Elaine Marguirite Padmore OBE (born 1947) is a British opera administrator, broadcaster, and author.
She was awarded an OBE in the 2012 Birthday Honours List[1][2] Born in Haworth, Yorkshire, Padmore spent her childhood in Kingston upon Hull where she attended Newland School for Girls and her teenage years in Blackpool where she attended Arnold High School for Girls.
Trained as a singer and also a skilled pianist, while still an undergraduate, she accompanied singers such as Janet Baker and Robert Tear when they sang at the Barber Institute.
After post-graduate study at the Guildhall School of Music, she initially worked as a music book editor for Oxford University Press before joining the BBC.
[3][4] From 1982 to 1994, Padmore was the General Director of Ireland's Wexford Festival Opera and from 1991 to 1994 concurrently served as the Artistic Director of Opera Ireland.