It’s 20 years since Doya Beardmore, more widely known as music artist Skinny Pelembe, first walked through the Higher Rhythm doors.
We’re happy to announce that alongside his impressive career as music artist, producer, remixer and even music industry lecturer, Doya has become a Higher Rhythm ‘hall of famer’ and joined our board.
Because we’re not for profit, our board is made up of volunteers who don’t take payment for their role, giving their time and expertise so we can reinvest surpluses back in to deliver our work. The governing board assures that Higher Rhythm operates, sustains and grows responsively and responsibly.
Alongside Doya, a successful artist with album releases on Brownswood and Partisan, as well as major festival appearances worldwide, our board currently consists of:
Our longest serving board member, Gwyn, has a background in music, recording Indie charts hits in the 90s with his band, Brazil. However, his professional background is in web technology and education. Gwyn is the CEO of a multi-academy trust and director of the widely used educational platform Realsmart. Gwyn is regularly consulted in education development internationally by government bodies as far as the US, India, and Australia.
Although a huge music fan, Chris’s professional background is in the highest level of mobile communications technology. Chris was instrumental in Project Darwin, an initiative that migrated the UK’s emergency services onto a priority 5G band. He also redesigned the mobile network at Glastonbury festival to drastically improve its performance. More recently, Chris was contracted as rollout manager by the government of Denmark to deliver 5G across the entire country.
With a music rep as big as it gets, Yve managed Air Studios in Montseraat for Sir George Martin. Yve managed Air, right up until Mother Nature dealt the two devastating blows of Hurricane Hugo and the volcanic eruption, famously destroying the studio. Air produced an entire era of platinum-selling albums working with artists such as The Police, Dire Straits and the Rolling Stones… It’s fair to say that all the biggest-selling albums by household name rock groups of that era were recorded at Air, under Yve’s management.
Liz is the current student rep at Higher Rhythm College of Music and Media, representing student and participant voice on the board. This keeps Higher Rhythm policy authentically in touch with the people who the organisation supports. Liz is an accomplished jazz musician, also having a role in the widely respected Doncaster Youth Jazz Association. DYJA are responsible for artists behind acts such as Groove Armada, Faithless, and world-renowned musicians such as Dennis Rollins.
Over the years, the varied expertise and experience of our board has enabled Higher Rhythm to achieve some incredible things. We can also promise you that we don’t plan on stopping any time soon.
