Stephanie Pillinger

Steph joined The Telling in 2018 as Administrator and was promoted to General Manager in 2022. Over three days per week and remotely from her Shropshire-based home, Steph works closely with Artistic Director Clare Norburn and is responsible for making Clare's artistic vision a reality. Her role spans all operational areas of the organisation, including finance and charity management, fundraising (trusts, individual giving, crowdfunding), team management, project management (logistics, sales, delivery, evaluation), strategic development (touring, partnerships), education work, and marketing (PR, communications, social media, website management). Plus, you'll occasionally find her working Front of House on The Telling's tours. For the other two days, Steph is Trusts and Foundations Manager for Streetwise Opera.

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Steph studied BA Music at University of Leeds and MA Music and Sonic Media at University of Sussex to pursue film music composition. In 2017, she was selected for Brighton Early Music Festival’s events management traineeship which introduced her to behind the scenes of the early music world and initiated her career in arts management. In 2018, Steph interned as a journalist for the new music magazine, Clout (fka Born Music), before beginning a freelance portfolio career that included working as Head Curator at online music opportunities platform Syncr Music, Digital Marketing and Content Consultant for an electronic music producer, and trust fundraising for a range of arts charities.

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In 2025, Steph was selected to receive mentoring in arts fundraising through Young Arts Fundraisers' Evolve programme. In 2022, she was selected for REMA Early Music Network's REMArkable scheme which provides mentoring and support to young professionals in Early Music, and she received mentoring in digital marketing through BBC The Space's Digital Marketing Mentoring Programme in 2021.

Steph is an active music composer. She has written scores for shadow puppet company Shadowflix, created the sound world for game company Cerberus Studios, and most recently scored an animated short for Script Sirens which was nominated for Best Animated Film at the Midlands Movies Awards. Outside of music, Steph enjoys travelling, hiking, reading, yoga and watching films with gritty soundtracks.