LOCA L H ERO
David Ross
David Ross made his fortune running the Carphone Warehouse empire with his school friend Charles Dunstone. Now his day to day activities are mostly filled with the philanthropic pursuit to make the schools in the East Midlands some of the best in the country. Sosennah Every finds out more
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GREW up in Grimsby in Yorkshire but went to Uppingham School at 13 and now most of my family live in Leicestershire and Rutland. I still live most of the week in London but love coming home to Nevill Holt Hall to enjoy the peace, do some exercise and see friends and family. When I bought Nevill Holt Hall, there was a mass of empty wall space. Although I had always had an appreciation of art, this really kicked off my desire to purchase art by young aspiring British artists. Luckily my school friend Charlie Phillips is an art dealer and he helped me find some outstanding pictures and sculptures. Bridget Riley (known as a pioneer in the optical art movement) features strongly in my collection. I had lots of letters from the local community saying they were saddened to see the former Nevill Holt School close down and become a private house. I wanted to come up with a way for the house to continue to maintain its links with the local community, and this is how the idea for an Opera Festival was born. With nothing else like it in the region, it combines my love for opera with an opportunity to share the house and gardens. The house truly comes alive when there are lots of people about having
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a good time. And the festival was recently awarded Best Event at the Leicestershire Tourism Awards, so we’re proud of that. Nevill Holt Opera (NHO) is staging two operas this year - Tosca and Noah’s Flood. Tosca has five performances between 15 to 22 June and Noah’s Flood is on 1 and 2 July. Tosca is being directed by our frequent guest Director, Oliver Mears, who has recently been made Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House. Mears is joined by Nicholas Chalmers as Artistic Director and conductor of the NHO orchestra. I’m passionate that the Nevill Holt Opera is open to younger audiences. Noah’s Flood is our first community opera and will see 130 children from across the East Midlands perform and play in the orchestra alongside professional opera singers. The 50-minute performance, which is outside in the gardens of Nevill Holt, is a great way to introduce children to opera with a familiar story in a relaxed outdoor setting. Education and the promotion of young talent is my main mission and that of the David Ross Education Trust. The Trust now has 33 schools in the East Midlands and we hope to grow this to 50, however the main aim is to look at how our academies can offer