Our Team

Keith Hunter, OBE (Chairman)
He graduated in Modern Languages from Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1959 and joined the British Council, ini-tially as an English Lecturer in Cambodia. Subsequent appointments included postings to Hong Kong, where he studied at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Malaysia, Algeria, China and Italy. UK postings included ap-pointments as Secretary to the Council and Controller of Arts Division. While working overseas he collaborated with David and Eileen Parkhouse and the Music Group of London on their tours of the Far East which led to an enduring friendship with the Parkhouse family. On retirement he became actively involved as a Trustee of the Parkhouse Award Trust. He has been Chairman since 1999.

In addition to the Western canon, he has wide-ranging musical interests including modern jazz, Indonesian gamelan, Chinese opera, and music technology. Since 2000 he has pursued a long -term interest in printmaking, studying with leading exponents of the art and participating in group exhibitions (keithhunter-art.com)

Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen is one of the foremost cellists of our time. He made his debut at the age of twelve at the Royal Festival Hall. He studied with William Pleeth, Jacquline de Pré, André Navarra and Mistislav Rostropovich and garnered numerous prestigious prizes.

During his forty year international career he has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors in-cluding Claudio Abbado, Antal Dorati, Sir Mark Elder, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Tadaaki Otaka, Kurt Masur and Sr Roger Norrington. Notable collaborations in chamber music have included Yehudi Menuhin, the Amadeus String Quartet, Leonidas Kavakos and his regular duo partner pianist Heini Karkkainen. From 2011 to 2018 he was cellist of the legendary Fine Arts Quartet.

An inspirational conductor, he has directed, among other orchestras, London Mozart Players, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta as well as youth orchestras in Italy, France, Bulgaria, Finland and Switzerland.

He is in great demand as a teacher both in the UK and internationally. He was appointed Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, launched the Cohen Music Lectures in 2014 and in 2023 has been named William Pleeth professor of cello in recognition of his career and teaching achievements at the Academy. Every year he teaches at summer courses in Europe and North America.  He coached the Parkhouse Award 2021 prizewinning ensemble Trio Bohémo at Britten-Pears Arts.

He made his recording debut with the Elgar Cello Concerto and the LPO at the age of 19, winning a silver disc and has recorded extensively for BIS, EMI, Deutsche Gramophone, Sony and Decca. He is the dedicatee of a number of works, the most recent being Sally Beamish’s Cello Concerto No 2 co-commissioned by the Hallé and Minnesota orchestras. The premières were conducted respectively by Sir Mark Elder and Osmo Vanska and in Scotland by Martin Brabbins and the SSO.

Robert Cohen’s instrument is the ‘Ex Roser” David Tecchler, Rome 1723. (www.robertcohen.info)

John Hobson KC

After practising as a solicitor for a number of years, John Hobson KC was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1980.

His qualifications include the degree of Master of Laws (LLM), University of Cambridge. He took silk becoming a QC (now KC) in 1980.

At the Bar he has practised as a member of Landmark Chambers with his principal areas of practice comprising the fields of planning, environmental, compulsory purchase and highway law, together with a broad range of local government and public law cases.

He has appeared in many cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court as well as public inquiries throughout the country, such as Heathrow T5 and the Shard of Glass, representing a wide variety of clients including developers, local and other public authorities.

He was appointed to sit as a Recorder hearing criminal cases in the Crown Court.

He is the author or contributor to a number of publications in  his specialised fields.

He is a keen cellist and studied with Eileen Parkhouse.   He has been an enthusiastic and generous supporter of the Parkhouse Award since its inception.

Nicholas Parkhouse
Nick Parkhouse studied at Oriel College Oxford and was awarded a doctorate of medicine and a higher degree in surgery. Following further training at Middlesex hospital he won a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons. He has been a Consultant Plastic Surgeon since 1991 holding NHS Consultant posts at both the Queen Victoria Hospital East Grinstead and at Mount Vernon.

He has been Editor of the British Journal of Plastic Surgery and is a member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, the Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the European Association of Plastic Surgeons and the American Association of Plastic Surgeons.

He now works in private practice at London’s King Edward VII Hospital and Cadogan Clinic as well as the McIn-doe Surgical Centre in Sussex.

In his spare time he enjoys flying aeroplanes and helicopters, fly fishing and tennis.

Richard Parkhouse
During the last 30 years, Richard has held a wide breadth of senior global management appointments at in-vestment banks including Global Chief Operating Officer, Banque Paribas Equities Division; Head of Global Equi-ties Business Development at ABN AMRO; Managing Director, Head of Global Equities Business Strategy and Chief Administra-tive Officer, Sales for the Fixed Income Division for Lehman Brothers. From 2008 to 2016, Richard served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of a UK based Investment Manager and has also been appointed as Board Director for various UK, Irish and BVI regulated fund companies. Richard currently is on the Board of a listed Mining Company and also undertakes advisory contracts in the finance industry. He holds an Honours Degree in economics and was also awarded a distinction MBA in Finance. Richard is the second son of David and Eileen and in earlier days served as Chairman of the Parkhouse Award Trustees for several years.

Dr Bruce Smith, CBE
Dr Bruce Smith is President and Founder of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engi-neering. Until a financed management buyout he was the Chairman and majority shareholder of Smith System Engineering Limited. Before founding that company he worked in design engineering for Decca Radar Limited after a period in the United States with Bellcomm Inc in the US Space programme. Prior to that he occupied a physics research post at the University of Chicago. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Institute of Physics, and a Domus Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford. He was the Chairman of the Trustees of the Gor-don Foundation that funded the Parkhouse Award for several years.

Janet Unwin
Janet Unwin was educated at Lady Margaret Hall Oxford where she graduated with an MA in English and a M.Phil in Mediaeval Studies, while also studying piano with an inspirational Viennese teacher. On leaving Ox-ford she joined the Diplomatic Service with postings to the UN Missions to New York and Geneva. Back in Lon-don she remained involved with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Scholarship programme and wrote reports on the 1972 ground-breaking UN Stockholm Conference for both the Carnegie and Chatham House. At the same time she met another inspirational teacher in David Parkhouse to whom she owed her ARCM and, more importantly, a life-long friendship. With a move back to New York in 1980 she was asked to help co-ordinate the Music Programme for a major Arts Festival (‘Britain salutes New York’ 1983) which gave her a valuable insight into the workings of the US Arts Establishment and introduced the Music Group of Lon-don to American audiences. More recently Janet has been a member of the Council of the Academy of An-cient Music having been on the board for a decade and was
previously on the Council of the Royal School of Church Music.

Peter Willan, BSc Eng (Hons), MBA, ARSM, FCMA, FEI, Hon RCM
Peter Willan graduated from Imperial College, London, and the Wharton Business School, USA, and is a qualified accountant. His career extended across corporate finance in the city and several industrial companies in the UK and the USA but primarily in the oil industry where he co-founded a successful North Sea oil company. He advised the Watt Committee on Energy in the 1980s and was recognised by the Wilson Report on the City in connection with the emergence of the Equity Capital industry in the UK. Since retirement Peter has served on boards of leading charities concerned with music, the disabled, and care of the elderly and was vice chair of a leading music school, the Yehudi Menuhin School. He continues to chair several amenity groups and in 2014 initiated the setting up of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Heathrow and the Wider economy and for whom he served as secretariat. He currently chairs the Richmond Music Trust which provides music teaching services for the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Through a family trust he has supported many young musicians and music charities, including the Parkhouse Award and permanent funding of YCAT lunchtime concerts at the Wigmore Hall. At the Royal College of Music he inspired and helped fund the creation of the internationally recognised Creative Careers Centre and a conducting fellowship. He was awarded an Hon RCM for services to the College and music in 2007. He continues to enjoy playing the piano and clarinet having been a reserve for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.