BMS trust to promote Hurd’s music in 2026

BMS trust to promote Hurd’s music in 2026

Many members will remember the generous grant for the British Music Society left in composer Michael Hurd’s estate which enabled us to produce a considerable number of new recordings of British music, as well as reissues on the Naxos label. Baritone Jeremy Huw...
Obituary: Garry Humphreys

Obituary: Garry Humphreys

22 February 1946 – 7 May 2025 Garry Humphreys ALA, FGMS, FRSA – baritone, conductor, writer, researcher, and business librarian – was born in Nottingham and grew up in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. He was adopted at birth, by the couple with whom his...
Bite-Back: it’s not a second hand book!

Bite-Back: it’s not a second hand book!

I am grateful to Dr Strachan for his generally favourable and fair review of my book: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: English Composer (26 May 2025 | Book reviews). In his review it was good to read relevant and amusing information on, for instance, Parry, that was new to...
July release for one act opera

July release for one act opera

The Parlour, an opera in one act by Grace Williams, will be released on 4 July. The Arts Council’s Welsh Committee approached Grace Williams in 1959 with the offer of a commission to write a one-act opera. The composer turned to the French satirist Guy de Maupassant’s...
Cardiff music cuts reversed

Cardiff music cuts reversed

Cardiff University has reversed its controversial decision to scrap its music course as part of wide-ranging cuts affecting a range of courses and the potential loss of some 400 jobs.  Wales’s largest university backed down in the face of protests from staff,...
Music news in brief

Music news in brief

CONDUCTORS DIE ON SAME DAY IN MAYIt is with great regret that we record the passing of two British conductors this month: Matthew Best and Neville Dilkes. Matthew Best, bass singer and conductor –  founder of the Corydon Singers, was born on 6th February 1957,...