Ash Nicholson and Yvonne Zammit join City Recital Hall Board
Yvonne Zammit and Ash Nicholson at City Recital Hall. Credit Vitor Duarte.
17 June 2026
The City Recital Hall welcomes Ash Nicholson and Yvonne Zammit, who join the volunteer Board governing the acoustic jewel of Sydney.
Ms Nicholson and Ms Zammit were appointed after a public call for applications in March garnered over 50 applications from people from a wide range of industry backgrounds and skill sets, all with a passion for live music.
Board Chair Rachel Launders said of the appointments, “City Recital Hall is in a period of growth, increasing utilisation, expanding our audience and diversifying our income streams to ensure financial stability, so that more people can experience live music and talk events in the heart of the city.”
“Ash and Yvonne bring to the Board extensive experience in cultural policy, property management, government relations and philanthropy, all of which are highly valuable at this point in the Hall’s twenty-six year history. On behalf of the Board, I wish Ash and Yvonne a warm welcome as we expand our efforts to advocate for the Hall and the cultural and economic importance of live entertainment in the CBD.”
The new appointments make for an eight-person Board, including David Albert, Ronen Ghosh, Frederic Leforestier. Scott Phillips and Jennie Sager.
City Recital Hall CEO Kate Wickett noted, “This June the Hall will host twenty-one public performances from thirteen presenters, across classical and contemporary music, plus multiple talk and ideas events. With the recent appointment of Phillippa Martin Reiter in the new role of Director of Programming & Events, we want all months of the year to be as busy as June, and that will rely on the operational team continuing to work in close collaboration with the Board.”
“On behalf of all the City Recital Hall operational staff, we welcome Ash Nicholson and Yvonne Zammit to Angel Place. We are a small team but the hunger to have our Hall full of people enjoying live entertainment year-round is palpable, and we are fortunate to have a Board with such deep governance, financial, legal, policy, cultural and fundraising experience to help us grow.”
Ash Nicholson
Ash Nicholson is an advocate for the creative industries, focused on the role of culture, nightlife, and equitable access to space in shaping inclusive, vibrant cities. She sits on the NSW Government’s 24 hour Economy Advisory Council and is Chair of the City of Sydney’s Nightlife and Creative Industries Panel, contributing to policy, strategy, and industry collaboration. Her work centres on the practical conditions needed for a safe and thriving 24 hour economy, informed by a hands-on understanding of how people use cities and the barriers creatives face in accessing space.
Alongside this, Ash is Director of Government & Industry at CBRE, working across government and the property sector. She focuses on precinct strategy, activation, and delivery, taking a commercial, data-driven approach to translating policy into viable, real-world outcomes. In the early 2000s, she both managed Home Nightclub’s Sublime and was a warehouse party promoter, grounding her approach and love for music.
Yvonne Zammit
Yvonne Zammit is a strategic advisor and founder of Yvonne Zammit Consulting. She helps organisations realise ambitious projects by shaping complex ideas into clear, fundable initiatives, bringing together government, philanthropy and corporate partners to secure the investment required to deliver them.
Before establishing her consultancy, Yvonne held senior roles at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Opera Australia spanning philanthropy, sponsorship, government relations and communications. She led the $75 million Powerhouse Parramatta capital campaign, including securing a $20 million lead gift - one of the most significant single donations to an Australian cultural institution.
Today, she advises organisations across the arts, medical research, sport and not-for-profit sectors, working with boards and leadership teams to define opportunity, structure partnerships and secure investment. Her current and recent clients include Venues NSW (Sydney Cricket Ground), Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club, Children's Medical Research Institute and Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
About City Recital Hall
City Recital Hall opened over twenty-six years ago, designed to answer Sydney's need for a mid-sized venue that could offer the acoustics required for exceptional music performance.
The aim was to have a venue that could maintain the intimacy between artist and audience, but large enough to be commercially viable for concert producers. In the 1990s, a private-public partnership between the City of Sydney and AMP was formed, which would see the ground floors of a new corporate tower, right in the centre of the city, dedicated to realising this vision.
City Recital Hall was officially opened on 30 October 1999. It was the first purpose-built music venue to be established in Sydney since the Sydney Opera House in 1973.
In 2015 City Recital Hall Limited was established as a not-for-profit organisation to run the venue on the City of Sydney's behalf. The Hall remains a City of Sydney venue, on a long-term lease from the current venue owners Mirvac.
City Recital Hall is renowned for its classical programming, with the Hall the CBD home of five Key Presenting Partners - Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Musica Viva Australia, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Pinchgut Opera.
In recent years, the Hall has earned a new legion of fans thanks to a rapid increase in contemporary music programming, from jazz, to rock, indie, cabaret and world music. In 2023 the option to remove the seating on level one became available, allowing the Hall to begin hosting electronic and dance events. The Hall has also become home to major festivals including Vivid Sydney and Sydney Festival.
In 2024 a major refurbishment of the foyers, bars and amenities was completed, resulting in several interior architecture award nominations. The same year, the sound system of the venue was replaced with the d&b Soundscape, cementing the Hall as one of the most acoustically exceptional live entertainment venues in Australia.
Today events at City Recital Hall are a mix of classical excellence delivered by the Key Presenting Partners and other companies, the CRH Presents contemporary music program curated by the Hall and often delivered in partnership with external promoters, and external hirer productions which range from talks, to film and music. The Hall is also home to a diverse range of private hires, including corporate events, memorials and film shoots, most recently as the home of ABC hit show The Piano.
Despite being a not-for-profit, the Hall generates over 81% of its own income. In 24/25, over 92% of ticket-buyers surveyed rated the venue as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.