Wild Arts is generously supported by

Producer, Roman River Festival

Jessie Chapman has worked for the Friends of the Royal Academy, ATG Oxford and the BBC, where she directed and produced travel programmes and live events, and Talkback Thames. 

As well as her work producing the Roman River Festival, she works as a freelance book editor, and has produced yoga, book, and living history festivals.

Jessie holds a degree in Italian Language and Literature.

Wild Arts Ensemble Leader

Supported by Patrick and Louise Grattan

Violinist Sijie ‘Susie’ Chen was a string finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year. 

Her chamber collaborations have included performances with Nicola Benedetti, Roderick Williams at festivals worldwide. She leads the Bloomsbury Players and is the Artistic Director of Vermeer Chamber Concerts, as well as the co-leader of the London Mozart Players. Sijie also tours with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and was previously a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. On period instruments she plays with the Academy of Ancient Music, the English Concert and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Lead Facilitator

Katie is a participatory arts facilitator, playwright and musician. She has extensive experience developing and delivering creative arts workshops and projects in community, educational and arts settings, including The Old Vic, Bush Theatre, The Albany, Roundhouse and Wigmore Hall, and last year she also completed a Master's in Applied Theatre at Goldsmiths University.

Katie has worked with a range of different groups of people, and her core belief as a practitioner is to work consistently with individuals and groups in a co-creative, sensitive and pastoral way – supporting and attuning with participants to find their creative voice whilst connecting them to the space and sense of community around them.

Producer, Messiah

Kirsty Hopkins is a freelance producer and soprano and has joined Wild Arts to produce their tour of Handel’s Messiah in association with director Tom Morris.  Previously Artistic Director of West Green House Opera in Hampshire and producing many shows there, other producing credits include a podcast project for Charles Court Opera and Little Radio. She is the beneficiary of an ACE grant to develop projects to attract new audiences to classical music.

As a singer she enjoys a versatile career performing all over the world with some of today’s most renowned ensembles and is a proud member of The Sixteen.

Passionate about staged work, recent performances include Purcell The Fairy Queen: Three Wishes for OAE at Queen Elizabeth Hall, First witch in Purcell Dido and Aeneas at Grange Festival; the immersive one-woman show The Apple Tree for OAE Tots; soprano soloist in The Sixteen and Streetwise Opera's The Passion - a staged version of Bach's St Matthew Passion broadcast on BBC4; playing Ruth Ellis in Charlotte Bray's opera Entanglement; Betrayal, I Fagiolini's murderous fusion of renaissance music and contemporary dance and Thomas Tallis at The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe.

CEO

Tim Jackson-Waite is a dynamic professional with extensive experience in commercial operations, theatre, and community engagement. His professional experience spans decades of leadership roles across various industries, including as Director of Jackson Waite (Town and Country) Estate Agents, Director of Sales and Operations at United Business Centres, and Managing Director of Banbury Ball Ltd.

As a Governor and Trustee of Sharnbrook Mill Theatre Trust since 2014, he has lead fundraising campaigns that raised over £350,000 for eco-driven heating and air-conditioning systems and spearheaded a £100,000 car park refurbishment project. Elected Chair of Governors in 2023, Tim has enhanced the theatre’s sense of welcome and atmosphere while continuing to contribute as an actor and front-of-house volunteer.

Educated at the University of Manchester-Crewe and Alsager, where he earned a BA (Hons.) in English and Drama, Tim also trained at the London Academy of Performing Arts and was a member of the National Student Theatre Company.

Artistic Director

Orlando Jopling is a conductor and cellist. His conducting work has ranged from guest music staff and conducting positions at the Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet and English National Ballet, to performing and recording a huge range of orchestral repertoire with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Mozart Players and the Irish Chamber Orchestra among many others.

His music-making as a cellist has ranged from over 150 solo recitals, recording the 6 Bach cello Suites to critical acclaim, or a lifelong obsession with chamber music, to playing on numerous film scores and on tour as a guest tutti cellist with all of the great international orchestras based in London, most regularly with the Philharmonia and London Symphony Orchestra.

He loves collaboration and has created experimental new work with theatre companies, dancers and choreographers, poets, school pupils, students, folk musicians, global superstars like Sinead O'Connor, and visual artists.

He has appeared in several feature films and TV series as a conductor, most recently as Pierre Monteux conducting an early performance of the Rite of Spring. 

Fixer / Orchestral Manager

Will McGahon is an energetic violinist enjoying a varied musical career as a historical performer, chamber musician and orchestral player, performing in the UK and across Europe.

Will enjoys regularly playing with some of the UK’s leading historical orchestras, including Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Solomon’s Knot and The Hanover Band. He is also a freelancer in some of the UK’s finest ensembles such as Scottish Chamber Orchestra, United Strings of Europe and Manchester Collective.

Will is a member of the Bloomsbury Players and the Wild Arts Ensemble.

As a child, Will memorised the entirety of the ‘Revolting Rhymes’ by Roald Dahl, and would recite them at family events. His great grandfather invented prawn cocktail flavouring for ‘Skips’ crisps!

Company Tour Manager

Becca trained in stage management at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has since worked as stage manager, company manager, and artistic administrator. After freelancing for companies including Britten Pears Arts, Opera North, and Garsington Opera, Becca joined English Touring Opera and spent several years on the road. Her career highlights have included working with Harrison Birtwistle, touring to Austria, France, and Italy, and working at the beautiful Snape Maltings.

Becca pretends to enjoy running, gardens with much enthusiasm but little skill, and spends a disproportionate amount of time coaxing her small children down from trees.

Outreach Manager

Vicki is passionate about facilitating creative opportunities for young people, expanding audiences, and finding inventive ways to help schools and communities showcase and celebrate the creativity of children.

Alongside her work as a theatre designer, Vicki worked extensively on education initiatives for schools and community groups, including London Symphony Orchestra and Welsh National Opera. More recently, under the name Treefrog Art, she has devised and delivered projects for Hampshire schools, working with groups of up to 1000 children.

Vicki trained as a set and costume designer at Bristol Old Vic theatre school and at the Slade School of art.

Producer

Max Parfitt is a London-based producer and writer. After working with the Learning and Engagement department at Glyndebourne, he joined Wild Arts prior to their 2023 tour, first creating their programmes and web content, before taking over as company manager for their Summer Opera Evening tour, and subsequently producer and casting manager for their core programme.

 As well as his work for Wild Arts, he has created programmes for Thaxted Festival, the London Mozart Players, Armonico Consort, and Voces8, and collaborates regularly with writers group 26 – editing their newsletter, contributing poems and articles, producing events, and sitting on their board. He also leads and assists with creative writing workshops, most recently for Scribeasy, working with children and young parents with special educational needs.

He studied music at Oxford University, where he was a choral scholar with Exeter College Chapel Choir.

Marketing Manager

Bethan began her career in marketing and fundraising for Rambert Dance Company and then worked for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Proms and London's Barbican Centre before developing a freelance career with clients including The Academy of Ancient Music,  Hertfordshire Music Service and The Yehudi Menuhin School.

Bethan read music at the University of Leeds and was a member of the National Youth Choir of Great Britain before moving to London and joining Chantage with whom she won the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year Competition. She then joined Hertfordshire chamber choir the Lea Singers, performing in a semi-staged production of Bach's St Matthew Passion directed by Thomas Guthrie and sung entirely from memory, so she feels a particular affinity with Wild Arts' Messiah.