News from our members

We welcome your brief news (max. 150 words) and high-res images. Please email mj@ism.org The next deadline for copy is 1 June for the July/August 2021 issue.

Professor John Morehen, FISM JP MA DLitt PhD FRCO (Chm) FRCCO HonFGCM FRSA

03/09/1941–25/03/2021 ISM member since 1971

John Morehen was an organist, conductor and academic, with a particular interest in church music of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. He was President of the ISM in 2003-4.

He was born in Gloucester, where he studied the organ with the then cathedral organist, Herbert Sumsion; later he edited the memoirs of Sumsion’s predecessor Herbert Brewer. At Clifton College, Bristol, he added piano, French horn and clarinet to his portfolio of instrumental skills, and he went on to study at the Royal School of Church Music, Addington Palace, and New College, Oxford. He was appointed lecturer in music at the University of Nottingham in 1973 and full professor in 1989; he conducted the Nottingham Bach Choir and served as president of the Nottingham Harmonic Choir and Nottingham & District Society of Organists. He also spent 20 years as a magistrate in the city. Much of Morehen’s career was taken up with editorial activities: he was general editor of the British Academy’s Early English Church Music project, and a trustee of Musica Britannica, the national collection of British music. He also published his own editions of 16th-century church music by Christopher Tye and Thomas Morley, and was editor of English Choral Practice, 1400-1650 (1995), the first book to survey the performing practices in English choral foundations of that period. His many additional roles as an educational consultant included:

• adviser to The Leverhulme Trust and The Humanities Research

Board (now The Arts and

Humanities Research Council) • Subject Assessor (Music) for the

Higher Education Funding Council for England (1994/5) • Member of the ‘Music Research

Panel’ of The Humanities Research

Board (1994-7) • Member of the Advisory

Committee of Arts and Humanities

Data Service (Performing Arts) (1995-2003) • Music Adviser to the

Commonwealth Scholarship

Commission (1996-2000) John Morehen’s interests included antiques, genealogy and the history and traditions of the City of London. He was fond of ceremony, commissioning a personal coat of arms that depicted two lyres to represent music as well as a moorhen and its chick. He was an authority on the role of music in freemasonry and served as master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 2012-13, writing in its newsletter: ‘I often reflect on how fortunate we are as musicians to earn our livelihood through a range of activities which can be as infinitely varied as it is artistically rewarding.’

Dr Jane Manning, FISM, OBE

20/09/1938 – 31/03/2021 ISM member since 1961

The soprano Jane Manning was a central figure in contemporary classical music for over 50 years, and an inspiration to composers, to fellow performers of her own generation and to younger singers. Born in Norwich, Manning took up singing on the advice of a teacher

who recommended it as a therapy for asthma. She went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Quickly developing an interest in contemporary music, she made her London debut with the Park Lane Group in 1964 and gave her first BBC broadcast the following year, singing Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire, which she went on to perform more than 100 times worldwide.

Manning gave more than 350 world premieres, and worked closely with composers such as Bennett, Birtwistle, Cage, Lutyens, Knussen and Weir. Operatic roles created by her include that of Max in Oliver Knussen’s Where the Wild Things Are. She gave the world premiere of John Cage’s Europera III at the Almeida Theatre and toured it throughout Europe. Judith Weir’s one-woman opera King Harald’s Saga, written for her in 1979, has become a miniature classic. Her catalogue of CDs included the major song cycles of Messiaen, all Satie’s vocal music, and works by Berg, Dallapiccola, Ligeti and Schoenberg with conductors such as Boulez and Rattle, as well as many recordings of British music.

In 1988 Manning founded her own virtuoso ensemble, Jane’s Minstrels, together with her husband, composer Anthony Payne. She served for a number of years as a vice-president of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, travelled the world as a voice teacher and compiled invaluable surveys: two volumes of New Vocal Repertory (1986, 1988) and two further volumes of Vocal Repertoire for the Twenty-First Century (2020), in which she supplied insights into such matters as tessitura, vocal colour, voice types, text interpretation and technique. The Daily Telegraph critic Ivan Hewett wrote: ‘For many people Jane Manning is simply the voice of contemporary classical music in this country. Anyone who took an interest in this burgeoning area of music in the 1970s and ‘80s grew up with the sound of her astonishing voice in their ears. It’s instantly recognisable, but it’s also a chameleon. Whether she’s faced with the pure angular leaps of Anton Webern, the throaty suggestiveness of Schoenberg or the black, crazed humour of György Ligeti, Jane Manning is always equal to the task.’ Composer Colin Matthews, executive producer of NMC recordings, described her as ‘someone who could tackle anything and everything, with a sightreading ability, perfection of pitch and a sheer joy in performance second to none … Those who knew Jane will greatly miss her enthusiasm and bubbly personality, but she will always remain in the memory as one of the outstanding voices of our time.’

Anna Shuttleworth, FISM

02/05/1927–02/03/2021 ISM member since 1964

The cellist Anna Shuttleworth was well known both as a performer and as a hugely influential teacher, whose career spanned more than 50 years. Born in Bournemouth, she studied at the Royal College of Music, London, with Ivor James and Harvey Phillips, and then with Mainardi in Salzburg and Rome and with Pablo Casals in Switzerland and France. As a student she was a founding member of the Vivien Hind String Quartet; after graduating she was invited to play at the Newbury Festival, Berkshire, with the Newbury String Players and as a soloist, and through this connection she formed a strong friendship with the composer Gerald Finzi and his family and with Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams. Through this relationship she was able to play on Jacqueline du Pré’s Davidov Stradivarius cello for two years. Shuttleworth’s career blossomed in the 1960s, when she frequently performed on BBC broadcasts. She played with numerous chamber music ensembles and gave recitals with pianists including Bernard Roberts, Ian Brown, Martin Roscoe and John Thwaites. For more than 30 years she was principal cello of the Midland Sinfonia, later the English Sinfonia, and she also worked with many other orchestras. Shuttleworth held many teaching positions in England, including posts in York, Leeds, Canterbury and at both the junior and senior departments of the Royal College of Music in addition to her own private practice; her pupils included Adrian Brendel, Alexander Baillie, Natalie Clein and Jonathan Del Mar. In 1964 Novello published Playing the Cello, which she wrote jointly with Hugo Cole.

Health-focused guide to working in the music industry

Sound Advice – written by music industry journalist Rhian Jones and PhD researcher and musician Lucy Heyman and published by Shoreditch Press on 28 February – is a health-focused performance and career manual for aspiring and established musicians and those who work with them. A bang up-to-date guide to the increasingly diverse structure of the music industry, with advice on improving performance skills, money management, cultivating creativity, social media, dealing with criticism, fame and fans, Sound Advice also explores the mental and physical health problems many musicians may face in their careers. Chapters cover substance use and addiction, eating disorders and body image, musculoskeletal issues and touring, vocal and hearing health, among other subjects. Through research-informed advice and information, Sound Advice aims to help enable artists to prioritise their mental and physical health while cultivating successful, sustainable and fulfilling careers. ‘Simply put, this is a must-read for anyone starting out in music today.’ David Joseph, Chairman and CEO Universal Music UK

New CDs from Douglas Hollick

Douglas Hollick has released two new CDs of keyboard music. Echoes of Advent was recorded on the wonderful Metzler organ of Trinity College Cambridge, where Douglas teaches. The first recording since Metzler cleaned the organ in 2019, it includes settings of the Magnificat and Advent chorales. Centrepiece is the huge Magnificat setting by Melchior Schildt, perhaps one of the greatest organ works of 17th century North Germany. Other composers include Scheidemann, Buxtehude, Guilain, Corrette and Bach.

Light & Shade uses the 1909 Dolmetsch Chickering clavichord bought from Christopher Hogwood’s collection, a lovely instrument based on the 1784 Hoffmann that Dolmetsch used as the model for clavichords made at Chickering’s. The programme reflects repertoire contemporary with that original clavichord, a Fantasy of C P E Bach, three Haydn sonatas, and a sonata by Jiri Benda. It is particularly illuminating to hear Haydn played on his favourite keyboard instrument! £10 each including UK postage, from dwh@globalnet.co.uk

Socially distanced recording from Gemini

The latest CD by Gemini (whose director is clarinettist Ian Mitchell) entitled Forclarinet and strings, is on the Métier/Divine Art label – the ensemble’s seventh with the company. This disc arose from a prize in the Prudential Awards for the Arts, which provided initial funding to record three major but neglected works, by Cyril Scott, Howard Skempton and Rebecca Clarke. Recent pieces by Sadie Harrison, Nicola LeFanu and Tony Coe were added to the repertoire in a long day of recording squeezed in just before the second lockdown. It took a while to get used to the social distancing. Six players two metres apart meant the ones at each end of the group had to use less than subtle physical movements, and in a large church it was challenging for balance and ensemble. Also, the engineer had to ‘mic’ each instrument separately (unusual for him with us), and composers joined us virtually through a complex system of Zoom and mobile phones, which worked most of the time! However, with patience, good humour and lots of tea throughout the eight-and-a-half hours, we made it. This is not a clarinet feature disc, more a programme of works involving that instrument ‘in the mix’. An introduction can be accessed via this YouTube link: youtu.be/nwObpr4xcpY

h e T a in c y

Len Rhodes 2022 UK Organ Tour

Len Rhodes is planning an organ tour in August and September 2022, COVID permitting(!) in celebration of his 70th birthday, and in recognition of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Len plans to feature Vaughan Williams and many of his contemporaries in the programme, which will include Len’s organ transcription of Pezzo Ostinato by RVW which has been approved by the composer’s estate. Confirmed venues and dates:

Friday 5 August 2022 Holy Trinity Church, Aberystwyth Tuesday 9 August The Priory Church of St. Mary, Deerhurst Friday 12 August St. Mary’s, Frampton-Upon-Severn Thursday 18 August Chesterfield Parish Church

Saturday 20 August Selby Abbey Saturday 27 August All Saints, Rothbury Tuesday 30 August Lancaster Priory Saturday 3 September St. Nicholas, Chislehurst Friday 9 September St. Mary’s, Shortlands Sunday 11 September Bromley Methodist Church Saturday 17 September Holy Trinity Church, Cuckfield Friday 23 September St. George’s RC Church, Worcester Sunday 25 September St. Margaret’s, Topsham, Exeter Friday 30 September St. Bride’s, Fleet Street Updates can be found at lenrhodesmusic.com

Music Matters Courses

ISM members Gareth Green and Alex Shore are co-directors of Music Matters Courses Ltd. At mmcourses.co.uk they have created more than 20 online courses, covering various aspects of theory, aural training, orchestration, analysis, composition and much else. They have recently received awards from YouTube in recognition of surpassing 100,000 subscribers on their channel. At youtube.com/c/MusicMattersGB they have now posted over 200 videos on a wide variety of musical topics that are viewed throughout the world.

Despite various threats to the security of music education it is fabulous that such resources are so widely available and so much appreciated by such a large number of musicians of all ages and backgrounds.

New competition goes global

Last summer an innovative competition was launched to challenge tired baroque violin programming and redefine classical music on film.

Brainchild of violinist Ada Witczyk, the new competition offers another way of engaging with classical music online. No more static wide images of musicians in bow ties who frankly look like they’d rather be anywhere else, repeating the same concert programme for the hundredth time. ‘I couldn’t watch another Netflix boxed set and let my brain turn to mush. Audiences are crying out for something original.’ – Ada Witczyk Over 30 entries poured in from 14 countries around the world with three winners emerging: Ostinato in 7 – Oscar Tysoe youtube. com/watch?v=GOLSnyuWY38 The Spectre – Erik Valdemar Sköld youtube.com/ watch?v=wXNW6cp3L7U Yellow – Samuel Howley youtube. com/watch?v=w9MtFaMwcrk Forget cello suites on the beach or other clichés, each piece has been transformed with composers, directors and musicians all banding together to create original and innovative films. adawitczyk.com/ composition-competition

Wild Plum Arts new music and residencies

Wild Plum Arts was created in 2018 by Lucy Schaufer and ISM member Christopher Gillett to commission and perform new music, and to start an artists’ residency in the UK that would mirror American organisations like MacDowell and Yaddo. So far they have commissioned nine new works, with several more in the pipeline, including new song cycles by Arthur KeeganBole and Conor Mitchell. This August Wild Plum Arts will host their third artists’ residency at The Red House, in Aldeburgh, and members of the ISM are encouraged to apply. A residency lasts six nights and all accommodation and meals are provided totally free. Full details and a simple application form can be found on the website. Just look for Made At The Red House at wildplumarts.org.uk Spirituality in the Music of John Tavener

Heart’s Ease – Spirituality in the Music of John Tavener ed. June BoyceTillman FISM and Ann-Marie Forbes (Peter Lang 2020) is Volume 11 in the series on Music and Spirituality (edited by Prof Boyce-Tillman). The works of Sir John Tavener (1944 – 2013) cross both cultural and disciplinary boundaries. The composer illustrated how to deal with intense suffering and felt deeply for the suffering of the world. He stands as an icon representing artistic expression as a way of generating hope and transcendence. This book includes both academic chapters and shorter meditations on the role Tavener has played in practitioners’ practice. ‘Tavener was a composer who could not separate the spiritual from the musical, and this phenomenon is investigated in depth from many different perspectives in this analytical book, with reference to some of his major works.’ (Jeremy Huw Williams)

Explore further music, spirituality and wellbeing with an online conference 5-6 July 2021 mswinternational.org

Remembering the victims of Chernobyl

ISM member Alla Sirenko FISM presented a Zoom concert of the Spiritual Music from Ukraine on Saturday 17 April in remembrance of the victims of the Chernobyl disaster. Her programme consisted of traditional sacred Ukrainian music from the 15th century up to the present day, featuring Ukrainian male ensemble Kalophonia and a variety of beautiful orchestral and choir music from Ukraine by other distinguished performers. Proceeds from ticket sales will go directly to help victims of the Chernobyl disaster with their ongoing medical treatments.

Dogs and Birds

Elza and Chris Lusher are running online courses for piano and music teachers on the Dogs and Birds approach (a method for teaching piano to 3 to 7-year-olds). Each course consists of a one-hour introductory session and a fivehour main session (including three 15-minute breaks). There will be around five teachers per course and the cost is £60.00 per participant. During a course we show how to incorporate the basic elements of the Dogs and Birds approach (singing, ear training, rhythm, finger exercises etc) from the start and to build on them as you work through the Nursery Rhyme Book and Book 2, to offer a seamless transition to using conventional music. We also present some as yet unpublished reading exercises. Each course is tailored to the participants’ needs and experience. Courses are being held monthly. Please email info@dogsandbirds. co.uk to register your interest. See dogsandbirds.co.uk for more information.

And So The Prophecies Have Come To Pass

Michael Stimpson’s The Angry Garden/ Silvered Night is to be released on CD and fordownload in June. The recording features the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of London Choir, Hilary Davan Wetton, and Mark Bebbington. With climate change now so prominent, and further acknowledged with the UN COP26 Conference in Glasgow in the autumn, the release of The Angry Garden, a work concerned with environmental degradation, is timely. It was originally premiered at St. Johns’ Smith Square in support of the World Wildlife Fund. A special vinyl version of The Angry Garden will be released in September. Silvered Night, for piano and orchestra, and featuring pianist Mark Bebbington, is a development of a piece for solo piano originally written to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Available from all digital outlets, Amazon, and michaelstimpson.co.uk Learn to sing jazz-style

Jazz and world music vocalist Andria Antoniou is leading an online jazz workshop for three consecutive Saturdays, starting on 22 May. This workshop is for intermediate or advanced level singers of any musical style and training. It focuses on the study of jazz songs (‘heads’) and famous solos based on one of the most common jazz chord progressions called ‘rhythm changes’. Through the study of rhythm changes, progressions and songs as well as the decoding of famous vocal jazz solos, participants will develop an understanding of this chord progression, expand their repertoire and learn how to improvise in this style (scat singing) using the appropriate vocal tone, melodic and rhythmic tools. Additionally, each week we are going to introduce jazz vocal exercises, ear training and rhythmic exercises to enhance your understanding of ‘jazz language’. For detailed description please visit: andriaantoniou.com/jazzworkshop Dates and times Saturdays at 15.00-16.30 UK time 22/05/21 | 29/05/21 | 05/06/21 Cost £55 in total for four one-hour sessions

About Andria Bio: bit.ly/bioandria

Practising the Piano

Resources and Online Workshops for the new ABRSM Piano Syllabus Practising the Piano’s collection of resources for the new ABRSM syllabus now features almost 100 videos, covering pieces from the Initial Grade through to Grade 8. As a complement to these resources, we’ve also created a programme of online workshops in which Graham Fitch provides insights on how to learn, practise and interpret selected repertoire, in addition to offering tips on other elements such as scales, sight-reading, preparation and performing. More information on our resources for piano examinations is available here: mailchi.mp/informance/ piano-examination-resources. ISM members are entitled to 30% discounts on online workshops and annual subscriptions (please visit mailchi.mp/informance/ismmember-offers for more information on ISM member discounts).

MEMBER COMMENTS

Musicians and their managers and agents are all massively grateful that someone has taken this on in the absence of any clarity from the government. Really do appreciate this immensely as it will affect directly whether we can work out whether the bands I represent are able to fulfil the bookings in Europe we have later this year or whether we need to cancel. Couldn’t be more important to musicians to have clarity now. ISM member since 1998 Responses were always prompt and extremely helpful. Very kind and professional. I had a very stressful issue to deal with, and [the Legal Team] solved it in the best possible way. ISM member since 2020

I would love to renew my annual subscription and thanks to ISM for everything they are doing for us musicians! You are doing a remarkable work. Emily Richou, ISM member since 2019 Would be lost without the incredible support from @ISM_music and @ HelpMusiciansUK for financial aid during the pandemic. Being excluded from government SEISS has been tough and these guys have really been there for me when the government was not. I am so grateful. Amy Blythe, ISM member since 2015 (edited from social media post) Keep up the good work – ISM campaigning is very impressive. Fiona Yeomans, Friend of the ISM Trust since 2016

Obituaries: We are sorry to announce the deaths of the following members: Mrs Kathleen M Borland FISM Dr Jane Manning FISM OBE of London Ms Anna Shuttleworth FISM of Leeds of Winchester Professor John Morehen FISM JP of Mr Michael Toll OBE of Hockley Professor Jeffrey Davies FISM of Cromer Newark (ISM President 2003–04) Mrs Barbara Kitson FISM of Doncaster Mrs Margaret C Smith FISM of Harrogate

Recommend ISM membership to a friend

With music professionals working in an increasingly uncertain world, ISM membership is more essential than ever. You can help to grow the ISM community by encouraging your friends and colleagues to join. We’ll also give you money off your next year’s membership fee every time someone you recommend joins us at the full or early career rate – £20 off if you are a full rate member, or £10 off if you are an early career rate member. If they join at the full rate, we’ll give them £10 off their membership fee too. Send the name and email address of the friend(s) you are recommending to membership@ism.org. Ask your friend to quote the code FULLREC if they are joining us at the full rate or EARLYREC if they are joining at the early career rate. Find out more at ism.org/recommend