After eight years of inspirational and dedicated leadership, Lady Julia Walport is stepping down as Chair of The Amber Trust. Julia has tirelessly supported Amber through a period of unprecedented growth and development, seeing the charity reach an ever-increasing number of visually impaired children and young people, enabling them to engage in music-making and fulfil their potential. Julia will remain a Trustee until September 2022, from which point she will continue to represent Amber as a Patron. The Amber Trust is indebted to Julia for her unwavering commitment to the children, young people and families we support.
This begins a new phase for the charity, and we are delighted to announce that Professor Adam Ockelford will serve as Chair from 1st April 2022. With a group of parents and friends, Adam founded The Amber Trust in 1994. He has worked with young people who are blind or partially sighted for over 40 years, first as a volunteer and later as Head of Music at Linden Lodge School in Wandsworth and then as Music Advisor, and latterly as Director of Education at the Royal National Institute of Blind People. In his current role as Professor of Music at the University of Roehampton, he has researched and written on how visual impairment affects children’s developing musicality. Adam’s longest-standing student is Amber’s Patron Derek Paravicini, with whom he has worked since 1984, when Derek was just five years old.
