FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

NOD KNOWLES TO LEAVE BATH FESTIVALS

 

After the artistic successes of this year’s Bath International Music Festival and 5 years as Chief Executive of Bath Festivals, Nod Knowles has announced that he will be stepping down in early October in order to return to a freelance career in the music business. Nod has been associated with Bath Festivals for 25 years, as Jazz Programme Director (and 2 years in the 1990’s as transitional CEO)  before he took over the Chief Executive role in 2005.

 

‘I am very proud of what I have achieved here – building a great team and running exciting world class festivals, education programmes and box office services.  I’ve had such great fulfilment from all of the work over the years.   But this is a time of change for Bath Festivals, and for me, as I yearn to return to more direct independent work with music and cultural consultancy - so it’s a good time to be moving on, with Bath Festivals’ future in the strong and safe hands of Jane Drabble’, says Knowles.

 

Nod went on to comment that ‘Joanna MacGregor’s glorious programme for this year ended on such a high note with her wonderful Chopin recital followed by a packed house for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.  And as if that wasn’t a good enough finale for my tenure as Chief Executive, when Martha turned up to celebrate with Joanna and the Festival team at our end-of-festival party and started singing For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow to me, I knew I’d be sad to leave such great people – but I couldn’t ever top that!’

 

Jane Drabble, Chair of Bath Festivals, said: ‘Nod Knowles has made an enormous contribution to Bath Festivals and has become a key player in the cultural life of the city.  He’s built an organisation that’s well placed to deal with future challenges.  He’s recruited an excellent dedicated staff who run the festivals with tremendous aplomb and efficiency.  And of course he’s helped bring the Children’s Literature Festival into the Bath Festivals ‘family’, turning us into much more of a year round operation’. 

 

The search for Nod’s successor will begin immediately. 

 

8 June 2010

 

For more information contact Juliet Simpson, Marketing and Communications Manager  on 01225 462231 or juliet.simpson@bathfestivals.org.uk

 

Reflections on a ‘great gig’ from Nod Knowles

 

It has dawned on me recently that in some form or another I have been working with Bath Festivals and its predecessor company for 25 years.  I was the Jazz Programme Director for 21 of those years – and Chief Executive twice – for two years in the early 1990’s and now for 5 years since 2005. 

 

I’ve enjoyed every minute of it – it’s been a great gig! - and I’m proud of the contribution I’ve made to the Music Festival and to the development of Bath Festivals as a company. 

 

I am thrilled to have been the Chief Executive who brought Joanna MacGregor to Bath International Music Festival as Artistic Director, which she has transformed with such incredible panache.  The Party In The City, another innovation from 2006 onwards, has taken root as one of the community’s most enjoyable events.   And after such excellent work by Sara LeFanu in building the Literature Festival, I am delighted to have signed up James Runcie as her formidable successor.

 

Right from 1986, Bath International Music Festival has allowed me to build Bath’s reputation as one of the major contemporary highlights in the jazz calendar for the UK and further afield in Europe.  And although I genuinely love all of the music the Festival presents, there is no doubt that my joy in jazz music and all it represents has brought me more job satisfaction over the years than any other single part of my career.

 

Now, plans for the future that I have worked on with our Chair, Jane Drabble, will bring the already successful Bath Festival of Children’s Literature under the Bath Festivals umbrella, as well as a year-round series of gigs for teenage and student audiences that kicks off in July this year (and incorporates a unique programme of training for new young music promoters).

 

The Bath Festivals staff team that I have built over the past five years is the best and most skilled team that the company has ever had.   Their commitment and determination has been a source of inspiration to me - and confirms all my confidence in their ability to search out and take on new ideas that will enhance the cultural attractions of the Bath area.

 

I have had the pleasure of working under three Chairs since 2005.  And the appointment of Jane Drabble as Chair in December 2009 – as well as the recruitment of highly experienced and active members of the Board of Trustees – gives me confidence that the company is in safe – and deeply committed – hands.

 

I seem to have always been involved in change and new developments.  In 1993 we created the current company, Bath Festivals, after a long period of financial difficulty with the old Bath Festivals Society.  We opened the way for the Literature Festival and education projects.  

 

When I returned as Chief Executive in 2005 we embarked on a fundamental reorganisation, winning the support of Arts Council England and Bath and North East Somerset council for developments that included initiating a year-round education programme and building the Bath Areas Cultural Forum, now a strong voice for the cultural sector in which Bath Festivals plays a leading part.

 

With the onset of the challenges of the economic situation and the inevitable squeezing of funding from the public and corporate sectors, as well as individual supporters and our loyal ticket-buying audiences, I have worked with Jane Drabble on (for me) my third fundamental exercise in change for Bath Festivals.   The plan we have devised is ambitious, positive and committed to providing the best quality cultural experiences for the people of the area and all our visitors.

 

So I’ve decided that three major changes and 25 years of Festivals may be just about my limit, at least for the time being.  I want to turn again to working closely with  the music I know best and taking some time to build what, in all likelihood, will be the last phase of my working career.   I’m re-opening the company that I ran in the 1990’s – Nod Knowles Productions – and making full use of my experience, contacts and enthusiasm for freelance work in music as well as in arts consultancy.

 

I will retain some of my links with Bath Festival – especially as their honorary representative as President of Europe Jazz Network until the end of 2011. 

 

I’ll miss working with the staff team, with Joanna and James - and now John & Gill Maclay - very much indeed.  But I know that the company and its future Festivals are safe in their hands, and in the hands of a strong and forward-looking Chair and Board.