Key Staff Biographies at The Sage Gateshead

Phillip Baitch

Director of Music North Trading

Stephen Little

Director of Building Services Read more

Stephen Little started his working life as an apprentice electrician at Lambton Coke Works which was part of the National Coal Board. He signed his indentures in 1974 and completed his apprentiship four years later in 1978. He also became ‘Apprentice of the Year’ in 1978.

Stephen went on to work for Monkton Coke Works and RS Components and continued with his education obtaining his Full Technological Certificate, Higher National Certificate and Higher National Diploma in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He later joined the Mental Health Services as an Estates Officer working at St. Nicholas Hospital Newcastle where he was responsible for all maintenance activities within the hospital. He then moved to BP Energy as a Senior Engineer and afterwards went to work in facilities management for blue chip companies such as Rolls Royce, Nestle and Kellogs.

Stephen became a Graduate Member of The Institute of Electrical Engineering in 1978, became an Associate Member and finally was made a Member of the Institute in 1990.

He was appointed to the post of Head of Building Services at The Sage Gateshead in 2003. This was to set up and run the Building Service Department for the opening in December 2004. During this period he was promoted to Director of Building Services.

Edith Naylor

Head of Human Resources

Ros Rigby OBE

Performance Programme Director Read more

Performance Programme Director

Ros Rigby trained as a ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet School (White Lodge), followed by an MA Hons in English at the University of Edinburgh and the one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Arts Administration run by the Arts Council of Great Britain.

In 1974 she became the first Community Arts Officer at the Beaford Centre, North Devon (Dartington Trust). Moving to the North East in 1976, attracted by its strong regional identity and culture, she became Community Development Officer for Peterlee Development Corporation in 1977.

In the early 1980s she created and led new programmes of arts and cultural development for Gateshead Council as the first Arts Development Officer in the North of England, and built Gateshead’s Caedmon Hall into a venue recognised for its wide-ranging music programme.

Ros Rigby was invited to join Alistair Anderson as founding Co-Director of Folkworks in 1988. Their trailblazing work saw the organisation develop into the UK’s foremost producer, presenter and educator in folk and traditional music, organising regional, national and international tours and festivals, alongside a huge programme of participatory and education work. She was awarded the OBE in 1999.

Folkworks, with Northern Sinfonia, was a founding partner of The Sage Gateshead, and became integrated into the new organisation in 2001. Ros was appointed Performance Programme Director for The Sage Gateshead and in that role oversees the Folkworks programme while adding many other kinds of popular and vernacular music to her portfolio. Since opening in 2004 The Sage Gateshead has presented many of the world’s major names in popular music as well as establishing a number of regular events including the annual Gateshead International Jazz Festival.

Dominic Parker

Director of Marketing, Communications, Development & Customer Services Read more

Born and bred in the North East of England, Dominic joined The Sage Gateshead in October 2011. Since studying English literature at Oxford University he has worked for the Wordsworth Trust in the Lake District, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Southbank Centre (on the £115m renovation of the Royal Festival Hall) and most recently the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff where he was Capital Campaign Director for the £22.5m project to build a world-class new theatre and concert hall.

He holds an LRSM diploma in piano performance, and continues to study and practice piano whenever work and family allow.

Blanche Phillips

Director of Finance

Anthony Sargent

General Director, The Sage Gateshead Read more

General Director, The Sage Gateshead

Anthony Sargent held Choral Scholarships successively at Oxford University’s Magdalen and Christ Church Colleges while studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics. From Oxford he joined the BBC, spending twelve years in a variety of radio and television production and presentation posts, finally in the newly created post of Concerts Planning Manager – responsible for the planning management and the radio broadcasting of the BBC Proms and for the artistic management and broadcasting of the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s work throughout the year.

In 1986 he joined the new management team of London’s Southbank Centre (following the abolition of the Greater London Council) as the centre’s first Artistic Projects Director, sharing responsibility for devising and developing its overall artistic policies, and creating and leading the department responsible for most of the centre’s own original programming.

In 1989 he took the new post of Head of Arts for Birmingham City Council, creating and implementing the Council’s (first) Arts Strategy and leading many of Birmingham’s most ambitious arts initiatives including such large-scale projects such as Birmingham’s 10-year festival of the 20th. Century, Towards the Millennium, planned jointly with Sir Simon Rattle.

In spring 1999 he was invited to re-join to the BBC as External Partnerships & Programme Development Manager for BBC Millennium Music Live (the most ambitious music project the BBC has ever staged) then in 2000 he took up the fifth newly created job he has held in succession, leading the team creating The Sage Gateshead as its first General Director.

Anthony Sargent is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Honorary Fellow of the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and Sunderland University and a recipient of the Hotspur Award, given annually to the person who ‘with bold endeavour’ has contributed most to the development of the North East.

Katherine Zeserson

Director of Learning and Participation Read more

Director of Learning and Participation

Since 2002 Katherine Zeserson has been Director of Learning and Participation for The Sage Gateshead, responsible for the strategic design, direction and implementation of its ambitious, internationally acclaimed Learning and Participation programme. This includes The Sage Gateshead’s region-wide delivery across the 10,000 square miles of the Northeast and Cumbria and in The Sage Gateshead, working with people of all ages and aspirations; and three ground-breaking national programmes – REFLECT (Creative Partnerships co-mentoring programme); Sing Up, the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme (in partnership with Abbot Mead Vickers, Faber Music and Youth Music); and Vocal Force, a national workforce development initiative for singing leaders.

She has a national reputation as a trainer, music animateur and educator, having led programmes in a notably wide range of community, educational and social contexts; from pre-school settings to post-graduate and professional development training programmes. She has taught vocal skills, music theatre, improvisation, elements of world music, community arts theory and practice at HE and post-graduate level; designed and run animateur and teacher development programmes for many local authorities; designed and led leadership development programmes for the cultural sector; devised and delivered staff training for social services departments, arts departments and community development teams. She has held several arts-in-education residencies, working with both primary and secondary age children. Throughout the 1990s she also worked as musical director, voice coach and performer on a wide range of theatre projects.

She is a member of the Music Education Council Executive Committee, a member of the National Music Manifesto Programme Advisory Group, and Chair of the Board of the Lawnmowers Independent Theatre Company. She is working towards a Professional Doctorate through Sunderland University, focusing on The Sage Gateshead’s emergence as a ground-breaking cultural learning organisation. She performs regularly with a cappella vocal ensembles Mouthful and Human Music.