Diana Ambache is a musical pioneer. A pianist since early childhood, she played her first Mozart Piano Concerto at Sheffield University, and went on to establish the Ambache Chamber Orchestra in 1984 to play more of them. In the course of this, she discovered an unknown piano concerto by the French composer Germaine Tailleferre in 1985, and has dedicated herself to researching, performing, recording and publicising music by women ever since. Before anyone else in the UK created such a resource, she established the website Women of Note to foster greater interest in an array historic women composers, and she has devotedly told their stories in broadcasts for BBC Radio and Classic FM. The path she has forged has been vital to so many others in their own efforts to illuminate and programme women composers. In recognition of this, Diana was shortlisted for the 2002 European Women of Achievement Awards.

After inheriting a valuable violin, Diana founded the Ambache Charitable Trust in 2013, to raise the profile of historical music composed by women and to support projects promoting this music to the widest possible audience. In this, it has achieved so much: supporting concerts, opera productions, festivals, tours, numerous first-time recordings, educational workshops, symposia, and the restoration and publication of scores for use by today’s musicians. A key initiative has been the Association of British Orchestras’ Sirens, made possible thanks to the Trust. Over the course of a decade, this scheme encouraged numerous professional orchestras to programme more music by women throughout history, positively transforming the culture, so such composers are now more readily heard on the UK stage.