Kirker Tour Leaders

Andrew Allen read History of Art at the University of East Anglia and undertook his postgraduate study at the University of Essex taking his MA in early Italian painting.

He worked for Phillips Auctioneers and lectured at Anglia Polytechnic University before beginning his extensive work in the travel industry. He is a great traveller, spending much of the year abroad (working and investigating medieval iconography) and is one of Kirker's most popular tour leaders. He often contributes articles to travel publications and has built up particular experience in parts of the Middle East and the great cities of Europe.

Andrew Biggs read Music and the History of Art at Leeds University. He has led cultural tours throughout the world for over twenty years.

Recent tours include The Metropolitan Opera & the Art Galleries of New York as well as tours to many summer music festivals in the UK including Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals. A teacher and performer, Andrew is currently Head of Prep Music at Berkhamsted School.

Andrew Taylor graduated from the University of St Andrew's in 1989 with a degree in Church History. He has a further degree in Classical Studies and a Masters in the History of Art. 

His main areas of study were the history and architecture of the English Country House and the arts and architecture of the Gothic Revival. In between, he has practised as a solicitor for twenty years and worked in the antiquarian book business. Andrew's tastes are broad but his particular interests are in landscape painting, church architecture and neo-classicism.

Barry Cheeseman has been the Manager of the Kirker Cultural Tours & Music Holidays programme for over 10 years. 

Barry has been an opera lover for more than 40 years and has seen and heard every major singer during this period. He loves the challenges of organising complex arts events and working closely with the musicians. Out of the office, Barry manages to fit in time to organise his own Chamber Music Festival in North Norfolk where he lives

Caroline Howard studied History of Art at Edinburgh University and now lives in Rome. 

She is currently the Artistic Director at La Mortella on Ischia where she organises the programmes given by visiting youth orchestras. She has led many tours in Rome and throughout Italy.

Charlie Hall has known Italy intimately since 1965 when his father set up the excellent John Hall Venice course for gap year students who wish to become enlightened by many aspects of Venetian and Italian culture. 

He now runs the programme with his father and spends almost half of the year working in Italy. He has designed courses for the Christie's Education 'Collecting and Great Collections’ programmes and the Serpentine Gallery ‘Collectors Circle’ as well as for The Soho House group of members’ clubs. Charlie has now led many Italian tours for Kirker, to destinations including Rome, Florence and Venice, and has proved to be very popular with our clients.

Christopher was a choral scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford where he developed a passion for both performing and teaching.

This led to a life-long interest in history, music and art history. He has led countless tours all over the world covering many subjects and periods. He is equally at home in the ancient world as he is in the major art galleries of Europe. Christoher Monckton is also a professional musician and a distinguished organist.

Declan Hamilton has been leading music tours for many years. He studied singing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music, and sang major roles in a number of operas both as a student and professional.

He worked in Education and House Management at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden for many years and was subsequently based in Bristol, where he joined the Alumni Department at Bristol University. Declan has subsequently worked in Higher Education fundraising at The Royal College of Music, Trinity College, Cambridge, and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he holds the post of Head of Fundraising.

Dr Alex Koller was born and schooled in Vienna. He studied Art History and Slavonic studies at the Universities of Vienna and Salzburg and then went on to obtain his PhD at Magdalene College, Cambridge (1998). Since then he has led cultural tours throughout Europe and the Far East.

Elaine Padmore is best known as the Director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, a post she held with great distinction between 2000 and 2011. She began her career as a BBC producer and was Director of Opera there for many years.

She was the Director of the Wexford Opera Festival and the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen. Today, she supports the work of young singers through her association with British Youth Opera and many charitable trusts.

After studying at the University of Wageningen, near the Dutch city of Arnhem, Ger began his career as a consultant, before working as a guide and tour leader both in his native Netherlands and abroad.

Over the last two decades he has led a range of cultural tours to Italy, Germany and the archaeological sites of Ancient Greece – and he has a long-standing passion for opera which means he particularly enjoys leading music holidays.

Graeme Coles has worked in the hospitality industry all his life, working in hotels both overseas and in the UK. It was whilst managing a hotel in Lewes, close to the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, that he developed a keen interest in opera and classical music.

He has had a long association with Kirker Holidays escorting many holidays including The Chopin Festivals in Mallorca, Schubertiade Music Festival, Grange Park Opera and the Buxton Opera Festival.

Hugh Macdonald-Buchanan has long had an interest in the battlefields of The Western Front and has led many tours there for clients from all over the world. 

Hugh is especially interested in interpreting the course of battlefield action in relation to the local landscape, and in how a modern industrial warfare evolved between 1914 and 1918.

Jane has had a long association with Kirker Holidays and over the last decade she has escorted several exclusive Kirker music festivals in the UK and at sea, as well as tours in Europe.

Jonathan Ray is the Drinks Editor for The Spectator magazine, drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s Magazine, contributing editor of Boat International and author of several books on wine and spirits including All About Wine, Bloodlines & Grapevines, Drink More Fizz! and That’s the Spirit!. Jonathan has also written on food, travel and many other subjects for the Guardian, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and the Financial Times. He has a PhD in history from Royal Holloway, University of London, is married with two sons and lives in Brighton.

Juliet Rix is an award-winning journalist working for British national newspapers, magazines, and online media as well as the BBC.  Juliet is a regular traveller to destinations throughout Europe with a special interest in Italy and the islands of Malta & Gozo. 

She has written extensively in the national press about destinations and subjects ranging from Leonardo da Vinci in Italy and Rembrandt in Holland, to Georgia, Taiwan and Charleston, South Carolina - as well as numerous articles on the culture and history of the Maltese islands (including the 'Malta & Gozo' Bradt Guide, 4th Edition 2019). 

Kirsty Fergusson exchanged a career in academia (she is a PhD specialising in French philosopher-novelists) for a life in gardening. Trained at Capel Manor, she was head gardener at Mapperton in Dorset during the early nineties, where a series of fortunate encounters opened the door to garden writing. 

As well as writing a weekly column for The Express, for many years she was a frequent contributor to Gardens Illustrated, House and Garden, Country Life, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent. In 2003 she moved to South West France, where she continues to explore the possibilities of her own (very forgiving) garden - when not travelling, writing or leading garden tours.

Louisa first visited Venice briefly in 1995 on a gap year, only to fall deeply in love with the city’s art, culture and ambience. Graduating from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, she went on to take a Master’s in the History of Art, Venice and Rome, at the University of Warwick, partly held in La Serenissima. 

In 2001 she moved permanently to Venice where she has worked in the art world ever since. She works in the Venice Biennale, as a freelance art translator, with art education programmes such as the John Hall Venice Course, and with the Querini Stampalia Museum and Gallery. She has never lost her love for her adoptive city.

Oliver has an MA in organ performance studies from Cardiff University where he studied under the renowned Bach scholar Peter Williams. He also has a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire at Rueil Malmaison, Paris. Following his MA, Oliver worked at Classic FM Magazine for five years, before leaving in 2004 to become the editor of BBC Music Magazine.

He has broadcast on BBC Radios 3, 4 and the World Service, recently reporting from Siberia for From Our Own Correspondent, and has appeared twice on BBC One’s The One Show playing the organ and exploring the history of famous pieces of music. Oliver has given recitals around the UK as well as in France and Denmark, has played at the City of London Festival and appeared three times at the North Norfolk Music Festival. Oliver has toured the UK with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestras as the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony.

Patrick Bade taught for the University of Glasgow MA programme at Christie’s Education in London. He had worked at Christie’s since 1981, where he also gave courses on the history of opera. 

During his career he has lectured at the Jewish Cultural Centre, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Opera House and the University of Barcelona. Patrick has also participated in programmes on BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and Classic FM. His first book Femme Fatale: Images of Evil and Fascinating Women came out in 1978. Since then he has written monographs and essays on numerous 19th and early 20th century artists and his latest publications include a book on the use of music in World War II, Music Wars, 1937-45 and the essay Neo-Neoclassicism: Classicism between the Wars.

Robin Wallis studied Modern Languages at Downing College, Cambridge and International Relations at the London School of Economics. 

His careers in the diplomatic service and academia have led him to keep in close contact with events in Spain, both as Principal Examiner for Cambridge Assessment and editor of the Bulletin of Advanced Spanish.

Simon Monckton studied Theology at Durham University. He is particularly interested in the influence of religion on great Mediaeval cathedrals and how this differed throughout Europe. Simon has led tours to destinations all over the world and has taken cultural tours to all regions of Spain on many occasions.

Stephen Nelson is an artist who divides his time between London and Italy. He has exhibited at many galleries internationally, including the Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea gallery in Palermo, and he has been selected for the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.

While Stephen was the Arts Council of England Helen Chadwick Fellow in Sculpture, he spent time at the British School in Rome. Stephen is also part-time curator of Museo d'Arte Contemporanea di Cogliandrino in Basilicata, Italy a not-for-profit artist-run space. Stephen has taught throughout France, Italy and Mexico but his speciality is southern Italy ‘the Mezzogiorno’, and he now focuses on Basilicata, Campania, Puglia and Sicily.

Tatiana lives and works in St. Petersburg and has been leading Kirker's tours to the city for several years. Her knowledge extends over all periods of the city's cultural history and its people. 

Tatiana Shulga writes: “Visitors are often delighted and surprised to discover how culturally important and influential St. Petersburg was in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today the city is regaining its status as one of the world’s great artistic centres. I visit the Hermitage every week and am still amazed at the depth and breadth of its unrivalled collections.”

Tim was co-founder of the UK’s leading wine tours company, which he ran for nearly 30 years leading numerous tours to wine regions worldwide. Having sold the company some years ago, Tim has been busy with other projects, including making a delicious passito wine on the Greek island of Samos.

In addition to his huge breadth of wine knowledge, Tim is a keen historian and provides a fascinating historical context to his wine talks. His other many interests include opera, cooking and wild food foraging.

Valentina is a noted chef, author and broadcaster on the subject of Italian cuisine. She has published more than 30 books including Risotto! Risotto!, Italian Regional Cookery and Food and Cooking of Milan and Bologna. Valentina often also contributes to leading national newspapers and magazines, as well as appearances on TV and radio.