Nicola Creed

Nicola Creed DL has been a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire since 2025.  

She is part of the Lieutenancy Team focused on Oxford West and holds the Lieutenancy’s Youth Performing Arts brief for the County.

Nicola’s professional background is in music. A graduate from Cambridge University, she joined music agents, Harold Holt, before producing classical music festivals in Exeter, York, Salisbury, and Chichester. After spells at the National Trust and The Historic Houses Association, she joined Garsington Opera as Associate Director (1999-2013) and later Executive Director (from 2014). Nicola oversaw a £14.5m capital campaign for Garsington Studios, which opened in spring 2024, providing rehearsal spaces, a café, and a home for the year-round community outreach work that is central to Garsington’s ethos. 

Nicola has a keen interest in widening access to the arts so that people of all ages and from all backgrounds can be inspired and supported by the positive impact of the arts. She is a Trustee of the Oxford International Song Festival (formerly Oxford Lieder Festival) and a member of the Oxford Bach Choir.

Nicola has four adult children and lives in Headington with her husband Neville. As well as music, her interests include conservation and gardening, and she loves the countryside.