Currently Chief Executive of Music in the Round, the leading national producer of chamber music based in Sheffield, Jo Towler, FRSA, has been working in the arts for over 25 years. Since joining Music in the Round in 2018, Jo has led a refresh of its programming and activity, and it now reaches more than 25,000 people across the country through over 300 events each year, and has seen its audiences increase and diversify. She also introduced a Guest Festival Curator for the annual nine-day Sheffield Chamber Music Festival, and this role has featured artists including Steven Isserlis, Claire Booth and Errollyn Wallen.

Previously Jo was Executive Director of Candoco Dance Company, a producing and artist development organisation for disabled and non-disabled dancers, and Executive Director of Protein Dance. Jo has also worked in finance, marketing and administration at the London Mozart Players, Philharmonia Orchestra and the Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition. She is Chair of Classical Sheffield and a trustee of Orchestras Live, Harrison Parrott Foundation and the South Yorkshire Music Hub, as well as being a member of the Sheffield Cultural Leaders Group and Sheffield Cathedral Music Board. She recently completed an MBA in Senior Leadership (Culture).

A horn player, Jo read music at Edinburgh University and afterwards continued her post-graduate studies at the Royal College of Music, London. She continues to perform, appearing in musical theatre shows and with a variety of ensembles in Yorkshire and across the country, as well as playing cornet in a local brass band.