Director & Trustees

Chair to the Trustees – Stephen Inglis

I first started coming to Workshop around 1991.  I’d recently left the University, where I was a lecturer in virology, to join a start-up biotech company on the Science Park, and my very generous leaving gift had been a clarinet.  I hadn’t any formal musical education – I was taught piano briefly (and un-inspiringly) as a child, and learned to play the bagpipes at school in Aberdeen – but I had let slip a fancy for taking up jazz saxophone.  Apparently, though, the gift budget couldn’t quite stretch that far!  After a few private lessons a friend told me about Workshop and suggested it would be a good opportunity to broaden my horizons.  It certainly did the job.  I started with small group clarinet lessons and then, with great trepidation at each stage, braved the Wind Band, All Stars, the Jazz Band and finally Choir, learning a huge amount along the way.   Saturdays at Workshop became a cherished highlight of the week, a fiercely defended diary commitment and a wonderful antidote to the stresses and strains of my working and commuting life.  After a decade in the biotech world I spent the next fourteen years as director of a scientific institute near London concerned with international standardisation and control of vaccines and other biopharmaceuticals, retiring eventually in 2016. I now do a bit of consultancy, occasional teaching and, very happily, a lot more music!

 

Secretary to the Trustees – Dan Leggate

I first heard of Workshop when our family offered a lift to a stranded tutor who had missed a rail-replacement bus service into Cambridge. Eagerly anticipating the opportunity to introduce our children to music, I arrived in September 2010 when my eldest daughter joined the Mini-Workshop. It was only then that I realised that there were groups for adults as well and I was delighted to be able to brush the dust off my cello, joining the String Orchestra and Orchestra (I’ve since also tutored the beginner cellos). Over the years, the whole family has joined up and Workshop has become a weekly highlight that we all enjoy together.

I live locally in the village and all three of my children have come through Duxford Primary School. My working life has been in drug discovery and biotech. I currently work for a small University spin out company developing new drugs in oncology.

 

Treasurer to the Trustees – Margaret Kerry

I first started attending Workshop about 25 years ago and was hooked from the very first session.  Music is a huge part of my life, particularly singing and playing the recorder. It’s the thing that keeps me more or less sane. Workshop has always been a family affair. I used to come with my son and now my husband Nick comes with me. There is nothing else like it.

I took over from Hazel Smith as treasurer to the Trustees in 2024, having become a Trustee the previous year. After 25 years attending it seemed like the right opportunity to put something back. I feel privileged to be part of such a unique organisation.

 

 

 

Gill Haughan – Trustee
Many years ago I was persuaded, by a member I met, to try out Duxford Saturday Workshop.
over 25 years later, I still enjoy coming to Duxford. Part of the appeal of Workshop to me is the
range of ages and abilities that are welcomed. Over the years I have tutored Beginner Violins and the Folk Fiddle group. I have also helped organise some weekends at Burwell for the Choir and Folk Fiddlers. Currently, I exercise my brain learning tunes in Folk Fiddles and play in both String and full Orchestra.

 

 

 

Dominic Mahony – Trustee

I first heard about Duxford Saturday Workshop when I moved to Whittlesford in the early 1990s and a neighbour told me about it. I dusted off my cello, at the time unplayed for 15 years, and joined the string orchestra. I quickly appreciated the informal, friendly nature of workshop and the sense that making music should, above all, be fun. It helped me regain confidence and enjoyment in playing.  Since then I’ve sung in the choir and learned to strum the guitar and the ukelele. My two children went to workshop when they were younger and, with the odd break when living abroad, it’s been part of my life for the best part of 30 years.

 

 

 

Arwen Gilbert – Director

Music has always featured hugely in my life, from starting to learn the piano at 4, the violin at 6, to singing in my local Festival Chorus, playing in County Music Ensembles and taking part in a Music Theatre group for many years.  After graduating with a degree in Music from Cambridge in 1996, I embarked upon my Initial Teacher Training course at Homerton.  I still count myself the luckiest student of my cohort to be placed at Sawston Village College with Janet Macleod as my mentor.  She suggested that I came out to Workshop and I cycled over to her house each Saturday in order to get my lift there and back.  The rest, as she says above, is history.  Workshop has been a second family to me over the years, and I love my Saturday mornings there.  I’ve conducted the Recorder Band and the Allstars orchestra, led the Children’s Music Theatre Group and started a composition class during my time there in addition to my administrative responsibilities, and I am totally committed to the ethos of music’s being for all, irrespective of age, ability or financial means.