Audio File
Bryan Fox
Royal Northern College Of Music (RNCM)
2019

Bryan Fox talks about ordering the pianos for the new Royal Northern College of Music. The RNCM was created in 1972 from the amalgamation of the Royal Manchester College of Music and the Northern School of Music.

Bryan: I typed out this order for 48 grand pianos, Steinways.
Heather: That’s a lot of pianos, Bryan!
B: It came in at just over 110 thousand pounds I think. I think the [Steinway model] ‘D’ at that stage was just under 4000 and the ‘B’ was 1850 odd I think.
H: A lot of money…
B: Anyway, I typed … and sent off copies to Mr Leaming[?], who was the Treasurer at Manchester City Council and Mr Price[?] who was at Preston, because they were looking after the legal side of things. Chester was educational and Salford… they were the four local authorities. And, within 48 hours, I had a telephone call from Miss Carstairs, who was Mr Price’s assistant. ‘We’ve got a copy of this letter you’ve written to Mr Squib[?] at Steinway hall for these pianos but we don’t have authority to buy them. You must cancel these orders straight away.’ When I put the phone down… ‘yes, of course, yes, yes’… I put the phone down and went straight through to Renna [Kellaway] who was working on something at her Steinway and I said ‘what do we do?’ and she said ‘whatever we do, you mustn't cancel it!’

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.