Remembering Graham Marchant OBE

We have learned with great sadness that Graham Marchant OBE has sadly passed away on December 28, following a period of illness.

Graham was the General Manager and School Director for The Place from 1994-1998, and enjoyed an illustrious career before and after, spanning local authority, the arts and dance sector. Both he and his partner Andrew Hochhauser have been key influencers and supporters of the arts in the UK. Graham was one of the founders of Opera North and particularly proud of its continuing success.

Graham Marchant is remembered by his colleagues, friends and peers as a kind, generous, thoughtful and emphatic leader who will be dearly missed.

Clare Connor, Chief Executive of The Place

I had the privilege to meet Graham in my role as Chief Executive of The Place and I was struck by three things; his dashing good looks, the sharpness of his mind and his love for dance, the arts and most especially for his husband, Andrew.

Over the decades The Place has thrived on a steely, quiet and determined leadership built from a love of dance and of people. However, it takes a skilled craftsperson and a creative engineer to build a vision in the context of a dynamic organisation that is already moving at a pace. The Place is fortunate that Graham was such a person, able to chart a future through an ambitious vision at a critical juncture and work with expertise and skill to then seamlessly pass on the baton to Sue Hoyle OBE. I count myself as deeply fortunate to have met Graham but also to have understood the lineage and legacy that he so generously afforded The Place.

Sue Hoyle OBE

I first met Graham in the 1980s, when he was Director of Arts Co-ordination at the Arts Council - my boss's boss. Graham already had a stellar reputation as an arts administrator, having been one of the founders of Opera North. He was a kind and wise mentor to me and many other junior members of staff, impressing us all with his fierce intellect, strong analytical skills and knowledge and love of all the arts. We were also in awe of his immaculate dress sense and highly polished shoes. Graham gently encouraged me to apply for the job of Dance Director, and supported me when I was given the role. Years later, it was an honour to follow in Graham's footsteps and succeed him as General Manager of The Place in 1998. He had already appointed Allies and Morrison as architects and successfully raised lottery funding for the redevelopment, so my task was to see it through. Graham and I became firm friends, and spent many happy evenings, together with our husbands, affectionately putting the arts world to rights. I shall miss his perceptive comments on cultural issues, but most of all I will miss Graham as a treasured and dearly loved friend.

Assis Carreiro MBE

I met Graham when he was gently assigned to me by Sue Hoyle, then Head of Dance at ACE, as my mentor to help a naive and very young Canadian manage writing her first Strategic Business Plan for a merger with another organisation and relocation. He was very patient and there were a lot of tears and after hours and weekend calls. Throughout, he was the gracious, gorgeous gentleman that we all loved. I was certainly taken under Graham's wing and trusted him as he guided me. Later, he brought me to work with him at The Place to help with the capital fund raising but most importantly for him and me, get me out of Birmingham and to London where I was desperate to reside. We had fun at The Place, our first royal gala in a rather not so gala hotel; and long wonderful chats. I moved on as did he but our friendship continued and his wise words and measured advice were always available to me, even on our last visit together on 17th December, when he was on such good form. I will miss this very generous man. Sue Hoyle certainly chose my mentor well. Little did she know she was seeding a 31 year friendship filled with love.

David Burnie, former Finance Director of The Place

I knew Graham Marchant when he was at The Place during the 1990’s. He arrived at a challenging time in the history of The Place, with London Contemporary Dance Theatre having closed and the organisation being at something of a crossroads. He already had a considerable reputation within the Arts, so it is no surprise that over the next four years he was able to bring a new cohesion and direction to the organisation with a particular emphasis on Artistic leadership. The way he achieved this was both rigorous and compassionate. He was a kind and thoughtful man, who was able to pursue his aims with determination but also with sensitivity.

He laid many of the foundations upon which future leaders have been able to build.

Sir Richard Alston

Graham Marchant was a quiet but singular force in the British Performing Arts. With his clarity of vision allied to a spectacular sense of diplomacy he created new possibilities wherever he focussed his attention. I first knew Graham when I became Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company in 1986 and Graham joined the Rambert Board. I knew I could always look to Graham for clear and reasoned advice and what is even more important for an artist, articulate and emphatic support. He was wonderfully open in showing how much he loved the work. Our paths crossed again when I was invited in 1994 to The Place to be overall Artistic Director and also to form my own Dance Company. This was hot on the heels of a very difficult and quite drastic change in The Place's history involving the closure of its long-term flagship company, London Contemporary Dance Theatre. Almost as soon as I arrived there, Graham joined as General Manager and was outstandingly successful in managing to firmly pull together the different and somewhat disparate departments of the organisation. He swiftly put in place a structure which lasted at The Place for over two decades. Albeit in only the few years as The Place's General Manager, Graham forged an effective path into a newly recharged future. The Place owes Graham Marchant a great deal.

Alex Beard CBE, Chief Executive of the Royal Ballet & Opera

Graham Marchant made a hugely important contribution to Opera in the UK as one of the leading lights in Opera North’s foundation, he played a decisive role through the establishment of the Wigmore Hall, Serpentine Gallery and South Bank Centre as independent organisations, and in his leadership and advocacy for so many performing arts organisations over the years. He was always generous with his insights and wisdom, and a hugely important mentor to many of today’s arts leaders. He will be deeply missed, but leaves a remarkable legacy.

Jenny Waldman CBE, Director of the Art Fund

Graham was brilliant, charming and versatile - a real team player and a great mentor. He became the go-to arts management expert, first as an executive and later as a consultant, navigating the most complex challenges with sensitivity, intellect and humanity. Those of us fortunate to work with Graham admired and learned so much from him.

Laura Canning and the team at Opera North

Graham Marchant played a defining role in the creation of English National Opera North during the second half of the 1970s. Working out of makeshift offices provided by Leeds City Council, then from cramped conditions at the top of the Grand Theatre, he was instrumental in forging an effective and friendly organisation capable of delivering a full year's programme of 12 operas from scratch. After three years it was ready to break free as an independent Opera North.

Having achieved that ambition, Graham preferred to step aside and pursue fresh challenges, recognising that his supreme talent lay in pioneering work, but all his successors as General Director owe him a huge debt for providing secure foundations on which to build a company which has survived and thrived for 46 years. Graham was a lovely person, his razor-sharp intellect leavened by a wry wit and mischievous smile. He never interfered or criticised those who followed him, but he remained a loyal friend who will be much missed.

Gregory Nash, Creative producer and consultant

Vale Graham Marchant. Dance champion and gentle man of wisdom, razor sharp insight and enviable dry wit. I was fortunate to be on a number of panels with him in the 90’s and learned so much. My thoughts are with Andrew and family.

Shobana Jeyasingh CBE, Artistic Director, Shobana Jeyasingh Dance

I got to know Graham when he was the General Manager and School Director for The Place in the nineties when my fledgling company was resident there. His immaculately dressed and sleek professionalism at his previous post at The Arts Council had made me rather nervous so I was surprised, when we struck up a conversation at The Place cafe one lunchtime, to find a warm, down-to-earth, wise and charming man.

We talked about schooling in the UK ( an obsessive subject for a parent with a young child as I was then) and he told me about his working class roots and what his education had meant for him . "I am a working class boy made good" is what he said.

During the 1990s he was a trustee and chair of my company where he balanced the practical and the aspirational with awesome skill. The arts and the artist mattered to him deeply. He cared about integrity as well as success; he made huge efforts to give his support in matters both small and personal as well as large.

We continued our conversation over the years on varied subjects (including the cultivation of roses) to the end. The last one was at his home last year when he bemoaned the lack of care for the arts in the UK at this time.

Last summer he came in his wheelchair to see our production Counterpoint in the courtyard at Somerset House - that was the measure of Graham Marchant.

Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp CBE, former Chief Executive of The Place

Very sorry to read this sad news. Sending sincerest condolences to Graham’s partner, family and friends. 🌷

Will Timmins, Associate Consultant, Saxton Bampfylde

Graham was an exceptional talent and one of the kindest men I have ever met. These tributes speak volumes about a wonderful man, who we will all miss very much💔

Jannette Cheong

Graham enthusiastically followed every arts and education project I worked on over the 16 years of our friendship. Each moment spent with Graham was a happy moment. We discussed anything and everything with a shared outlook on the challenges that life presents, not just to us as individuals, but to society. Few people would know that Graham could have been as good a physicist as he was an arts administrator. It was during one of our many discussions that Graham revealed that he might like to write his autobiography, as many friends had asked him about his work in setting up Opera North. It was a privilege to transcribe his fascinating story, which he managed to complete before his voice became too weak.

Graham suffered many setbacks over the years. I watched him pull back from the brink a number of times - always with courage and quiet determination. He never complained about his illness, and he did his best to fight it with the willpower of a gladiator and an uncanny way of turning insecurities – his own or others – into strengths. Over the years, Graham demonstrated that keeping a positive, open mind makes everything in life so much more interesting and fun. We practiced tai chi to help his balance, and we went for walks locally, or ventured to the opera. Even when Graham was extremely frail and wheelchair-bound, he would make the enormous effort if it was something he really wanted to see. He even attended my last event at the Japanese Embassy on 20 December, and seemed well – in some respects stronger than he had been in previous years. But his last battle was one too many.

Few people could touch your soul with intellectual engagement, love, friendship and kindness like Graham. From day one of our friendship until the day of his death Graham always gave me, as he did so many others, the love and friendship that only a true friend can give. It will take time to accept Graham’s passing - he will always be part of who I have become. ’Death can be as heavy as Mount Tai or as light as a feather…’

Sarah Trist, Independent Dance Producer

I was privileged to work with Graham Marchant at Riverside Studios during a turbulent period in its history in the mid-eighties. It was my first job. As his Assistant I learned the basics from the best; and was exposed to his grace, diplomacy and visionary genius at first hand. A total gentleman, he treated all his colleagues with an equivalent level of respect, setting in my eyes an example of ethical conduct which has never been replicated.