Co-Founder & Co-Director;
Lead Consultant

Marianna’s career has focused on arts for social change, first as a music teacher with the Teach First programme and then as the Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of the award winning charity Orchestras for All (OFA). 

After reading music at Oxford University, Marianna joined Teach First and taught music at Highbury Grove School in Islington in 2007, subsequently becoming the school's Director of Music, and leading its first in-school music academy.  

In 2011, inspired by the pupils she had been teaching in school, Marianna founded Orchestras for All in the belief that all young people should be able to access the life-changing experience of ensemble music-making whatever their circumstances. Now in its 14th year, OFA is widely recognized as a leading voice in inclusive, youth-led practice recently joining a portfolio of 15 National Youth Music Organisations in the UK and supporting thousands of young people each year to develop musical, social and creative skills. 

In addition to her work with OFA, Marianna Co-Founded Take Note and has worked as a consultant on a number of initiatives across the arts, social change and education sectors including North Edinburgh Arts,  The Dunard Centre and the Academy for Impact Through Music. 

In 2017-2018, Marianna spent a year as a Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme, funded by Arts Council England. She is a trustee of Live Music Now Scotland and Chair of The Tinderbox Collective. In 2020, Marianna was awarded an MBE for services to music education.

Contact Marianna at marianna@wetakenote.org

Co-Founder & Co-Director

Emily’s career has focused on using creative writing and theatre for social change, first as Head of Programme and Interim Executive Director of national charity First Story. There, she led a period of growth to double its reach to over 2,000 young people from low-income backgrounds, developing over 20 regional partnerships across the country, and during that time led the charity to found the UK’s first ever National Writing Day reaching 85,000 young people nationally.

Emily led Ministry of Stories through a period of transition as their Executive Director in 2018-19 and convened the advocacy think tank for the sector, comprising 14 creative writing education organisations.

Emily is currently Producer at international theatre charity Good Chance. She ran temporary ‘Theatres of Hope’ in Good Chance’s geodesic Dome in refugee centres around Paris throughout 2018 and founded and runs Good Chance’s poetry collective Change the Word with refugees, asylum seekers and locals. She produced the COP26 stage of the groundbreaking travelling festival of welcome The Walk with Little Amal, the 3.5m high puppet of a young refugee walking from the border of Syria to the UK with over 250 partners across Europe. And she produced Fly With Me, an international festival of Afghan kite-flying to mark the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, in over 60 cities and towns worldwide. She is currently producing From Here On, an international physical theatre piece in collaboration with Gecko Theatre and over 30 other partners working with over 200 young people in Berlin, The Hague and the UK, all about children's right to safety. Emily is a Trustee of Cheltenham Welcomes Refugees.

Contact Emily at emily@wetakenote.org

Take Note Associate

An experienced arts and charity sector manager, Stuart began his career in the Civil Service before spending five years with national music education charity Orchestras for All, leading the organisation as Executive Director for two years.

Stuart is now Executive Producer with Scottish Ensemble, a pioneering collective of string musicians based in Glasgow, focusing on its programme of innovative cross artform collaboration projects.

Alongside his work with Take Note on The Collaboration Guidebook, he has undertaken a range of consultancy work for arts and charity organisations, including refugee arts charity Play for Progress and the National Youth Jazz Collective.

Contact Stuart at stuart@wetakenote.org