About Chiltern Arts
At the heart of Chiltern Arts is a commitment to excellence, opportunity and innovation, as well as a belief that the arts are central to the quality of life and should be accessible to all. We aim to inspire audiences, create new work, and create a community that adds to and supports the rich tapestry of culture in the area.
Founded in 2017 to bring the highest-quality arts and music to the Chiltern Hills, Chiltern Arts runs an annual week-long festival, now taking place in May and a Festival Weekend in the early Spring. Festivals present music from some of the country's best musicians, including programmes that feature young professional ensembles through our Take Note Young Artist Platform, and performances take place in venues across the Chilterns, including Henley-on-Thames, Marlow, Princes Risborough, Great Missenden, Amersham, Berkhamsted and Dorchester Abbey.
In 2020 Chiltern Arts worked with several partners to create its first major digital project – a 20-minute film of excerpts from Britten's Saint Nicolas cantata, featuring both professional musicians and amateur singers in a virtual capacity.
Each year we seek to present the world premiere of new works or arrangements, including in 2020 the commission and premiere of the first piece written for Marimba and Theorbo.
Chiltern Arts Team
President
Christopher Glynn
Vice President
His Honour Christopher Tyrer DL
Trustees
David Lillycrop (Chair)
Sophia Ahrel
Anne Bolton (Hon. Treasurer)
Revd Canon Rosie Harper
George Vass ARAM
Alex Taylor
Creative Director
Naomi Taylor
Box Office Manager
Sarah Walker
Volunteer Steward Co-ordinator
Juliet Crussell
Production Manager
Steve Woolmer
Photographer
Matthew Johnson
ListenIn Team
Stefan Stetchell (Designer)
Danny Richman (AI Advisor)
Website Management & Hosting
Jessie Redford at Redford Consultancy
Jamie Whyte at Organically Digital
Chiltern Arts Members
Gold Members
Jon and Carolyn Boots
Fi Harding*
Sir Stuart Hampson
The Earl and Countess Howe*
Kaye and David Lillycrop*
David and Pamela Taylor*
His Honour Christopher Tyrer DL*
Silver Members
Sophia Ahrel
Dr Mark Burrows
Sir David and Lady Lidington
Mandy Morrell*
Vivian Nicolas
Elizabeth and James Rodda*
Alan Sainer*
Anne Siddell
Marion Turner
George Vass ARAM
Dr Elizabeth Wager
Liz Ware
Bronze Members
Hannah and James Beddoe
Christopher Boyce and Sue Taylor
Christopher Glynn and Jo Wrackham
Linda Laurance*
Jeff and Adèle Leveton*
Anne MacDowell and Martin Quiglet
Marilynne and Nick Morgan
John Pritchard
Stuart and Favzia Rahman-Greasley
Lyall Thompson
Geoff Walker
Arthur Weir*
(* denotes Founding Member)
Naomi Taylor
Founder and Creative Director
Naomi lives in Berkhamsted with her husband Alex and their two children, Annabel and Benjamin. She studied music at the University of York, graduating in 2014 and taking up the role of Event Manager – and later Producer, until 2021 – at the Ryedale Festival in the same year.
She founded Chiltern Arts in 2017 with the intention of bringing the highest quality music and arts to the beautiful towns and villages of the Chiltern Hills. She loves the collaborative creative process of designing programmes each year, and working with new and exciting artists and creative practitioners is a constant source of joy.
In 2022 she embarked upon an exciting new journey as an AHRC-funded Doctoral Student, working in collaboration with BAFA (the British Arts Festivals Association) to research the impact of recent crises on arts festivals in the UK. As well as drawing on her own continuing work with Chiltern Arts, the four-year project will involve interviewing a number of festival teams and will explore the different ways in which festivals have emerged from the pandemic – and how they continue to deal with challenging circumstances.
From leadership styles and team dynamics to operational and programming processes the project will explore a number of fascinating topics, with the aim of creating a practical model that can become part of BAFA’s toolkit for evaluating and enhancing the impact of arts festivals in the UK. Read an article discussing some of the themes emerging from the research, published by the European Festivals Association in February 2024, here.
