Gerald Coke Handel Foundation

Board of Trustees

David Coke, Chair

David Coke is a cultural historian. He was curator of Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, and Pallant House, Chichester, and a trustee of the Foundling Museum, London. He curated the Vauxhall Gardens section of the 1984 ‘Rococo’ exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and has contributed articles on the London pleasure gardens and their artworks to a number of scholarly books and journals. He has written, with Alan Borg, a comprehensive history of Vauxhall Gardens 1661-1859, published in 2011. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Sarah Bardwell

Sarah Bardwell is the Managing Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. She was previously Executive Director of Britten Pears Arts, a pioneering music, arts and heritage charity based on the Suffolk coast. It encompasses the Aldeburgh Festival, a world-class concert hall, initiatives focused on artist training and development, a unique and extensive archive, the house where Britten lived with his partner Peter Pears, and a leading programme of music, health and well-being. Previously Sarah was the Director of Handel House Museum, now Handel & Hendrix. During her eleven-year tenure she led the organisation through a major £4m capital project to secure a long lease for the property, and ran a £2m HLF-supported building project. A music graduate, she has also worked at the Royal Albert Hall, English National Opera and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

Michael Burden

Michael Burden is Professor in Opera Studies at University of Oxford and Chair of the Music Faculty Board, as well as Fellow in Music at New College where he is Dean. He has published research is on the theatre music of Henry Purcell, and on the staging of opera and dance in London in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. In 2013 his study of the soprano Regina Mingotti’s London years and a five-volume collection of documents on London opera, London Opera Observed, were both published. He is currently working on two databases: the Italian Aria on the London Stage before 1801, and The London Stage 1800-1900 (a calendar of performances). Other areas of research include the administration of the Pyne-Harrison and English Opera Companies, and aspects of the career of the conductor Anton Rieff. Michael organises the annual Oxford Dance Symposium with Jennifer Thorp, with whom he co-edited the Ballet de la Nuit in 2010. He is a past president of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, a former Visitor to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, a trustee of RISM, and director of productions of New Chamber Opera.

Helen Faulkner

Helen Faulkner started her career as an academic music librarian and lecturer at Goldsmiths College before moving to the BBC as manager of music and orchestral libraries. In 1994 she was appointed as chief executive of the Musicians Benevolent Fund (now Help Musicians UK) Since 2005 she has run a number of musical charities including the RVW Trust, the Delius Trust and New Berlioz Edition Trust. She is a trustee of the Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust, the Loan Fund for Musical Instruments and the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust.

Ronald Gould

Ronald Gould is currently Chairman of Compliance Science Europe (CSI); Non Executive Director of OneRe; Managing Principal, Warfleet Partners; Chairman of Think Alliance Group; Non-Executive Director and Chair of Audit of JP Morgan Asia Investments PLC. He has extensive experience leading financial companies through periods of rapid global growth in complex regulatory and compliance environments. He has also served as a Senior Advisor to the UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority, lending his expertise to advise on a wide range of policy and regulatory matters. Prior to joining CSI, he held senior executive management positions at BZW/Barclays Asset Management, including Vice Chairman, CEO Barclays Stockbrokers and CEO Barclays Trust Japan. He was responsible for the first international operations of Barclays’ asset management business and creation of business strategy and development. He has additionally served as CEO of Chi-X Asia Pacific, CEO of ABG Sundal Collier ASA, Managing Director of AXA Investment Managers and Managing Director Asia, Promontory Financial Group.

Peter Smaill

Peter Smaill began his musical interests as a chorister in the mediaeval Church of the Holy Rude in Stirling, Scotland, later singing in St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh and in the University’s Renaissance Singers. Following a law degree and accountancy qualifications, he pursued a career in private equity. Subsequent to the 2000 Bach anniversary his musical interest in the Baroque period was rekindled, and from 2010 to 2017 he was Chairman and Treasurer of the UK charity, Bach Network, specialising in the field of the Cantatas. Following research into Handel’s bassoonist John Frederick Lampe and his anthem celebrating the 1746 defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, he enlarged his interest towards investigating the musical background of London’s Lutheran churches. He promotes concerts with the Dunedin Consort in Charity-owned Crichton Collegiate Church, Midlothian, where he is, since 2017, also a local Councillor and Provost of the county.

Sylvia Levi

Sylvia Levi is a Chartered Accountant, with extensive experience of financial services regulation.  Besides a very long-standing interest in baroque music she has been involved in a variety of environmental organisations and was a director of Waste Watch between 2000 and 2010 and of Keep Britain Tidy between 2011 and 2016 (chair of its Audit & Finance Committee 2013-2015).  She has also been Treasurer and then a Trustee of the University Women’s Club and is currently Chair and Treasurer of Kew Village Market Community Interest Company.

Walter Rudeloff

Walter Rudeloff is a retired US Attorney and English Barrister whose practice consisted mainly of US-UK immigration and employment law. Coming from a family of professional musicians, his familiarity with Baroque and Classical music started at a pre-natal period. He has been a trustee of the London Chamber Music Society for over 10 years and has advised LCMS on various employment and contract issues.  He has also interviewed several contemporary composers and musicians for features in the LCMS Magazine. During his time as a trustee he has become familiar with basic charity law.

Rahul Sinha

Rahul Sinha is Managing Director of Inquiry, an international development consultancy providing research and evaluation support to front-line NGOs working to improve governance, and promote economic growth in developing countries worldwide. Before moving to London in 2019, he was a Trustee for Creative Minds International, a public charter school in Washington DC. He previous served as a consultant with Higher Ed Insight, advising universities and government bodies on effective approaches to help non-traditional students succeed, and as Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In 2016 he co-founded Rise Stronger, a civic engagement network bringing the policy community into direct dialogue with the public they serve; after a year, Rise had 300 active volunteers and 70,000 members, and was active in 22 US states. He has been published on competition policy reforms necessitated by new technology-facilitated business models, as well as the use of economics to measure psychological effects on residents of urban planning decisions and the built environment in their communities. Rahul is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art.