Marianna Hay MBE

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

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

In 2011, inspired by the pupils she had been teaching in school, Marianna founded OFA in the belief that all young people should be able to access the life-changing experience of ensemble music-making whatever their circumstances.

In 2016, she won the Musician’s Union Inspiration Award for her work with OFA and in 2017/18 spent a year as a Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme funded by Arts Council England.