Youth music charity, NYMAZ, has announced the appointment of Sarah McWatt as its new Director.
Sarah McWatt takes up post at the end of April 2018 following two years as Music and the Deaf‘s Director of Education. Her previous experience includes education roles with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Opera North and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival as well as event production for Leeds Lieder Festival and TUSK Festival.
Prior to this, Sarah worked as a music teacher in schools and universities across Yorkshire and Merseyside. She is an active musician and has toured the UK and Ireland extensively over the last 20 years.
NYMAZ’s development
Sarah McWatt joins NYMAZ with a brief to lead the next stages of the charity’s development as it works to create a musically inclusive England, advocating for every child to have access to music-making opportunities, no matter their circumstances or geographic location.
Incumbent Director, Heidi Johnson, is stepping down after six years at the helm to prioritise family commitments. She has recently secured significant multi-year funding arrangements which have laid the foundations for the charity’s future stability.
One of Youth Music‘s thirteen Fund C strategic partners, NYMAZ has recently embarked on the latest phase of its online music education project, Connect: Resound, which is supported by a strategic grant from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Sarah Derbyshire MBE, Chair, NYMAZ Board of Trustees, said:
‘I am delighted to welcome Sarah McWatt to the NYMAZ team. She possesses a wealth of experience and a strong commitment to our vision. I am confident that she will bring strong leadership and will ensure that the organisation continues to thrive as we enter a new, exciting phase of development.’
Sarah McWatt said:
‘I am enormously excited to be joining NYMAZ this Spring. NYMAZ is a fantastic organisation and I feel very privileged to have been appointed to lead it in the next stages of its progress. I am very much looking forward to building upon the wonderful legacy of work that Heidi Johnson has developed over the last six years and I aspire to produce further innovative strategies, projects and events to help create an even more musically inclusive England in the years to come.’
Header photo: Sarah McWatt
