Graham Marchant

A widely respected arts administrator, Graham Marchant served in formative roles in theatre, opera and dance, as well as holding senior positions with the Arts Council of Great Britain and its successor, Arts Council England.

Marchant was, he said, driven by a “fascination for performance” and proved as sensitive to artists and staff as he was to issues of management during the testing years of the Thatcher government, when arts funding was increasingly politicised and parlously reduced.

Among the many tributes paid when news of his death broke, Richard Alston, former artistic director of the Place, praised his “clarity of vision allied to a spectacular sense of diplomacy”, hailing him “a quiet but singular force in the British performing arts”.

Nicholas Payne, subsequently general director of Opera North, which Marchant had brought into being alongside managing director Lord Harewood and music director David Lloyd-Jones, remembered his “razor-sharp intellect leavened by a wry wit and mischievous smile”.

Those qualities were everywhere to be found in a career marked by his dedication to putting people before policies. It led to him becoming the go-to adviser across the broadest spectrum of arts organisations. Choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, on the board of whose company Marchant served, described him as “simply the best friend a dance company could have”.

Born to working-class parents in a “two-up, two-down with tin-bath” in Worcester, Marchant was an enthusiast for the arts from the age of seven when he played St Francis in his primary school’s nativity play.

Though he never followed through on an early ambition to become a priest, he retained something of the evangelical about him in his unwavering support of the arts across a long and varied career.

After reading English at University of Cambridge, he began his career with the Camden Festival in London before joining the Actors Company, led by Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge, as administrator in 1973.

From there, he moved to English Music Theatre, the new name for Benjamin Britten’s remodelled English Opera Group, as its general manager to tour high-end musical theatre and opera.

In 1978, he took on what was to be a career-changing appointment as administrator of the fledgling English National Opera North. Marchant was central to establishing ENO’s regional company as a self-sustaining venture with an ambitious programme of rarely seen and new work.

By 1982, he had guided the company to sever its connections with its London-based progenitor to become the wholly independent Opera North, based at Leeds Grand Theatre. In an interview marking his 75th birthday in 2020, he remarked that the fact the company “is still there, still doing good work” was the achievement he was most proud of.

He left Leeds to spend a year as administrator of London’s Tricycle (now Kiln) Theatre before becoming chief executive of the capital’s cash-strapped Riverside Studios in 1984.

The withdrawal of Arts Council funding led to his departure and a brief spell at London’s Playhouse Theatre before the poacher turned gamekeeper when he joined the Arts Council as its newly created director of arts coordination in 1986.

The same year, he was co-opted to work on the setting up of the South Bank (now Southbank) Centre when responsibility for it transferred from the newly abolished Greater London Council to the Arts Council. Over the next three years, he helped to forge the inclusive, multi-disciplinary template that still guides the venue today.

Battling against central government’s antipathy towards the arts, a success during his tenure was resolving a long-standing dispute over funding between the Arts Council and local authorities on Merseyside in 1989 that had threatened to paralyse the region’s theatres.

He briefly returned to the now renamed Arts Council England in 1998 as director of policy and arts during the long convulsions of its protracted restructuring. He resigned after just six months in protest against the forcing through of a substantial increase in funding to the Royal Opera House.

Enamoured of dance, Marchant variously held advisory and managerial roles with Rambert Dance Company (1991-93), the Shobana Jeyasingh Dance Company (1999-2001; chair 2011-12), and as chair of the London Dance Network (1998-99) and National Dance Co-ordinating Committee (2000-03).

Most prominent was his role as general manager of the Place – where he gave a home to the newly formed Richard Alston Dance Company after London Contemporary Dance Theatre folded – and as director of London Contemporary Dance School (1994-98), shepherding both through turbulent times to safety.

Among his significant contributions to research were 1993’s Arts Council report into touring theatre, Where Do We Go From Here?, his assessment of the government’s Dance and Drama Awards scheme for the National Council for Drama Training in 2000, and his 2009 evaluation of a mooted second home for the Royal Opera House in Manchester’s Palace Theatre.

In his retirement, Marchant coped uncomplainingly with the onset of Parkinson’s disease and respiratory issues, serving as a magistrate (2003-14) and a member of the Lord Chancellor’s selection panel for, and mentor to, new magistrates.

Jodi Myers, who first worked with Marchant at English Music Theatre and remained a colleague and friend throughout his life, remembered him as “a wonderful boss, company leader and friend. Interested and interesting, modest, loyal and witty, he enabled so many people and companies to flourish.”

A keen gardener, he remained active in his local community garden in north London. His rationale – “I love watching things grow” – was an apt commentary on his crusading engagement with the arts. In 2011, he was appointed the OBE for his services to the arts.

Graham Leslie Marchant was born on February 2, 1945, and died on December 28, 2024, aged 79. He is survived by his husband, barrister Andrew Hochhauser, and sisters, Pat and Doreen.