Cumbria Music Hub Board

The Hub Board is a group of dedicated volunteers who are independent of the Hub Lead Organisation's (HLO’s) governing body and executive. They provide an impartial, evidence-based decision-making function on behalf of the Hub partnership. Board members use their wide range of skills and experiences to support the strategic direction of the Local Plan for Music and provide challenge to the Hub Leadership Team and Partners to meet agreed targets and our funding agreement obligations to the Arts Council England.

Led by an Independent Chair our Board membership is representative and reflective of the communities served by the Hub. Representation includes: schools, strategic partners, public health, and the wider arts/cultural, youth and music industry/sector, and communities and partnership representation.

Meet our Board Members...

Charlotte Dumbill - Having lived with the family in Cumbria since 2000 and my background is as a secondary school teacher and school leader. I previously chaired the West Cumbria Local Cultural Education Partnership. In recent years she has tutored at the University of Cumbria on their MBA and Business Management programmes and managed a music education project that was a collaboration between the Cumbria Music Hub and the Royal Northern College of Music. Charlotte has also been a primary school governor. She is a keen amateur musician. In 2019 she studied for a jazz diploma at the University of St Andrews and presently play saxophone in a classical duo, ska band, jazz band, concert band and big band. Charlotte is also a trustee of Cockermouth Live! and is passionate about music and its power to enrich and change lives.

Charlotte Dumbill

Chair (from Feb 23)

Prof. Enrico Bertelli -

an internationally recognised educator, researcher, and creative technologist working at the intersection of music, technology, and education. He is Associate Professor of Practice at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, where he leads interdisciplinary initiatives in STEAM education and GenAI, and Executive Director of Conductive Music CIC in the UK—a social enterprise delivering music-tech workshops to over 20,000 marginalised and SEND students annually.

With a PhD from the University of York and a strong background in electroacoustic performance, Enrico has secured over £1.2 million in funding from Arts Council England, the British Council, Innovate UK, and 30+ Music Education Hub partners. His projects are cited in the UK’s National Plan for Music Education and span school-based innovation, international residencies, diversity and inclusion policy, and curriculum design for non-specialist teachers.

A frequent speaker and performer at international conferences, Enrico’s practice-based research explores accessible, inclusive music-making through AI and open-source tools. He sits on multiple advisory boards and collaborates with education, arts, and tech partners across Europe and Asia.

As a new member of the Cumbria Music Hub Board, Enrico brings expertise in inclusive arts education, digital innovation, and strategic development, with a commitment to amplifying youth voice and rural access through creative technology, and the DROP methodology: Desk-Sire, Remote, On Demand, and Professional Development.

A Cumbrian farmer’s daughter, Annie played the piano at the age of 5, was church organist at 7, and is now a leading exponent of both the beautiful Celtic Harp, and her Gothic Golden Concert Harp. Since becoming a professional musician in 1994, she has developed a unique performing profile in many parts of the world. Annie is equally at home in Cathedrals, such as the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, the largest Cathedral in the world, or the humblest of sitting rooms; the Way of Peace International Conference in Belfast with H.H.The Dalai Lama, or small isolated churches; the Royal Festival Hall, London or Tirril village hall, near her home! It is her family, the Cumbrian fells and her Celtic heritage which have most inspired her along her musical journey.

There have been countless television and radio broadcasts, including an ITV documentary, “The Secret Heart”, which featured her work with the charity she founded in 1992, the Sunbeams Music Trust. Sunbeams now employs 8 professional multi-talented musicians, who deliver “Music For Life®” and “Music for Dignity®” every month, in over 50 Outreach venues and schools, in the Sunbeams Music Centre, near Penrith, and online with Zoom, for over 2,000 children with disabilities and adults with dementia every month, many weekly.
And wherever her professional singing career takes her, it is with Sunbeams where her heart and vision lie.

From small beginnings in Annie’s own sitting-room in 1992, Sunbeams was voted the Big Lottery Champion Charity of the North West Region and National runners up in 2007, and is a media partner with the BBC.
In recognition of her work, and her vision, Annie was awarded the title ‘Cumbrian Woman of the Millennium Year 2000’, an MBE in the Queen’s Honours List, 2014 for her “Services to Community Music Therapy,” and an Honorary Fellow with the University of Cumbria in November 2023.

“Canto Ergo Sum” symbolises Annie’s philosophy - “I sing, therefore I am”, and thus she endeavours to bring out the music which she believes is inside everyone.

In 1992 Annie founded the Sunbeams Music Trust which now employs 10 professional multi-talented musicians, who provide “Music For Life®” and “Music for Dignity®” in over 50 projects every month, throughout Cumbria, for over 15,000 people with Special Needs. Wherever her professional singing career takes her, it is with sunbeams where her heart and vision lie. By following her vision, her belief in the transformative power of music upon people with disabilities, Sunbeams have raised £2.5 million - to build their own Music Centre which is a “sustainable legacy” for people with special needs and opened in January 2017.

Annie Mawson MBE MRSM

Katrina Stephens - Currently Director of Public Health for Westmorland and Furness, a role I’ve held since July 2023.

Prior to joining Westmorland and Furness Katrina worked in Oldham for 7 years and was Director of Public Health from 2018 to 2023. As well as public health, this role included oversight of the Council’s Music Service, and the heritage, libraries, arts, leisure and youth services.

Having been part of orchestras, bands and choirs throughout her school years, she continued her involvement in music making as an adult through playing in community wind bands. Playing clarinet in Werneth Concert Band in Stockport for nearly twenty years, before moving in Kendal in 2023 and joining Kendal Concert Band.

She is passionate about equity and inclusion, and widening access to music.

Peter is a trustee and treasurer of Furness Music Centre.

Peter Fitzpatrick - Prior to retiring in 2021, Peter served in a number of senior executive roles in the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness. Coupled with training as a Chartered Engineer, this also enabled Peter to develop a number of leadership, business and financial skills which he can put to use as a member of the Cumbria Music Hub Advisory Board

Peters' musical life began as a chorister in a choir associated with Lincoln Cathedral, singing services weekly in the Parish Church and occasionally deputising for the cathedral choir and singing services in the cathedral. This experience, especially through his teenage years, gave me the confidence and capability to be the first of a large extended family to go to university and pursue a successful professional career.

After a hiatus of almost two decades, Peters’ musical life was rekindled as a founding member and trustee of Furness Music Centre in 2002. This started his own journey as a cellist, and it has been wonderful to nurture and grow Furness Music Centre, together with his fellow trustees and the help of Cumbria Music Hub, into an organisation that is able to provide instrumental lessons to more than 100 school pupils, andrun a number ofinstrumental ensembles and a choir, with more than 150 members of all ages and abilities.

Peter Fitzpatrick

Catherine Parums - Born in Kendal and subsequently raised in the heart of rural North Yorkshire, Catherine developed a deep connection with music from an early age. This passion led her to study Music at the University of York, where she specialised as a first study clarinettist, with voice and piano as second studies.

Catherine built a career in music education and outreach, working with leading institutions including the Royal College of Music, BBC Radio 3 and Proms, Teenage Cancer Trust Live @ RAH and the City of London Festival. These roles combined artistic creativity with meaningful community engagement. From this, she transitioned into ceremonial event planning, first as Programme Manager for HRH The Princess Royal, developing comprehensive community programmes and visits, and subsequently leading national events and commemorations as Head of Remembrance Events for the Royal British Legion. As an Agile Prince 2 Practitioner, currently Catherine is leading the development of a new organisational strategy for the Royal British Legion, due for launch in autumn 2025.

Having recently relocated back to Heversham with her husband and two young daughters, Catherine continues to look to bring her experiences to contribute to causes that matter.

David Pipe - Read Music at Cambridge University as Organ Scholar of Downing College, later studying organ at the Royal Academy of Music. Most recently he has featured as the organist with a symphonic metal band, appearing on BBC One’s The One Show and performing a sell-out concert in York Minster.
David was Director of the Keyboard Studies Programme and Cathedral Organist in the Diocese of Leeds until Easter 2024, having previously been Assistant Director of Music at York Minster. Now working as a freelance organist, pianist and conductor, he is Organist at Huddersfield Town Hall, and Musical Director of York Musical Society. This year, he is northern ambassador for the Royal College of Organists’ Play the Organ Year.

Cumbria Opera Group

Joe Davies - Recently praised for his 'musical brilliance' (Seen and Heard International), Joe is a Conductor working around the UK. He is Assistant Conductor of the English Symphony Orchestra, Musical Director of the UK Proms in the Park Orchestra, Canterbury Symphony Orchestra, Oxford Millennium Orchestra, Leamington Sinfonia, Solway Sinfonia, and Coventry & Warwickshire Youth Orchestra, and Artistic Director of the Cumbria Opera Group. Recent and future engagements include the Royal Northern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Swan, National Schools' Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfonia Smith Square, while previous MD positions include Worcester Philharmonic Orchestra, Midland Concert Orchestra, and Contemporary Music East Midlands (CoMA).

Joe's Opera credits include Don Giovanni, Cosìfan tutte, Acis and Galatea, Trouble in Tahiti, Dido and Aeneas, and Venus and Adonis with the Cumbria Opera Group, alongside Candide at the Oxford Playhouse and Mansfield Park with Cardiff Opera. Joe was Artistic Director of the Cumbria Opera Festivals 2021 and 2023, involving artists such as Roderick Williams OBE and Joan Rodgers CBE. Joe has conducted premieres of works by Howard Skempton, Alex Ho, and Martin Bussey, while concerto collaborations include Jess Gillam, Laura van der Heijden, Emma Johnson, Xhosa Cole, Kirill Troussov, Benedict Kloeckner, Clare Hammond, and Harry Baker. Joe graduated with a First Class Degree in Music from St Peter’s College, Oxford, and studied Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, graduating with Distinction, where he studied under Michael Seal. Other training includes the Serena Fenwick Programme with British Youth Opera.

Joe Davies

Lake District Summer Music Festival

Stephen Threlfall - A highly experienced and versatile musician, Stephen is a conductor, cellist, educator and a creative director with string of award-winning projects to his credit. Formally Sub Principal cello with the BBC Philharmonic and with an ongoing career as a chamber performer and freelance conductor.

His pioneering role as Director of Music at Chetham’s from 1995-2019 underlines his advocacy for the encouragement and development of young and emerging musicians. He became Artistic Director of Lake District Music in 2021.