Our People
JOANNE ROUGHTON-ARNOLD
CEO & Creative Director
Co-founder and Creative Director, Joanne Roughton-Arnold is an opera singer and powerful advocate for inclusion in the opera and classical music sector. She is responsible for the overarching creative direction of formidAbility, dreaming up innovative projects with high artistic and access goals that break down barriers for communities underrepresented in our sector.
Originally from NZ and with a background as a professional violinist, to label Roughton-Arnold as exciting is an understatement. She commissions new music and sings projects of astonishing emotion and vision. With a mass of wild copper curls and an arresting belly laugh, her energy is positively atomic.
Her own visual impairment has never curbed her ambitions and vision as an opera singer. She works tirelessly towards a world where it is normal to see talented disabled people on stage, in creative teams and in governance of opera companies and classical music organisations. In March 2023, in recognition of her impact, Arts Council England awarded her a Developing Your Creative Practice grant to develop further as an arts leader and make formidable disabled talent mainstream instead of niche.
Our Board:
THEODORA BECKETT
Theodora Beckett is Head of London for the social value consultancy RealWorth, leading on projects across London and the south-east. She advises on community wealth building and placemaking strategy, as well as the optimising, delivering and measuring of social impact. Over the course of her career she has worked closely with public and private sector clients across the UK, with a specific focus on strategic positioning, inclusive regeneration and masterplanning. She has led on a number of successful central government funding bids for a number of local authorities across the country worth almost £60 million. Theodora has a masters degree in Sustainable Urban Development from King’s College London.
ROSIE LOKER: CO CHAIR
Rosie Loker (Hon ARAM) is an arts professional and business owner based in Hertfordshire. Rosie studied music at the University of Birmingham, and went on to forge a career in performance management, with roles at the Association of British Orchestras, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Royal Academy of Music. In 2019 Rosie launched Tailor Made Music Agency, a specialist classical and jazz agency providing high-quality professional musicians for weddings and events. She also co-founded a Disabled women's campaign group in 2020 to fight for disability justice during challenging times for the Disabled community. Rosie's personal experiences as a Disabled woman working in the arts led her to become involved with FormidAbility. She is currently Head of Membership at Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA). Rosie is passionate about widening access for audiences and performers, but also for Disabled people working behind the scenes, where career options are often limited due to a lack of access and imagination. She is a strong advocate for the Social Model of Disability which looks beyond the medical and recognises the societal barriers that disable people.
TOM SHAKESPEARE
Tom is a professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, having previously worked at UEA, WHO and Newcastle University. He is author of Disability Rights and Wrongs (2006), more than one hundred papers and the novels The Ha-ha (2024) and The Ends (2025), He was formerly a member of Arts Council England and the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
FIONA WILLIAMS: CO CHAIR
A former opera singer, Fiona works as a producer, director, dramaturg and workshop animateur, with credits across the UK’s independent and fringe opera scene. She specialises in participatory work, running education projects, community choirs and large scale, site-specific community projects. Fiona balances this work with a corporate career in strategic communications and organisational development. The golden thread at the heart of Fiona’s work is a drive for social justice and catalysing change for individuals, communities and organisations. Widening access is central to this, driven by a belief that opera has the power to transform lives—and that representation, accessibility and co-creation are vital to its future. She hopes to combine her in-depth knowledge and experience of the UK’s creative landscape with her strategic and communications specialism to support formidAbility’s bold, inclusive and transformative work in opera and beyond.
PATRICIA ST HILAIRE
Patricia was one of the co-founders of the radical Theatre of Black Women with writer, Bernardine Evaristo and director, Paulette Randell. Theatre of Black Women undertook writing, commissioning, performing, and touring in the UK and Europe. Patricia’s play, Just Another Day, was produced at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the Talking Black season. She worked with the ENO Baylis writing libretti for and directing two children’s opera in London schools. Following this, Patricia qualified as an arts administrator at City University when there were few black qualified arts managers. She went on to be a tutor on the Women into Arts Management programme at Birkbeck College, University of London. Later she went on to work in local government as trainer and partnership working in the field of children and families and provided leadership courses for London Boroughs of Croydon, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Haringey and Islington. Patricia was asked to be Human Resources and Operations Director for Youth at Risk where she was responsible for the procurement of funds and the development of partnerships between the multi agencies. Then Patricia moved into the retail sector as an HR manager where she has developed her skills at both a local and regional level. She has worked as a senior HR partner to senior managers, implementing organisational restructuring and dealing with disciplinary issues, grievances, and performance management issues.
IAN MASSA-HARRIS-MCFEELY
Ian is a multifaceted creative and educator with a career spanning performance, education, makeup design and project consultancy. A Classical Crossover Dramatic Character Tenor, Ian has appeared at leading venues including the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, London Coliseum, and Opera Holland Park. Ian is Programme Leader for the forthcoming MA Musical Theatre at the University of Chichester Conservatoire and lectures in vocal technique and SFX makeup. He is currently completing an MA in Vocal Pedagogy (Voice Study Centre / UWTSD); his research focuses on inclusive training for trans and non-binary voices in musical theatre. With over two decades in film, theatre, and opera, Ian’s clients include the BBC, ITV, Sky, and O2. He has collaborated with artists such as Sir Ian McKellen, Imelda Staunton, and Alison Steadman. Ian has led major workplace transformation projects for organisations including Marie Curie, The Children’s Society, and SOAS University of London, specialising in agile working, strategic relocation, and stakeholder engagement A founding member of Pride in London, Ian created Pride’s Got Talent and has been listed on the UK LGBT+ Pride Power List. He is a BAFTA Connect member and serves on BECTU’s LGBTQ Community Hair & Makeup Branch and as a Trustee of the British Inspirational Trust.
ALISON SMITH
Alison Smith is an editor who loves music, is herself invisibly disabled, and is really enjoying being on the Board of formidAbility. Her hope is that accessibility this good will become so routine that formidAbility will no longer stand out except for the quality of their work, and disabled people will be employed because of their talent, not despite their disability.
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LAURA WILLIS
Laura has over 10 years’ experience fundraising in the arts and culture sector. She has worked in fundraising teams in organisations including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Design Museum. Laura is currently Development Director at the London Philharmonic Orchestra overseeing all areas of fundraising including individual giving, sponsorship and corporate partnerships, trusts and foundations, stewardship and fundraising events. Outside of work Laura is a keen clarinettist playing in a number of local ensembles in South West London.
ANDREA BROWN
Conducting ‘with spirit and vitality – and musical integrity always at its core’, leading UK Choral Conductor, Andrea Brown has performed with choirs across the globe. Andrea is the conductor of the RWCMD Chamber Choir, the Exeter Festival Chorus, and the Somerset Chamber Choir. She works regularly as conductor with other ensembles including the BBC Singers, The Festival Chorus, the BBC Concert Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent work includes concerts in Berlin with hortus vocalis, Elgar’s ‘Dream of Gerontius’ at Exeter Cathedral and the critically acclaimed ‘Memorial’ with Tippett Voices at the Barbican Centre, London. Most recently she was Conductor and Musical Director of the acclaimed ‘The Paradis Files’, a commission by Errollyn Wallen with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Graeae Theatre Company; the world première at Queen Elizabeth Hall was broadcast on Radio 3 and followed by a UK tour. Andrea is the Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, leading and teaching on the postgraduate programmes. Currently Visiting Professor of Choral Conducting at the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Czechia, Andrea was recently Associate Choral Conducting Examiner at the Royal Academy of Music, London. She co-founded the award-winning Women Conductors and Wavelength programmes, both designed to encourage, educate and promote women within the conducting profession. Andrea chairs jury panels of choral competitions, and holds masterclasses for choirs and conductors in the UK and abroad. Formerly a Soprano, Andrea has performed and recorded at some of the finest concert halls around the world with a range of top-class ensembles, including the Academy of Ancient Music, Chapelle du Roi, Ex Cathedra and Coro Cervantes. Operatic and concert performances include Opera Chatelet, Shakespeare’s Globe, Split International Festival, Spitalfields Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival and the BBC Proms. Andrea is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of a significant contribution to the field of Choral Conducting.
