Letter
The Hallé, Ida Carroll, Geoffrey Griffiths, St James Church Choir at Birch-in-Rusholme
Forsyth Music Shop
1939

Griff's got a further audition for the Hallé choir and asks Ida "so would you haul me up and down the jolly old scales one evening, criticising energetically?" He sings in church choir at Birch but "you are in a crowd and Messers Forsyth's little room they use is all secluded and stark." Did the Hallé use the room for auditions? Interesting...
Hilda Collens has talked to Ida about the possibility of not being able to do as much at the Matthay (she's the principal of the school). Griff discusses options for how to keep the school going including a Limited Liability Company "provided the members were disinterested in considerations of profit, but it would be rather unprofessional for a school of music to adopt that." However that's exactly what they did in 1943! To get local government support they moved to a public LLC by guarantee (not shares!). That's when they changed their name to the Northern School of Music. And Hilda Collens was principal until she died in 1956 so she stuck it out quite a while.
Griff references Palmanism, a system for brain training popular at the time, to help him remember spelling.
He's not looking forward to having his Sunday afternoon taken over by a chatty friend who always overstays his welcome.

Ref: CARROLL/IGC/3 GG
With thanks to the Ida Carroll Trust
Date is unknown.

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