It's chamber music this time and they apparently did quite well according to the Guardian review. High praise for the students performance of Vaughan Williams’ ‘On Wenlock Edge’ that ”poses such extraordinary and wellnigh insoluble problems that the excellence of last night’s performance at the Northern School of Music chamber music recital in the Houldsworth Hall, Manchester, must be written down as a remarkable achievement.” The performance was “a tribute to the skill and insight of the performers […] and to the soundness of the Northern School’s training.”
I bet they were well made up after reading that.

Ref: NSM/20

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

It's another Messiah! Who could have seen that coming.

These are really good for listing students in the orchestra though, so there's that.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Northern School of Music orchestra concert, conducted by Ida Carroll. Another NSM-type mix of very dead composers, only recently dead composers, and not yet quite dead composers. This time, not just for the school itself but for the Castleton Musical Society. I wonder if whoever was driving the instrument van was quite ready for the descent into Castleton.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The 1954 Easter concert of the Northern School of Music is completely packed. That's a lot of solos for a lot of people. No pressure, friends!

Another female composer! Freda Swain, a contemporary composer of the time, she was a teacher at the Royal College of Music from her early 20s. She wrote a lot of different music and its some of her clarinet music that the Northern School of Music programmed in 1954.

Ref: NSM/20

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

Surprise! It's a Messiah!

Ref: NSM/20

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

Another jam packed concert for the Northern School of Music with a mix of thoroughly dead and still living composers.

Ref: NSM/20

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

3 more jam packed concerts showcasing the senior and junior musical talents at the Northern School of Music. A sprinkling of contemporary composers including Walter Carroll, staunch supporter of the Northern School of Music, local children's composer, and father of the school's secretary and future principal Ida Carroll.

All looks damned exhausting.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Manchester Chamber Concerts Society organised a bunch of performances, offering cheap tickets to music school students at the time.

Ref: NSM/20

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

Is there any opera company that *hasn't* had a go at Figaro? This seems pretty full scale - including chorus and orchestra. That's *a lot* of people to shuffle in the Lesser Free Trade Hall.

Ref: NSM/20

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

This is a pretty big deal for for the Northern School of Music. Not only is the orchestra conducted by Ernest Read, a pretty bog name at the time, but they've managed to borrow the leader of the Hallé Orchestra Arthur Percival.
No pressure, everyone.

Ref: NSM/20

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

Still surprised by how much music they can pack into one programme.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Northern School of Music opening its concert with another contemporary composer, Howard Ferguson. Sprinkling the rest of the concert with other contemporary composers amongst the standard names.

The Hirsch String Quartet was formed way back when the Northern School of Music was called the Matthay School of Music. Leonard Hirsch, a violin teacher and great friend of the school, started to gather talents for his quartet. He would only consider students from the school.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Hirsch String Quartet was formed way back when the Northern School of Music was called the Matthay School of Music. Leonard Hirsch, a violin teacher and great friend of the school, started to gather talents for his quartet. He would only consider students from the school.

I like looking at the adverts on the back of programmes. They tell you about who they expected audience would have been. In this case, it's HMV customers!

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Hirsch String Quartet was formed way back when the Northern School of Music was called the Matthay School of Music. Leonard Hirsch, a violin teacher and great friend of the school, started to gather talents for his quartet. He would only consider students from the school.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Hirsch String Quartet was formed way back when the Northern School of Music was called the Matthay School of Music. Leonard Hirsch, a violin teacher and great friend of the school, started to gather talents for his quartet. He would only consider students from the school.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Hirsch String Quartet was formed way back when the Northern School of Music was called the Matthay School of Music. Leonard Hirsch, a violin teacher and great friend of the school, started to gather talents for his quartet. He would only consider students from the school.

Ref: NSM/20

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

In 1953 the Northern School of Music's drama students teamed up with Theological students of the Unitarian College of Manchester. They perform Clive Sansom's The Witnesses, about Jesus' last days, published just a couple years before as a series of poems.

Ref: NSM/20

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

Another three concerts packed with senior and junior students of the Northern School of Music. Still performing music from contemporary living composers. I wonder if any of these are the Manchester premiere of these pieces?

Ref: NSM/20

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

Die Fledermaus was the Northern School of Music's second opera, a chaotic comedy about mistaken identities and love scandals.
The school did pretty well. According to the Guardian review, it was “highly meritorious and not lacking in grace and sparkle,” especially since “the average professional performance of ‘Die Fledermaus‘ in this country rarely comes nearer to Vienna than Surbiton or Salford.” (Alright that's pretty rude.) The production’s direction ”did much to overcome the disadvantages of the small stage.”

Ref: NSM/20

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

A heads up by the Northern School of Music advertising their first ever opera performance, The Bartered Bride.

Ref: NSM/20

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

The Junior School of the Northern School of Music was the parent of the RNCM Junior School. With this legacy, Hilda Collens ensured the musical training and enrichment of thousands of young people and children for nearly a century. Big up Hilda Collens!

Ref: NSM/20

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

A programme for the Manchester String Orchestra in the Northern School of Music's archive. I'm not sure what the connection with the school is apart from the fact that they did have a string orchestra themselves. Perhaps students performed with it?

The orchestra was conducted by a woman, Clarice Dunington, and was led by a woman, Eva Martin. Fantastic!

If anyone has info about these two women or the orchestra itself, I would be fascinated to learn it.

Ref: NSM/20

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

It's Christmas! Again! I think this is my favourite Christmas concert by the Northern School of Music yet: it has a female composer listed!

Margaret Hubicki (1915-2006), was one of Annie Lennox's music teachers and also developed the "colour staff" to help people with dyslexia to read music. She was pretty awesome and the NSM performed two of her pieces in 1952.

Ref: NSM/20

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

A concert in true Northern School of Music style with well known composers such as Mozart and Bach and then a handful of contemporary English composers of the 20th century thrown in as well. I wonder if that was the students' decision or the school's own encouragement.

Ref: NSM/20

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