Jack Ridley - Borka Musical Director

Jack is a conductor and pianist based in London. While still a student, he made his Glyndebourne debut, conducting The Rape of Lucretia. Performances from recent seasons include Cendrillon(Glyndebourne Tour), Eugene Onegin (Garsington Festival), Tosca and Patience (English Touring Opera), and Phaedra (for film). This season's highlights include assisting on Hänsel und Gretel (Nederlandse Reisopera) and The Rake's Progress(Glyndebourne Festival). 

Working with young people is central to Jack's music-making. For Garsington's Learning and Participation department, Jack has conducted Eliza and the Swans, The Selfish Giantand The Bartered Bride. He is a champion of Russell's work, having conducted Silver Electra (English Touring Opera) and The Casket Girl (Jubilee Opera). He has conducted concerts for younger audiences with The Hallé and the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, and led workshops for W11 Opera, Into Opera, Glyndebourne and the University of Chichester. Jack is also a qualified primary school teacher. 

Puppetmaker, Jess Kay, is a freelance puppetmaker and puppeteer and has created and puppeteered her creations in many theatrical productions, music videos, live music events, festivals and, most recently, children's television. She has a huge love for visual storytelling with a keen interest in the role that every detail plays in portraying a character, idea or story. 

Neil trained in Birmingham and later at The Slade University College London.

Opera productions have been for Opera Theatre Company Dublin, Opera Holland Park, Garden Opera, Almeida ENO, Mid Wales Opera, Danish National Opera, Czech National Opera Brno, New Zealand Opera, BAM New York, Royal Academy of Music, National Opera Studio, Guildhall & Opera North.

Productions for ETO include Amadigi, ll tabarro, Gianni Schicchi, Albert Herring, The Lighthouse, The Emperor of Atlantis, Fantastic Mr Fox, La clemenza di Tito.

Neil has also designed for theatre, dance and ballet productions and set and costume departments for BBC TV. 

Ian Taylor is a Technical and Production Manager with over a decade of experience in the theatre and events industry. Ian has an extensive background in stage management, production management, technical management and as managing director of eStage, a company dedicated to serving the entertainment industry’s needs.

His career began in stage management with Glyndebourne and The Royal Opera companies in 2004 and 2006, respectively, as an assistant stage manager. Within a few years, he became a stage manager for The Royal Opera in 2010. Other companies he’s stage-managed for include ROH2, Secret Cinema, Opera Holland Park and Pimlico Opera. He was also the Senior Stage Manager for Opera Holland Park’s Summer Festival for four years.

In 2012 he started production managing and has worked for Birmingham Rep, Sheffield Theatres, Bush Theatre, Hampstead Theatre, The Royal Opera, Southwark Playhouse, The Park Theatre, The Philharmonia Orchestra, W11 Opera, Arcola Theatre, Troupe Productions, Papatango and Secret Cinema. In 2021/22, Ian was appointed Technical Manager of The Bush Theatre in London before returning to full-time production management under eStage.

Having founded “eStage” in 2014, Ian deeply understands individual creatives and the arts industry in general; Ian has over a decade of expertise in managing OKEDIA eStage’s digital services offering and MiniStage, its 3D printing service. Both offer creative digital services to entertainers and arts organizations, including website design, hosting and physical 3D models.

In 2016 Ian founded the Backstage Professional Development Conference launched by the team at eStage to bring together industry professionals offering knowledge, advice, and guidance based on their careers in the industry. They provided genuine first-hand experience and tips through talks, workshops, and Q & A’s.

Ian holds a bachelor’s degree in stage management and technical theatre, with honours, from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Amy is an award winning independent producer, her slate of shorts include: Unleaded (2014), Winner of the Audience Award Watersprite, “Best of the Fest” Seattle Film Festival and Staff Pick/Vimeo Short of the Week; Jaime (2016), Winner of the Alternative Spirit Award at Rhode island and selected at the BFI Flare LGBTQ Film Festival as one of their #fiveFilmsforFreedom. Amy has found time to work with Sundance London and provide filming services for clients including HR Palaces, W11 Opera, Getty Images, East Creative, Ava Studio and Ignite Music. Amy worked as a PA for filmmakers and artists Danny Moynihan and Katrina Boorman before working at Celsius Entertainment on a number of projects for Berlinale, FilmArt and Cannes Film Market. 

Amy’s latest roster of films include La Boulangerie (2017), Man of the Land (2018) starring Michael Byrne and OLVE (2020) Starring Ike Bennett and Rosie Day. Amy produced and consulted on East View Films feature length opera film The Fire of Olympus (2020) streaming on MarqueeTV. Amy’s latest short film Huggo is slated for festivals in 2023 starring Bebe Cave, Siobhan Finneran and Jonny Green. She is currently developing a slate of projects including US and South Korean film Lost Seoul based on the true story of Jin Stearns with director Jane Gull and Dragur with director Tony Hipwell which was selected as apart of the Future of Film Incubator Development Scheme. Amy not only works as a producer but as a casting director and editor for independent film and theatre and was recently accepted onto BAFTA’s inaugural BAFTA Connect Membership.