Our latest bulletin (July 2021) talks about 'What makes a great Music Leader', so with this in mind, we thought we’d finally talk about our own fearless and esteemed leader.

Gail Dudson arrived at YY&M in January 2004 with a brief to 'revive and rejuvenate' as the company reached the end of its giant, groundbreaking 'Sounding Out' project. Gail previously worked as the Music Officer at North West Arts in Manchester, in music touring at the Arts Council in London, and has continued to provide freelance consultancy and leadership development training for future leaders in the arts. She’s got three degrees (there’s a song in that somewhere), two in Music and a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Gail completed her MA in Psychology in Music in 2018, focussing on the benefits of Singing and Signing for D/deaf children and young people. You can read more about her research here: www.yym.org.uk/research

Gail's job is to think up the projects, build the partnerships, raise the money, design the delivery and put the right people in place to do the work...

She says her job is to think up the projects, build the partnerships, raise the money, design the delivery and put the right people in place to do the work; not necessarily in that order. She has to make sure that people have what they need to make the work a success and run the company to make sure it meets all its obligations. She has her hand on the tiller, you might say – she wrote our company ‘values’, which are the principles we use in all our current and future work.

She’s a bit of a musical explorer and will listen to almost anything. She has made a pandemic habit of buying music most weeks in an effort to support the musicians she would rather be listening to live. She is also the main DJ for our eclectic playlists!