A look back at the history of Bromsgrove Concerts by Vice President Jim Page
The Headmaster of Bromsgrove School in the 1960s was Lionel Carey, a benign and caring man, but one with little sympathy for the arts and certainly no understanding of music. However he did realise that it was necessary to have a token presence in a school. One day I, a very junior English master, was summoned and told to start a series of concerts at Bromsgrove.
Thus began Bromsgrove School Concert Club and the first of four concerts was held in Routh Hall on 22nd October 1963. It was a piano recital by Nina Milkina and it cannot be rated a success, for she was very nervous, the piano was not up to standard, and the audience had little idea as to where applause was appropriate. Bromsgrove String Orchestra, Owen Brannigan and the Gabrieli Ensemble completed quite a successful season, though the highlight was undoubtedly the recital by Owen Brannigan. After a varied programme he really captivated the audience with his favourite Northumberland folksongs, but few were prepared for the scenes of hilarity occurring during one of the encores. There were many boys present who were reduced to fits of uncontrollable laughter when they assumed that Old Mother Carey referred to their Headmaster's wife. Only afterwards did Owen Brannigan discover why that song had gone down better than ever before!
A season ticket cost thirty shillings (£1.50) and the artists' fees totalled £244. But difficulties began to appear as the enthusiasm for the new venture wore off. Membership declined and the inhospitable characteristics of Routh Hall - one lavatory (and that back stage), no coffee making facilities, uniquely uncomfortable oak chairs and the impossibility of getting the hall warm - caused single ticket sales to drop alarmingly.
So in 1969 the small committee looked at ways of rejuvenating the organisation. Ernest Kyte, the Head of North Bromsgrove High School, was enlisted as Chairman and links were formed with his school and the new South High School. Concerts were held in the North High School hall, or when a large audience was expected the spacious South High School was used. More popular programmes were attempted and Michael Garrick's Jazz group, the Midland Youth Orchestra and Opera for All became regular visitors. The King's Singers appeared (for £120) for the first time in 1972 and for four successive seasons filled the hall on each visit.
The personnel of the committee was stable in the first ten years but, with Fred Darley becoming Treasurer in 1973, the Society found someone who combined shrewdness as a manager of money with a passionate love of chamber music. His wife Joyce used to provide lavish hospitality for the musicians before the concerts, a tradition that has always been an essential part of the ethos of the club. It is pleasing how often one finds that artists remember Bromsgrove because they have been looked after so well.
1983 saw the Club benefit from sponsorship from Amoco and this resulted in the appearance of Alfred Brendel and John Lill, who attracted full houses. This enabled the committee to start a reserve fund as a buffer against losses on more adventurous planning, stimulated by Jennie McGregor-Smith joining the committee as Assistant Secretary in 1978. Thematic programming was introduced in 1984 and the quality of the music and artists engaged helped build up a solid core of sophisticated listeners from a wide area. A Celebration of English Song in 1986 was the first special event held, and three weekends devoted to the Beethoven Quartets played by the Medici Quartet followed. The complete Bartok and Schubert quartets followed in 1990 from the Brodsky Quartet and it was during their visit that planning began for a weekend when all fifteen Shostakovich Quartets were performed. This was a truly memorable weekend and I still meet people from all over the country for whom this was a seminal experience. Further biennial weekends, devoted to Janacek and the Czech String Quartet Tradition and the Beethoven Quartets from the Coull Quartet, continued to keep the club in the forefront of chamber music societies in the country.
Those at the helm during those years were Ernest Kyte, Harold Heywood, Graham Reddie, myself and now Jennie McGregor-Smith (who is due to retire in June 2003), ably supported for the last thirteen years by Gill Fredrick as secretary. Paddy Harrison took Fred Darley's place as treasurer two years ago.
The new music series, Mixing Music, has been the most adventurous project of all and its success has been heartening to see. I can safely say that no other voluntary music club in the country has maintained such a series and it is mainly for this that we have won eleven successive awards from the Performing Right Society. It was Jennie McGregor-Smith's idea and it has been through her amazing enterprise, perseverance and fund-raising ability that eleven successful seasons have passed. I have no doubt that under the present enthusiastic committee there will be many more seasons of adventure and innovation to come. We all wish the current committee every success in the future as it grapples with the ever-changing, and increasingly difficult, world of chamber music promotion.
Jim Page
(This article first appeared in the 2002-2003 40th Anniversary Season concert
programme)