Friends

The Friends of Buxton Festival

● Support the Festival through annual subscription
● Enjoy a range of social and cultural fundraising events throughout the year


JOIN HERE

Download the application form here

Or call Lee on 01298 70395 for more information

Levels of support

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An introduction to the Friends

The Friends of Buxton Festival was founded in 1980 to provide financial security for the Festival through subscriptions, donations and fundraising.

The Friends also support a major new opera production each year.

In 2011 the Friends raised more than £170,000 – quite a feat in these straitened financial times! Membership has just reached 3,000.

94 pence in every pound raised goes directly to the Festival. And a large percentage of the Friends' income comes from subscriptions – even if you are unable to participate in any other way, joining the Friends' makes a valuable contribution.

More than £1,400,000 is needed to put on each Festival. Almost half of this income comes from Box Office receipts, leaving £500,000 to raise.

The Festival simply could not continue without the Friends' vital support.

Read the latest Friends of Buxton Festival newsletter here

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Friends' events

Thrumpton Hall

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Volunteers

A dedicated team of volunteers work hard year-round.

Extra help is needed in July for:

Stewarding
Selling programmes
Working in the shop

Call 01298 70395 for more information.

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The Foundation

The Foundation is a charity which runs our endowment Fund, attracting legacies and other gifts.

The Fund was set up by supporters to ensure that the Festival has the financial security to keep going and be there for future generations. Interest on the Fund is used to help with artistic developments. It has attracted over 50 legacies and other gifts, mostly running to four figures.

Contact us on 01298 70395 if you would like to make a gift or learn more about the Foundation.

We realise that everyone is not in a position to make a cash gift. If you love the Festival as we do, why not deny the taxman and benefit the next generation by making a gift in your will?

Every gift in every will makes a difference. If 500 people, ie less than one audience at the Opera House, left us a gift of £3000 in their will, we would eventually achieve our aim of creating a lasting
endowment Fund broadly equivalent to the annual turnover of the Festival.

Already one Festival supporter has made a substantial gift through his will, and this enabled the Fund to make a significant contribution, £30,000, to the development of Festival offices, freeing money paid on rent for more and better performances.

Your solicitor would find the following information useful:
Buxton Festival Foundation, registered charity number1096269. 3 The Square, Buxton, SK17 6AZ

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Each year the Festival offers a series of free workshops, concerts and longer term projects for High Peak residents.

The Festival has involved over 10,000 people in creative projects in the last five years.

Led by professional artists, these events offer the chance to explore opera, music and literature to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity. 

You can help support this exciting work with a monthly donation from as a little as £2.

To find out more call Claire on 01298 70395 or download the Engage! newsletter here.

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Sponsors

In 2011 Buxton Festival appreciated important financial support from:

Buxton Natural Mineral Water – is proud to sponsor our community and education programme allowing us to involve 2,000 local people in creative arts activity every year
The Old Hall Hotel– is reputed to be England's oldest hotel and is one of the Festival's longest-standing supporters. Every July they welcome Festival guests to stay, eat and relax in beautiful and historic surroundings. This year the hotel generously supports our flagship opera production Maria Di Rohan
The Buxton Hotel and Thermal Spa Company – is the organisation which is in the process of bringing Buxton's beautiful crescent back to life. This summer they look forward to welcoming festival-goers to their existing venue in Buxton - the Old Hall Hotel
University of Derby – is proud to be the principle sponsor of our literary series. They also provide one of our central venues and enjoy welcoming Festival audiences to the spectacular Devonshire Dome every July
The Chestnut Centre – this conservation and wildlife park, located in scenic Peak District National Park, is home to otters, owls and an array of other indigenous animals. This summer they help us tell the tale of Tarka the Otter
Anglo-Austrian Society – is a members' society which helps the Festival host Austrian related events including this our Mahler themed events on 19th July
Bookstore Brierlow Bar – is the Festival's official bookseller – look out for them at the book signings and in the Festival shop, or visit the largest bargain bookstore in Britain only five minutes drive from Buxton
No. 6 Tearooms – is an elegant, award-winning tea rooms and a favourite with Festival audiences. This year the tearooms sponsor a performance of Festival production Saul
Longcliffe Calcium Carbonates Ltd – is a quarrying company that extracts pure limestone – calcium carbonate; they are proud to have supported the Festival for 17 years
Simply Thai – is an award-winning Thai restaurant in Buxton which hosts regular piano evenings. In 2011 they sponsor a performance of the Festival opera Mignon
Virgin Trains – provides an important link from London to Buxton and in 2011 will help us be kinder to the environment by bringing some of our literary stars to Buxton by train.
Manchester Airports Group - Manchester Airports Group helps us to break down the financial barriers of arts participation to introduce young people to opera via our Festival for a Fiver scheme.

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Become a sponsor

Buxton Festival’s reputation for high quality, innovative work extends further than the stage. 

Sponsoring Buxton Festival guarantees you a quality experience tailored to suit your company’s objectives:

●  Communicating brand values through unique and quality hospitality
●  Targeting specific segments of our audience
●  Appealing to new customers
●  Investing in the community
●  Enhancing investor/government relations
●  Providing staff incentives/rewards
●  Enhancing CSR profile

‘We regard our sponsorship of Buxton Festival as an investment in the town and our business interests in the community.  Our commitment to Buxton’s most prominent cultural organisation demonstrates our own pursuit of quality, responsible business and successful investment in successful ventures.  For this reason, we continue to increase our investment in the Festival’s continuing success.’      
Trevor Osborne, The Osborne Group

Buxton Festival’s sponsorship packages cater for all budgets and special offers are available to first time sponsors. To find out more download our sponsorship leaflet here or call Claire Rhodes on 01298 70395.

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Trusts

The Andor Charitable Trust
The Bingham Trust
The Buxton Hall Bank Trust
The Countess of Munster Trust
D'Oyly Carte Charitable Trust
Garfield Weston Foundation
The Holst Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
The Joyce Fletcher Charitable Trust
The Kathleen Ferrier Memorial Scholarship Fund
The PRS for Music Foundation
The Rotary Club of Buxton
The R.V.W. Trust
The William Alywin Foundation
The Zochonis Charitable Trust

The support of these organisations allows us to maintain our central opera programme and to involve 2,000 local people in creative arts activity through our community and education programme.

Their contributions are key to our continued success.

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Board of Directors

The Festival is both a limited company and a charity, promoting a summer Festival of the arts and an associated community and education programme.  Festival policies are set by a Board of trustees listed below.

Dame Janet Smith (Chairman) lived in Buxton for many years and is now delighted to have the opportunity to spend more time in the town. After retiring from a career as a barrister, a High Court judge and a Lady Justice of Appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice, she is now Treasurer of The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn. She is married to Robin Mathieson, has three children, two stepsons and six shared grandchildren. Apart from her passion for opera, she loves theatre in winter and gardening in fair weather.

Cedric Coates (Vice Chairman) is a Civil Engineer with a long career in management of the design and construction of major projects.  He is actively involved in politics, church, choral music and a Commissioner of General Taxation.

John Anfield came to Buxton in 1978 when he was appointed Head of Planning with the Peak District National Park.  Now retired, he is a volunteer National Park Ranger,  a keen amateur musician, an organist at Buxton Methodist Church and singer with Buxton Musical Society.  He has attended every Buxton Festival, and became a member of the Board in 2003.

Jennie Ball has been on the Festival’s Board since 2005 and a Trustee of the Festival Foundation since 2009. She is Chairman of the Broadoak Group who have interests in Northumberland and in Brazil. She has recently joined with Northumberland Wildlife Trust to build a wildlife reserve. In Brazil the company are involved in reforestation. She is also Vice Chairman of High Peak Radio and a Trustee of the Dovedale Arts Festival based in Derbyshire. Jennie is actively involved in the Peak Music Society and in her youth sang opera. She lives between Derbyshire and London.

Averil Glatman qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist, working in hospitals and as a locum.  She has travelled extensively and been involved with both Opera North and Buxton Festival since their inception.  Her interests range from theatre, music and opera to the welfare of children and the elderly.  She has served on Sheffield’s Children’s Hospital Board for over 30 years.

Trevor Osborne has been a property developer for the past 40 years. The Osborne Group are regarded as experts on buildings of architectural and historic interest. He is a member of the Royal Opera House Development Board and the founding chairman of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales’s Urban Villages Forum. He is currently a Council Member of the Georgian Group, a Trustee of the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, a Director of the Academy of Urbanism and the Chairman of the Advisory Board of South East Excellence. The Group’s philosophy is to engage and be involved in the communities in which it operates. In Buxton he is heavily engaged in promoting the Opera House, The University of Derby and local organisations.

After studying music in Manchester, Phil Ramsbottom decided, after considerable heart searching, that he could best serve music in an amateur rather than professional capacity and thus duly joined the Manchester office of an international firm of chartered accountants, retiring in 2000 after 31 years’ service.  Despite a busy professional life, he was a regular member of the BBC Northern Singers for over 20 years, performing with Solti, Groves, Boulez and Downes.  In addition to Buxton Festival, Phil is on the governing bodies of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, RNCM, Chetham’s School of Music, Chetham’s Hospital and Library, the Granada Foundation and the Britten-Pears Foundation.

Buxton has always been home to Michael Williams.  After reading Law at Oxford, he qualified as a Solicitor.  He became a church organist whilst still at school and has been Organist and Master of the Music at St John’s Church since 1985.  He first conducted Buxton Musical Society in 1967, and has since then covered a wide repertoire of choral and orchestral music.  He was a member of the original steering committee which engineered the reopening of the Opera House and the establishment of the Festival in 1979.  He has served on the Opera House Board ever since, currently as Chairman, and joined the Festival Board in 1993.  In 1997 he was appointed MBE for services to the arts in Buxton.

Stuart Lester has a long-standing interest and involvement in the arts and education. He was a founder trustee of the Hampstead & Highgate Festival and is Chair of Governors of two schools in the London Borough of Barnet. A chartered accountant by profession, he had a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry before retiring to pursue an eclectic range of interests, including opera, classical music, theatre, sport, walking and all aspects of Italian life and culture. He has been a regular visitor to Buxton since the first festival in 1979 and joined the Board in 2010.

Paul Findlay was born in New Zealand and educated in the UK. After leaving Oxford he trained as a Stage Manager and then worked at the Royal Opera House for 25 years in numerous roles finishing as Opera Director from 1987 to 1993. He subsequently was MD of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and was a co-founder of Global Music Network, the first classical Music website on the Internet. He has been a Director of The London Sinfonietta, English Touring Opera, National Youth Music Theatre and Arts Ed (London) and is currently a Director of Welsh National Opera.

Norma Hird is a legal academic, currently working for the Law Schools at both the University of Sheffield and Manchester. After reading Economics she began her career in marketing at one of London's leading advertising agencies. She later joined Opera North as Director of Marketing where she remained until her daughter was born in 1986. After a short career break, she read Law at Sheffield and began her new career as a lawyer. She is a Trustee of the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield and a Governor of Ashdell Preparatory School. She takes a keen interest in literature and music and is a Choral Singer with the Hallam Choral Society. She has been a regular visitor to Buxton since relocating to Sheffield in 1985 and joined the Festival Board in 2011.

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