A summer concert by the Northern School of Music this time conducted by Ida Carroll. That woman could turn her hand to all sorts it seems.

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.

Northern School of Music with a huge choral and orchestral work by Mendelssohn Elijah. According to the Guardian review, it was chosen to show what the students could do but was a shame that something “more in touch with present day taste was not chosen for the students to exercise and display their talents in.” Even conservative choral societies didn’t hold it as core repertoire by that point. The choir performed well, however. Groves hadn’t worked with the orchestra long enough to mould the string section appropriately around the soloists.

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 1956, Hilda Collens died. She was the founder and principal of the Northern School of Music. With her work, thousands of children and young people were able to access musical training leading to lives as teachers and performers. This concert was programmes to honour her memory.

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 trio of concerts was a particularly popular set-up in the 1950s for the Northern School of Music. It gave their students, both senior and junior, the live performance experience they would need if they wanted to be a performing musician.
With the Junior School, they again play some of local children's composer Walter Carroll's work, and even work by female composer Freda Swain.

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 packed concert of the Northern School of Music with students soloists and accompanists for Easter. Does anyone recognise any of these musicians?

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 Everyman play is a weird one, as all personified "moral plays" are. Characters embody ideas instead of personalities such as Knowledge and Fellowship and are a bit allegorical for most contemporary audiences, it's not a popular technique today or in the 1950s. Who needs allegory and metaphor when you've just come out the other end of the very real WW2.

Speech and Drama students of the Northern School of Music were not successful in making them familiar, according to a review, it was all a bit medieval. Robert Hall, who played Everyman, “was good enough as a sinner,” and Helen Reynolds was Five-Wits with the best stage presence but “one could not understand why she was dressed as a page boy.” To be fair, why not.

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's production of the Merry Wives of Windsor opera. I can't find a review but I'm almost sure it will say something about how well they did on such a small stage, with the orchestra practically being in the audience's laps.

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 and the Northern School of Music are performing another of their jam packed programmes. This time with local lad Thomas Pitfield on the list of composers. Pitfield had an incredible talent for almost anything arty or crafty. Click on his name tag for this item to see some of his other work I've popped onto MDMA.

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 popular in 1955! The Northern School of Music books the quartet to play at the Houldsworth Hall.
Leonard Hirsch was a great friend of the NSM and in the 1930s he set up the "Hirsch Quartet" at the NSM (different from this quartet here) and would only open auditions for students at the NSM. They did pretty well!

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 from the Northern School of Music coming to Houldsworth 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.

The Northern School of Music really enjoyed a Messiah. This is their 1955 performance of the huge work.

A polite notice "The audience is requested not to applaud until the completion of each part." They must have needed to nip the rogue clappers in the bud.

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.

I like these cute little programmes. This time it's the Junior Orchestra, led by Margaret Edwards and conducted by Ida Carroll. The Northern School of Music's Junior faction gave thousands of children and young people over many years the opportunity to learn, explore and practice music-making in Manchester.

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 packed concert by Northern School of Music students. True to form, there's contemporary composers mixed in with the more established repertoire.

A female accompanist for the first time! I think it's a first so far anyway. Mary Gilmartin accompanies alongside John Pye for the concert.

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 Turner Quartet at the Central Hall in Manchester. Playing the horn is Maurice Handford, who was also the conductor of the Northern School of Music operas and choral performances for many years.

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, which was founded with students from the school, is programmed by the Northern School of Music to perform at the Houldsworth 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.

Ida Carroll once again conducts the Northern School of Music string orchestra. A fantastic majority of female musicians listed here.

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 packed programme for a trio of concerts showcasing the talents of the senior and junior factions of the Northern School of Music. These concerts gave vital experience to the school's students in the training for performance. A great chance to explore different composers, too, as the school seems determined to have a mix of standard and new repertoire.

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 Magic Flute! Cool story with lots of famous music. I can't see a review for it in the usual sources but it seems like a full-school effort. They even had the Speech and Drama School leader Adelaide Trainor as Stage Manager and nearly 100 musicians involved!

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.

Corelli's Christmas Concerto part 1 and 2 performed here by the Northern School of Music. Lovely music if anyone fancies listening to something different.

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 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.