The Musical Museum's Trustees make up our board of Directors, and have a broad spectrum of backgrounds and experience. Our Trustees volunteer to apply their skills, experience and contacts to help us achieve our charitable objectives, grow the museum's visitors, reach new audiences, and build a sustainable future for our collections.

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The Museum is always looking for new Trustees. If you have relevant experience and would like to apply to join our board, please click here to find our more.

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Our current Trustees are:

Chris Barber – Director of Music & HR Director

 Chris Barber, MBA, BSc, MCIPD, ARCM is a freelance consultant specialising in HR, organisational design and change management. Chris provides advice to public and private sector organisations to help them meet challenges imposed by changes in the business environment. He has worked both in the UK and overseas, with permanent senior roles in a variety of large organisations.

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Chris joined the Museum 10 years ago as the Museum’s resident organist and has served as interim Chair;  he is a trained concert artist having studied piano at the Royal College of Music and organ at Cambridge. He has played at many theatre organ venues in the UK and the USA, as well as being regularly featured on BBC Radio 2’s The Organist Entertains. Chris has played on cruise ships, worked as a session musician and was regular pianist with the Ron Goodwin Orchestra for many years. 

Chris oversees the musical life of the Museum, and produces (and plays in) many of the Museum’s concerts. When not at his desk, or at the console of The Mighty Wurlitzer, Chris likes to pursue his passion for motorcycling. His other main interests are in the restoration of his own Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ, and the preservation and rallying of the Burrell Scenic Road Locomotive “Dragon.”

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Steve Barrett-White - Trustee

Steve Barrett-White first worked in the record industry in a number of roles, followed by Acorn Computers, working on the BBC Micro, then Commodore Computers, to introduce the Amiga in the UK. After a spell at Philips and SPC, he entered the A/V market, working for distributors and dealers. He joined the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as their only A/V technician 16 years ago, and retired as their Audio Visual Manager in October 2019, where he was responsible for A/V at RIBA’s head office as well as their regional offices around the country.

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Steve is much in demand as a presenter/lecturer in microphone techniques and sound in general. He has an extensive library of microphones and recording equipment, and records and produces recordings for radio and for orchestras, cinema organists, choirs and jazz bands across the UK and Europe.

 

Mark Blackwell – Financial Director

Mark Blackwell, ACMA, is a professional accountant and responsible for the  financial well-being of the Museum. Having worked his way up through all the accounting functions in industry, and qualifying in 1992, Mark worked in the IT and Leasing industries attaining the role of European Finance Director of a large US corporate. Following the sale of this company and, having helped a couple of friends with the finances of their own business, decided to set up his own consultancy, supporting local businesses and people with their accounting and self-assessments. Approximately 30% of his firm's clients are small to medium sized charities, where they not only assist with their statutory requirements and day-to-day finances but also grant applications and governance.

Although he is a busy professional, music has always played a very important part in Mark’s life. He started as resident organist at Twickenham United Reform Church at the age of 14 and has played in various churches ever since, as well as running numerous choirs, including a peripatetic choir that provides choral support to cathedrals when the resident choir is away. Mark has also played piano and electronic keyboard for many stage shows, and was Musical Director for the Spelthorne Gang Show (with over 100 young people) for 10 years.

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David Goddard – Collections Director

David Goddard MSc is a long-standing volunteer and supporter of the Museum, having served in various roles including editing the Friends magazine for 7 years, assisting in negotiations with Hounslow Council for the new building, and with the architects for the building designas well as devising and implementing the plan for dismantling, moving and reassembling the exhibits in the collection.  David's current role is to supervise and co-ordinate the repair, conservation and maintenance of the Museum's varied and complex exhibits..

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David comes from a military background, having served in the Royal Navy initially as an engineering officer and then moving on to flying both fixed wing aircraft and helicopters. He has the proud distinction of being a midshipman on Britain’s last battleship, HMS Vanguard. After leaving the Navy, David worked as a project manager for EHI Ltd overseeing Augusta and Westland Helicopters during the design and prototype production of the EH101 (Merlin) Helicopter.

 

Marcus Harbourne – Health & Safety Executive & Operations Director

 Marcus first visited the museum in 2016, and like many before him, was captivated by the sights and sounds he experienced there. Marcus joined the Museum as a tour guide, and latterly, became a trustee. His working life has been spent in the licensed retail industry, including being a manager for Forte Hotels for 5 years, with Courage Brewing as an area manager responsible for some 28 public houses, and Morland Brewery in 1983 as a Business Development Manager for 15 large catering outlets. In 1998, Marcus set up his own consultancy - Harborne Innpact Services, providing training on all aspects of hospitality, catering, licensing law, premises licencing and heath and safety best practice - all skills which have been of enormous practical help to the Musical Museum in recent years.

 

Marcus still runs his company, and covers some 25,000 miles a year in the delivery of various contracts.  He is an active member of his local church and a long-standing governor of an independent school in High Wycombe as well as President of the school's PTA.

 

Simon Hill – Technical Director & CTO

 Simon Hill, MRI MBCS CITP has been with the Museum since 2015, and oversees our technical infrastructure, including IT, audio/visual services for our concerts and events, and the Museum's "Contemporary Collection". Simon is currently Head of Insight for Domestic & General Plc., and has had a varied and successful business career; including Vice-President at a global outsourcing company, and Director of Insight & Decision Science at Sky, as well as holding senior roles at Dell, MasterCard, Bupa, Camelot, Vodafone and Cable & Wireless.

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Simon brings with him a lifelong appreciation of music and an enthusiasm for pipe organs, which stems from his early years as a Cathedral Chorister. In addition to his extensive technical knowledge as a Chartered IT Professional, he also has experience in stagecraft, which began with his first job as a stage electrician at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth and continues through his hobbies as a pyrotechnician and lighting designer.

 

Michael Ryder – Trustee

 Michael Ryder, M.Phil, FCA has a long and happy association with the Musical Museum that goes back to the late 1960’s, when he came upon it thanks to his mother’s Woman’s Guild coach visit, when he was obliged to fill an empty seat! He was fascinated by how the instruments worked. As a student with limited means, he persuaded people to give him lifts to Brentford so he could help take tickets on the door, sell items in the shop, and do whatever needed doing, eventually becoming a tour guide. He has been key to much of the Museum's history, playing a central role in creating the building the Museum now occupies, and serving as the Museum's Chairman for many years.

 

Professionally, Michael is a Chartered Accountant; after qualifying, he taught accounting and business in higher education, designing and creating new degree courses, as well as his own research and teaching commitments; he then became an HMI (education inspector), and finally became the Chief Officer of a large grant-giving charity in the London Borough of Richmond until his retirement.

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Michael J Wood – Exhibitions & Display Director

 Mike’s association with the Museum began in 2006, when as a volunteer, he spent many hours with the team dismantling and subsequently moving the collection to the new building - and then rebuilding, repairing and displaying the collection in the various galleries.  Mike read Mathematics at the University of St Andrew’s followed by post graduate studies.  He joined IBM and was responsible for sales and marketing to a variety of large companies, and post-retirement became chair of "Carer's Support Spelthorne", a charity that offered independent services and practical help to local care givers.  Mike is an accomplished musician and accompanist to local choirs and choral societies (occasionally taking charge of the baton). He is currently organist at St. Nicholas Church in Shepperton, and for the past 24 years Mike has been the principal accompanist for the highly-regarded Weybridge Male Voice Choir, and can also be heard at the console of the Museum's Wurlitzer playing for tours, films and events.  

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Vicky Yannoula - Chair

Vicky Yannoula BMus (Hons) PGDip MMus leads the board of the Musical Museum. Vicky is a classical music professional engaged in an array of performance, managerial, educational and entrepreneurial activities. As a pianist, she has performed in a variety of venues across the UK and Europe, and recorded two commercial world premiere CDs with repertoire by Shostakovich and Beethoven. Vicky is also a singer who has performed musical theatre, jazz and contemporary repertoire, as well as Greek art songs in her home country of Greece. 

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Vicky has an enormous passion for music and has held interests in multiple areas of the industry over the past twenty-five years. Alongside her performing career, Vicky is currently Chief Executive of the Hackney Youth Orchestras Trust, Deputy Head of Camden Music Service and Director of Akouson Classical Artists. Her previous appointments include: Music Director of the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod; Head of Scholarships & Artistic Planning at the Drake Calleja Trust; Head of Keyboard at Ardingly College; Music Qualifications Manager at Trinity College London; Music Lecturer and Chorus Director at Middlesex University; and Trustee and Secretary of the London Chamber Music Society.

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Vicky Yannoula joined the Musical Museum as Chair in January 2020. On her election, Vicky said: "I could not be more thrilled to be associated with the Museum at a time when there is so much to look forward to in terms of bringing the organisation's uniqueness to the fore and fulfilling our artistic and commercial potential. I am excited and honoured to be working alongside the board of trustees with the aim to deliver a fresh approach to our mission, enhance our operations, broaden our ambition and strengthen our efficiency. I very much look forward to bringing my experience of charity work and entrepreneurship and my enthusiasm for the Musical Museum to help shape its future well into the 21st century."