BOARD OF GOVERNORS GUILDHALL SCHOOL OF MUSIC AND DRAMA: 3 FEBRUARY

The current home of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican

The Company has close links to the music conservatoires in London, principally through a number of scholarship awards including the de Turkheim scholars. This year the Board of Governors of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama held a dinner at the Hall and very kindly asked me to attend.

The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is very much a City institution supported directly by the City of London.  It is currently located at the other end of London Wall from the Hall in the Barbican.  More details are at http://www.gsmd.ac.uk/

It was a most distinguished event with many Fellows of the Guildhall School of Music present.  I was particularly delighted to be sitting close by Dame Emma Kirkby.  I used to be a volunteer supporting the London Handel Festival at St George's Hanover Square in the mid eighties and can remember Emma giving some memorable performances.

When the world was young.  George Martin and the Beatles share a cup of tea at Abbey Road Studios probably around 1966.

Speakers included another Fellow, Sir George Martin, who as he said had 'by chance met up with four lads from Liverpool' and this had had some influence on his career.  But it is clear that he has an extraordinary ability to mentor and interpret a very wide of artists and musical genres.  He briefly mentioned Bernard Cribbens, Beyond the Fringe, Charlie Drake, Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren as well as many others.  But most importantly he said that it been his attendance at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, after a few rootless years where he had been in the services and tried a number of other things, that really nurtured and developed his talent.

Tom Hoffman,Common Councillor, who is the Chairman of the Board of Governors, was generous in his thanks to the Company and also reflected on the great success of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.