I joined the BMF Board as Chair in 2020 bringing extensive experience of delivering arts projects to companies such as the National Theatre, Glyndebourne, Barbican Theatre, Aldeburgh Festival and numerous regional companies. As a performer and animateur my career has spanned theatre, radio, television, opera, schools and higher education.
I continue to teach, coach, direct and write, and I am a Senior Examiner, Drama, for Trinity College London working in the UK and global markets. I sing with the Exeter Festival Chorus.
I have always put inclusion high on the agenda in my professional work and feel passionate about making cultural events accessible to rural communities. I have tremendous enthusiasm to make BMF the premier classical music event in the South West’s cultural calendar.
MADELEINE COLLIE – Friends’ Secretary
I moved to Budleigh Salterton in 2015 and was delighted to find a glorious week of classical music right on my doorstep. I joined the BMF soon after and get a real buzz from representing our Festival Friends, who are so supportive of the Festival.
My career background includes scientific research, business consultancy in IT trading systems and senior management roles in an international energy company. In parallel I have enjoyed contributing to several charities as a Trustee.
I became profoundly deaf as a young adult and received a cochlear implant when I was 59 which reawakened my love of listening to music, though watching music happen has always been a fascination.
MARTYN EVANS – Trustee
I joined the BMF Board as a Trustee in 2023. I bring to the Board a life-long involvement with music, together with experience of governance, strategic leadership and education. I am strongly committed to supporting community participation in music.
I retired in 2019 after a long academic career focused on the philosophy of music, philosophy of medicine, and medical humanities at the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea and Durham. I am an Honorary Fellow of both the Royal College of Practitioners and the Royal College of Physicians.
I grew up playing the piano, and together with choral singing, the piano has been the mainstay of my musical life – although I have dabbled in accompanying, conducting, and even a bit of composition. More enduringly, I met my wife through playing piano duets! I am fond of jazz, transfixed by Schumann and Sibelius, and devoted to Bach.
JAMES ALPE – Treasurer
I am honoured to be the newest recruit to the BMF board, following a move to Budleigh in 2022. In the course of previous summer visits, I have enjoyed many Festival events – including some truly memorable stand-outs – so I am delighted to now be actively involved.
My professional life started with training and qualification as a chartered accountant, then working in financial services. Participation in systems projects led me to switch into IT implementation roles, including many years with a multinational software corporation and an especially enjoyable period based in New Zealand. For me, listening to music during these years became a progressively essential counterpart to the many hours of travel and time away from home (thank you, Radio 3). Piano lessons were my childhood entry point – and still today, Bach keyboard pieces are rarely far from the top of the CD pile. Also a favourite recording of Dinu Lipatti, playing so effortlessly the Chopin waltzes with which I so endlessly struggled.
