Music for Life

After more than 50 years as a conductor, John Lubbock (1959) knows the impact music can have, on his own life as much as on that of others.

“All concerts are failures”. These are not the words that you would expect to hear come from a man whose musical career has spanned over 50 years, who has conducted the biggest names in classical music across the world and who is most likely the longest-serving Director of music with a single orchestra, the organisation he founded – the Orchestra of St John’s (OSJ). But to John Lubbock (1959), never producing a perfect performance of a piece of music is part of the joy he finds in his work. For him and his musicians, the next performance is, in his words, simply an opportunity to “fail better to master a Mozart”. Music is clearly not, however, just about the musicians and the enjoyment from his long and illustrious career derives not only from the performances, but also from the use of music as an immensely powerful tool to help and to heal everyone who hears it.

John’s journey to master a Mozart began at Windsor, where as a chorister for over seven years the four hours of specialist music tuition and performance a day gave him a solid grounding in his field. His time at Windsor also introduced John to a new aspect of performance – performing for the music’s sake, devoid of ego. That notion of the joining together of a group of individual voices, be they human or instrumental, to create a sound that can physically and emotionally feed you has been one of the key elements in all his work since.

John Lubbock (second left) in the photo of the Athletics Team, c.1960. Such a talented musician was going to find much to be involved in during his time at Radley, and whilst here in the early 1960s he performed in the choir and the orchestra. Keen to further his musical education he managed to arrange to go up to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in Kensington every Saturday, furthering the breadth of his knowledge. After a stint in Peru with the VSO, he then switched over to the Royal Academy of Music to continue his musical studies full time. And it was whilst a student there that he inadvertently discovered his calling. As part of a performance piece, John commissioned a new work for tenor & 13 instruments, but unfortunately something was missing before it could be performed. It needed a conductor. With no one else putting up their hand to take the baton, John stepped forward. It was not something he’d planned and whilst the performance of the new commission was seemingly more of a ‘world derriere than world premiere’, it put him in the role that he would perform for the next 54 years (and counting).

It was from this first, not entirely deliberate, step that the Orchestra of St John’s was founded whilst John was still a student at the RAM in 1967. Initially founding a choir, it was not long before musicians were added to the group and their musical repertoire and reputation grew. A stroke of good fortune then came their way when John was approached by someone that was just starting a music agency. He offered to run the OSJ’s concerts for nothing as a way to build up experience and exposure for both parties, and the success of this arrangement can be easily measured by the fact that the OSJ were soon well established and were invited to perform their first prom just nine years later, in 1976. Over the next 15 years, John went from strength-to-strength, conducting at the Proms another five times, touring the world and playing with the world’s great soloists, including Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gidon Kremer, Lucia Popp, Sir James Galway and Yo-Yo Ma. However, despite the esteem in which OSJ and John himself were held, the level of wider recognition for the OSJ never fully materialised and that was down to two decisions John made, both of which sum up the ethos at the heart of his work.

The first decision was taken in the late 1970s and that was to simply stop studio recording. Increasingly it became clear that the recording process was ruining what the OSJ were trying to achieve when performing music - creating something new and individual with each playing of a piece as the interplay between musicians and composer varies every time. To John the essence of what it means to perform and the requirements of studio were increasingly at loggerheads, with the music stifled by the constraints and repetition of recording.

John Lubbock and the Orchestra of St John’s at a performance in Dorchester Abbey.

But it is this approach of the OSJ which makes each performance unique – the orchestra reacting to each other, to their surroundings and to the mood of the audience. To do this he needs musicians rehearsed and skilful enough to cope with this approach and yet John has only ever run one day of auditions in his whole career. To get the performances – to try and master Mozart – needs people who can play music, not simply musicians. According to John, it takes a willingness to put one’s self wholly into the music and to work as one combined unit rather than a collection of individual musicians, with the conductor an equal part of it, not sitting above it. In his view this is not necessarily the norm in the orchestral world, as players and conductors had often been (and still can be) antagonists, each part striving individually. And whilst not a ‘safe’ way to perform, John’s own approach has engendered such trust, friendship and camaraderie in the OSJ that it has a number of musicians who have been with John for 45 years and more. It’s therefore no wonder that he says “making music with people you love is unspeakably wonderful. I consider myself to be the luckiest man alive” – a sentiment many of his orchestra would not doubt agree with.

The second big decision that has had a huge impact on John’s career, and an even more profound one on his life came in the early 1990s. In 1993 his fourth son was diagnosed with severe autism. The diagnosis called for the family to bring over a therapist from the USA to undergo a treatment and learning programme, which would go on to be featured in a Channel 4 documentary, and on their return to the UK it was clear that a totally new existence needed to be built for John and his family. Both John and his wife Christine, a professional musician in her own right, made the decision to downsize their careers. This meant no more tours and no more international travel, in fact they moved the base of operations for the OSJ to Oxfordshire as he needed to be no more than 10 minutes from home. From this point on all of their live concerts would be performed in Dorchester Abbey.

But rather than the move out of London being a problem, John saw it as an opportunity. The whole of the OSJ – orchestra, management and board embedded themselves in the local community and looked to use the music as a wonderful medium for good. Over the years the charitable and outreach work they engage in has grown organically. Examples include the OSJ performing pieces for patients with dementia across Oxfordshire and also working with refugees in Oxford who had written poems about their lives. The musicians then helped them to write music

‘Becoming the conductor’ - introducing local school children to live classical music through practical workshops.

to perform alongside the poetry, allowing a full expression of their experiences. In 2018 John was instrumental in bringing across an orchestra of Afghan girls to Britain, where they joined with the OSJ to perform at the British Museum and the Foreign Office. As a demonstration of the passion John has for taking classical music out into the community and allowing everyone to engage with this music, these examples speak volumes.

In 2002 Christine, with John’s assistance, founded the charity Music for Autism with the aim to design interactive concerts specifically for individuals with autism and their families. The concerts take place in halls that appeal to people with autism, with open space for the audience to react to the music through spontaneous dance and movement. Being able to call on members of the OSJ, these concerts allow individuals with autism to experience high quality classical music in an environment designed to make them feel comfortable. In addition to funding these concerts, Music for Autism has supported special units and schools for children with autism, performing around 70 days a year in these schools, including a return to Radley where local adults with autism were entertained in Silk Hall. The charity’s music education and equipment grants have also furnished sensory rooms and provided school transportation and school supplies for children. Such was the impact that this has had on individuals with autism that in 2015, John was awarded an OBE, in part for services to people with autism and learning difficulties in the UK – an award that he never mentions throughout our conversation. Rather, giving access to music that will bring joy to all those who play and hear it is clearly the biggest reward for John.

The last two years have been exceptionally tough for all involved in music, with the Covid pandemic and ensuing lockdowns bringing the industry to an almost complete standstill. As many orchestras struggled, unable to reach out to their wider, national audience it reinforced to John just how essential it was for the OSJ to be embedded entirely within the local community. For them to be able to continue to perform impactful work, whether that be online or in a socially-distanced manner, they needed to know their audience and just as importantly the audience needed to know the orchestra. Thanks to that move out of London, John and the OSJ were already there – in the community and part of the community – and so they were able to weather the storm of the pandemic. Lockdown also gave John the opportunity, other than doing a lot of gardening, to get heavily involved in more musical research where he uncovered composers that even he had never heard of! Names such as Karlowicz, Moskowski and Bacewicz came to light, all of whom had written some wonderful pieces.

With this new tranche of music ready to try and fail better to master, he has brought these back to the OSJ and they are now performing these little-played pieces. And with no plans to retire (it’s too expensive!), John will continue on his journey to bring musical gems, both hidden and well-known, out into the open for the enjoyment of the whole community.

Conducting with Minhaj Sadik, 14, at a Music for Autism event.

John leads a group session at a Music for Autism event in South London in 2013.