The Daphne Oram Trust is run by a board of volunteers who share a common interest in electronic sound and music and an affinity with the work of Oram. They include musicians, instrument builders, writers, academics and members of Oram’s extended family.
On this page, we would also like to thank the many people who have helped in the early days of The Trust, before and after its official foundation.
Sarah Angliss is a composer, performer and electronic artist whose music uses ancient instruments, exploring and augmenting them with her own robotic inventions and bespoke electronic effects. Sarah composes electroacoustic scores for film, theatre, opera and live performance. Her music reflects an eclectic background in electroacoustic engineering, robotics, music and research into the cultural history of sound technology.
Alannah Chance is an award winning audio producer, documentary maker and sound designer who works across radio and podcasts. She is the lead producer of the adventurous music programme Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 and has made programmes for The Guardian, BBC Radio 4, Camden Art Centre and NTS, among others.
As Director of Operations at music policy NGO the Center for Music Ecosystems, she leads on organizational development, as well as projects including the Music Policy Resilience Network (a landmark project working with remote global municipalities to increase resilience through music), as well as with the United Nations Development Programme and Global Leaders Institute, amongst others. She was elected to the board of the European Music Council in 2023.
Clients include the British Council, Creative Europe, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sound and Music, Sound Diplomacy, Music in Detention, Longplayer, Somerset House as well as many individual artists in the experimental sound and music world including Sarah Angliss, Gavin Bryars, Phaedra Ensemble, Caroline Bergvall, Claudia Molitor, Daisy Ginsberg as well as (via No Nation Ltd) Asian Dub Foundation, Hot Chip, Kasai AllStars, The Imagined Village (Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Simon Emmerson, Billy Bragg, Andy Gangadeen and more) and Grace Jones’ Meltdown Festival Southbank Centre 2022.
She is a mentor for The Oram Awards, Help Musicians UK, and a coach with Sound and Music, Non Classical and Music Local. Recent speaking engagements include Reeperbahn Festival (Germany 2024), Izmir United Cities and Local Governments conference (Turkey, 2022), Music Cities European Exchange (2023), CNN Indonesia (2022), Pristina Music Conference (Kosovo, 2024), Nordic Music Days (Glasgow, 2024) and others.
Mick Grierson is a Research Leader at the UAL Creative Computing Institute. From 2015-2018 he ran the Goldsmiths College MSc in Creative Computing and Computer Science. He was instrumental in the Trust’s early development, the retrieval of the Oramics Machine, and establishing Daphne’s archive at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Becca Laurence is a Creative Producer, Strategic Planner and Creative Arts Leader working mainly within the music world. She has extensive experience of developing organisations, and delivering programmes and projects that explore ideas in engaging and creative ways. She established the Learning department at Sound and Music and was Acting CEO at Sonic Arts Network. She is now Senior Producer at Brain Audio and continues to freelance with a range of partners throughout the UK and beyond.
Frances Morgan is a music and arts critic and a researcher in histories of electronic music, with a PhD in Critical Writing from the Royal College of Art in collaboration with the Science Museum. Formerly the Deputy Editor of The Wire magazine, Frances has contributed to numerous publications including Sight & Sound and Frieze, and currently lectures in Music Journalism at BIMM (British and Irish Modern Music Institute) London.
Tom Richards is an artist, electronic musician and musical instrument designer based in London. He studied Daphne Oram for his doctorate and recreated her unfinished Mini Oramics synthesiser in 2016.
Carolyn Scales is Daphne’s niece and co-founded the Trust with the support of Daphne’s heir Martin Cook and Colin Scales.
Karen Sutton With over 20 years experience in the independent music industry Karen has worked as a live sound engineer, label manager, business & finance director and producer of music-led projects in the UK and Internationally.
Growing up in London, she studied music at the Centre for Young Musicians and this gave her the opportunity to perform at venues such as the Barbican and South Bank Centre which sparked an obsession for what goes on behind the scenes.
She studied electronic engineering and music technology at York University and started her career as an assistant to legendary A&R manager – Seymour Stein at Sire Records, then trained as a sound engineer at the South Bank Centre. With music and maths at the heart of what drives her, Karen was the label manager for Carl Cox’s Intec Records, building expertise in business, finance and artist management. She then went onto work as the finance manager for Solar Management – an artist and producer agency, working with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) & Zero 7.
Now based in the East Midlands, Karen is currently the director and lead producer of The Oram Awards CIC – an annual awards and mentorship program celebrating the work of women and gender expansive artists who are at the forefront of innovation in music, sound and related technology. Karen’s passion to create a more inclusive industry is driven by her own experiences and the boundaries still faced by women in sound and technology.
The Oram Awards is a division of The Radiophonic Institute which was born out of the profound legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop to create, connect and champion innovation in sound and music, led by composer, creator and curator Matthew Herbert. Karen has worked with Matthew for over 10 years across sound & music productions for film, tv, theatre, large scale international arts funded projects and the family of experimental and electronic Accidental Record labels. With her background and expertise in finance and production, Karen is a part of the team leading this busy & innovative arts organisation.
Thanks to Martin and Viv Cook, Richard Whitelaw and Phil Hallett for all their early work with the The Trust:
Martin and Viv Cook were founding trustees, resigning in 2012 when they felt that The Trust and Oram’s legacy were in good hands.
Richard Whitelaw worked extensively in arts programming at the Sonic Arts Network, Sound and Music, and beyond, and is a long-standing advocate for new music across the UK. Richard spear-headed the reprint of Daphne’s ‘An Individual Note’ during his time with the Trust. He is now a full-time integrative coach, counsellor and facilitator.
Phil Hallett was CEO of Sonic Arts Network, producer at ENO and Southbank Centre, and is now CEO of Coda Music Trust in Dorset. During his time at Sonic Arts Network Phil played a significant part, along with Mick Grierson, in retrieving Daphne’s papers and securing funding to create the Daphne Oram archive which later developed into the Trust. Early in the Trust’s history Phil curated and produced key events to raise awareness to Daphne’s work and build the Trust into what it is today.
Sophie Cooper is musician, curator, educator and creative project facilitator based in West Yorkshire.
Nwando Ebizie is a multidisciplinary artist/curator and Afrofuturist whose work converges around immersive installation, performance art personas, experimental theatre, neuroscience, sound and ritual cultures of the Black Atlantic.
Colin Scales is a musician and chemical engineer and husband of Carolyn, Daphne’s niece.
The Daphne Oram Trust has been evolving over many years and we would like to thank Special Collections and EMS Studios, Goldsmiths, Sound and Music, the AHRC and the following individuals for their contributions to the development and early work of The Trust:
James Bulley – an artist, curator and composer, James has worked closely with the archive while working as a research associate in the Goldsmiths Department of Music, informing many fellow researchers on the scope and details of the collection.
Jacqueline Cooke – a librarian at Goldsmiths at the time Oram’s papers arrived, Jacqueline helped enormously to establish and organise the archive when it first went on loan to Special Collections & Archives.
Hugh Davies – a musicologist, composer and inventor of experimental musical instruments, Hugh was a close friend of Oram and worked tirelessly to advance and protect her archive and legacy. He collected Oram’s material from Tower Folly after her death and he and his wife Pam Davies looked after it in their family home. After his death, this material was passed onto Oram’s family who set up The Daphne Oram Collection. Oram left other important material to Hugh, much of which also ended up in the collection – for which The Trust and many researchers are very grateful.
Bryan Dunphy – an audiovisual artist and musician, Bryan is currently completing a doctorate in arts and computational technology at Goldsmiths. Bryan created the first iteration of The Daphne Oram Trust website in 2008.
Jo Langton – a Radio 3 studio manager, sound artist and researcher of Radiophonics, Jo went through Oram’s archive at Hugh Davies’ house and helped to form an early understanding of this important collection.
John Lely – a composer and musician with a deep interest in early electronic music who digitised many hundreds of Oram’s original audio tapes in the collection, making them accessible to visitors.
Chris Weaver – an electronic musician, sound artist and archivist at the British Library, Chris gave invaluable advice on the collection when it first arrived at Goldsmiths.
Dan Wilson – an instrument builder, researcher and composer who conducted very useful early work on the connections between Oram’s work and writings, spirituality and New Age philosophies.
Paradigm Discs and Boomkat Ltd have produced CDs and vinyls of Daphne’s music. Their generous royalties have enabled the trust to support various charitable projects.
We would also like to thank everyone who has donated to The Trust or supported our republication of ‘An Individual Note‘ via our Kickstarter campaign.