1999

At Glyndebourne Jean Taylor gave us seats for Marriage of Figaro as our silver wedding present . it was heaven! I have only been once more Magic flute standing ticket on the day we won the Olympics for London! 

Book 7 p.1361 Cardinal Hume died. It was impossible to get a seat at the funeral which was televised. Liz went to the vespers and I to the lying in state.A great humble man. P.1362 royal wedding at Windsor. I think this was Prince Edward. P.1364 Dennis had done well in his A levels. June 1999 p.1367 vespers for Cardinal Hume and ordination of Sunith Nonis at Addiscombe. I used Dad's extension of Be still for the presence. P.1368 st John's Upper Norwood still needed £72000 for the restoration of the Lewis organ but did not apply to the lottery! We had a mass remembering Liz's Dad 2 years after he died. In fact I have played Finlandia every year. P.1371. P.1379 we spent a week in Prague for our silver wedding trip. An apartment in the centre and we enjoyed lots of concerts and organ recitals. The Mozart, Dvorak, Smetana and Jewish museums were fascinating. We saw Don Giovanni at the opera house and were moved to a better box! P.1392  mistakes in the transposition of Dad's wedding anthem to be sung again on October 9. P.1394 a memory of me as a baby Dad dancing to Charlie is my darling with me in his arms. P.1396 describes the silver wedding Mass in detail. Michael Fleming played the new organ and Adrian conducted. Rachmaninov, Faur e and Byrd were included. We appear to have no photos! P.1399 Dennis moved into the house in Bow p.1399. P.1415 Chorus on Birmingham, Basingstoke, Cologne, Baden Baden, RFH, Cardiff and Ely on TV all Beethoven 9 and Sir Simon Rattle! I had been on strike! John and Bruce Alexander visited. P.1416 Advent carols at Our Lady's and Revd Val from St Mildred's presided. I am interested to see I was reading The Tablet, Choir and Organ, Laudate, CMQ and Organists review although I abandoned the last. P.1421 the start of a difficult year at Battersea Park when I was accused and cleared of racism. Fortunately I had kept records. In the end Liz insisted I went to the doctor and he gave me a month off. The strain had been too much having to work with somebody who kept going sick with a fever. The Sarum coll e Orthodox Lent retreat was excellent. We were all feasting while the group from Bath orthodox church were fasting. Chime committee doing good work on linking church music organisations dealing with music education.

1998

Letter from Dom Andrew Moore

Dec 1997 Verdi concert in Birmingham and Festival Hall. The 1998 planner mentions Saturdays in Guildford, Peterborough, Ely, Chelmsford, Canterbury, all with Michael Fleming. Haydn Nelson Mass is listed in March. P.1138 Dennis working at insurance company and Bruce playing golf at Shirley Park golf club.  P.1144 Liz became a parent governor at St Joseph's college. I sang Schubert Serenade for my chorus reaudition and David Hill told me people liked my voice. This was very encouraging. I heard David play at Notre Dame de France, Leicester Square. 5 of us sang at St John's Murrill in E and Faire is the heaven.p.1145 I had met Lionel Dakers and Harry Bramma was to retire from RSCM.p.1149 4 cassettes of the singing from Canterbury RSCM course. I reviewed a liturgy disk for CMQ. P.1151 Guild council i was publicity officer. I also welcomed people to meetings as nobody else did it! The Bromley and Croydon Organists association visited the fine organ in Tonbridge school.
p.1153 Cardinal Basil Hume signed his book "Basil in blunderland" for me at a Guild presentation at the cathedral. I met him twice and all he said was "Have you got a cup of tea" and "Pray for me". I would have loved to chat to him.

Whitby

Vol 4 mentions my involvement in obtaining information about Michael Nazir-Ali but he was not elected Archbishop of Sydney. Philip Jensen was firmly against ordaining women. p.697 May 17 confirmation of Dennis and Louise for which Dad wrote a lovely anthem which went well. p.700. p.722 the anthem was sung again at Addiscombe. p.723 John East's kind comments about the anthem. p.724 my visit to York on the way to Whitby. This was my first encounter with Monastic musicians. We had earlier met Fr Mark Hartley from Mount St Bernard who was the convenor. I was thinking it was all going to be so dreary at Smeaton but the truth was it was great fun. The nuns and monks were away from their communities and happy to let their hair down and share frustrations. Can you imagine being a qualified musician prevented from playing the organ because a certain sister always played! And not very well! The concert at the end of the week was a hoot with the lovely Sr Madeline giving her "Miss Otis regrets" She often said "Never despair, there are little lights everywhere doing their best". I think I might have been on the steam railway on this occasion. I well remember walking into York Minster to greet one of the sisters who were the same community as the Whitby nuns (Holy Paraclete - Anglican) and she knew all about what we had been doing. There was one Taize evening when we were told we could leave at any time but I just couldn't and stayed to the end! The Christmas letter mentions Penny Tuck assisting at Addiscombe. She had a bubbly personality and became a Catholic. later she left which was sad. The 1993 St Cecelia service was at the Abbey.Elgar Great is the Lord.we met Fr Farmer. In fact we went most years to this service and Sons of the Clergy.

Fr Mark at Mount St Bernard abbey organised the Monastic musicians meetings. 

1985

With Margaret (Peggy) Woodroffe many years later in Ireland she was one of the original members of the choir

P. 192 Mum and Dad stayed in Spa Hill and this worked really well. We played the organs of Hereford, Worcester and Salisbury cathedrals. Best of all Ralph Downes came to demonstrate the Royal Festival Hall organ and Dad asked if I could play! He was charming that day and showed us a Hill English sound! That night we sang the Missa with Giulini. Dad went to the Sons of the clergy p. 194. Dad mentions a recital by Ronald Frost in Hereford. I started to play at Our Lady of the Annunciation, Addiscombe. dad gave a recital there on 25th May with a collection for Ethiopia. Fr Farmer gave  the first recital there in 1974 pm the 2 manual Conacher which came from Hammersmith. I was initially asked to play for the 11.30 a.m. Mass. I never had a contract (a mistake!) just a letter from Monsignor John Moran. This fitted in well with St Margaret's. Later the problem was Easter and Midnight Mass!

25th October signed by Archbishop Michel Bowen and the brass players Roger Snewin, Neville Squires, Richard Riley, Nigel Brianbourne? Bob Duffield and singers R Barber. This was a combined effort with the folk choir and we finished with Trumpet coluntary

Page 198 mentions Broad Heath Elgar's birthplace and Chartwell also the Nicholson Singers under Michael Fleming at Salisbury with Chris Dowie at the organ. This was a regular Bank Holiday event for us and Michael took us all over the place! Mark Gordon Lennox was born 29 September 1985 - great joy! 17 June a lovely letter from Walter Macfarlane head of St John's. He mentions Alan Foden, John East, Michael Matthews, Stan Trollip, John Thing, Anthony Gear.

 From the chorus newsletter 1986 how the children saw us!

A letter to CMQ about visiting organs. I had an unhappy experience in Boscombe where we knew the choir director (She had been at St Chad's). Having spent an evening chatting to the parish priest about the new organ he refused to let me play it! I don't think it was published. 

I have a copy of my article for the Old Johnnian magazine and I mention Mum and Dad meeting Old Johannians at the London reunion. I sang Caspar in Amahl and the night visitors in 6 churches and every time it snowed! John East was directing the choir at St Etheldreda's Ely Place. 

Michael died 2006 his influence through RSCM and Nicholson Singers was enormous