager
Sam has been involved in music since the age of 13 when he was asked if he would play the double bass. He used this knowledge to become self taught on a number of stringed and percussive instruments, and can even play the drums a bit. He has played in a number of varied ensembles from stringed orchestras and big bands to heavy metal and folk. Sam followed his interest in music through college and university where he engineered and stage managed at a central London venue. Having left University in 2003, with a qualification in musical instrument making, Sam briefly worked as a luthier and still knows a thing or 2 about knocking a guitar together from scratch. Sam retrained with a Masters in product design at the University of Brighton in 2009 and by this time was already working for Rhythmix as a sessional music leader. Inspired by the impact of the projects he was already working on, Sam used his Masters project to help set up new rehearsal facilities in Hastings and has continued involvement with the management of Rhythmix delivery ever since. |
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Russ Calaghan Grooms, Project Manager
Russ is an award-winning music educator, Russ is co-director of Hand on Heart Arts Ltd which works with arts organisations, charities, Music Education Hubs, Music Services, orchestras, and Festivals across the whole of the UK. He has project managed over eighty individual music education projects and programmes across the South East.
His career in music education started in 1996 teaching music at a Special Education Needs school in Canterbury, moving onto working with homeless buskers and in drug and alcohol treatment settings, then into assistive technology for SEN/D, and songwriting workshops in prisons, PRUs, Youth Clubs, schools, hospices and care homes (in both youth and dementia settings). |
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Emma Dickson, Project Manager
Emma has worked in Community Music and Arts since her school days, her first summer job was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Emma has worked with a wide range of community arts projects including Red Zebra, Brighton Carnival, Brighton Hip Hop Festival and AudioActive, providing administration, project management and fundraising support. Emma is passionate about helping young people to make music and is currently focusing on delivering and developing Rhythmix projects for Young People with mental health problems. She may not make music herself but still puts in the occasional appearances at her friends weddings as a DJ!
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Jack Kingslake, Project Manager
Jack is an experienced musician, producer, music leader and project manager who works across a huge range of genres and settings, ranging from large ensemble projects with talented young instrumentalists to one-to-one mentoring with young offenders. Having been based in Bristol until 2009, Jack cut his teeth running music workshops in deprived inner city areas, where he established the community-recording studio ‘Hi-Road Studios’, that provides music making opportunities to large numbers of young people. Jack has also trained with Youth Music as an Advanced Music. Mentor and has gone on to deliver mentor training for a number of different organisations across the country.
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Kevin Grist, Project Manager
Passionate about making a difference, Kevin has been producing music projects and teaching in community settings for almost 14 years. He founded Youth Music programme Brighton Music Hub (2010), produced music video transition projects with Children’s University at KS3 and worked alongside Gareth Malone on Glyndebourne’s Knight Crew project (2009). An experienced session keyboardist and sound engineer, Kevin qualified as a teacher delivering Music Production and Performance at Varndean College (2012). He was recently Project Manager at AudioActive (2015) which included Hip Hop Foundation and FUSE, a collaborative series at Southbank with Tomorrow’s Warriors. Kevin now works at Arts Council England overseeing a £10.6m portfolio of Music education hubs and The Stables Theatre. He regularly contributes to national strategy and holds developmental relationships with a range of music industry clients including The Great Escape festival. In 2015, Kevin setup SparkedEcho, operating as a consultant to support innovation with clients including Musical Futures, BIMM and Rhythmix. |