Guildhall Reunion
Guildhall Reunion, Guildhall School of Music , late 1970’s
Most of us d'un certain âge will have experienced a reunion in our lives - school, university, college, work, Pony Club, Supporters Club, Mafia, whatever. Some will have been fun, some tedious, some positive, some negative. For those of us from the singers' classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London in the late 1970s, this has become a must attend event. Since November 2017, we have attempted to bring as many of us as possible together, to remember and to reminisce. Clearly it will never be feasible to get everyone to the event, but the dogged enthusiasm of a small inner coterie has been responsible for repeated success - Helen Cannell, Wendy Boston and Kelvin Grout (the latter not even a singer, but a stalwart of the Accompanists' Course), we salute you!
Obviously, over forty years since we left Guildhall, some people have fallen by the wayside, either leaving the profession or leaving life itself. Many of us have had careers far from London but the only realistic place to have a reunion is London, and so, this year, 2024, on Saturday 28th September, in the bar of the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square in the capital, some thirty or so of us met again to chat, gossip, tell tales, some true, some nearly true, and to remember.
Again obviously, those who didn't make a career of some sort in music were unlikely to come along and discuss that eventuality, and so were absent, but I am delighted to say that a large number of us did come and spent several hours together, catching up on the intervening years.
As with all reunions, some people look exactly the same, while others were harder to identify. The vagaries of life and health affect us all, but it was remarkable how many of us had changed little, at least on the outside. I suppose in a profession where looking good is important, we were likely to have maintained some semblance of uniformity, despite the deprivations of hair loss and weight gain!
It was fascinating to discover what had happened to everyone and, of course, we were also able to offer information on the whereabouts of many others who were unable to attend in person.
Some have had starry international careers, some have moved into directing or administration, some have become teachers, either of singing or of music in general, some have become members of professional choruses or vocal ensembles and some have become important figures in smaller areas or regions. What was clear was that our experience of studying together in one place at one time has affected us all, rather profoundly.
The late 1970s was a period of great change, both politically and musically. The post-war consensus of optimism and progress was stalling, as the apocalyptic changes in society stimulated by the Swinging Sixties were somehow beginning to wear people down. The traumatic upheavals of the battles between the trade unions and the government in Britain, resulting in endless strikes and disputes, the three day weeks, the power cuts, all of which led on to the Thatcher Years, the Miners' strikes, and the Falklands War, which contributed to a less optimistic viewpoint. Classical music too was struggling to adapt to modern life, as composers seemed determined to write music which appealed only to a tiny coterie of disciples, the more discordant the better.
Yet, the blossoming of newly discovered period performance styles introduced a totally new repertoire of early music, from Mediaeval through Renaissance to the Baroque and Classical composers and this shook the musical world to its foundations.
Add to this the political decision to build a huge new artistic complex in the bombed out parts of the City of London, the Barbican, and we can see that our little group stood on the cusp of great change. The Guildhall School had recently moved from the Embankment to the new Barbican complex and we were studying in a totally modern environment but also in the middle of a building site!
It was extraordinary to turn up at the Guildhall School, a haven of both peace and noise, of harmony and cacophony. Huge skyscraper apartment blocks towered above us, and endless walkways resembled a sort of mediaeval maze, frequently taking the unsuspecting visitor to hopeless dead ends. It was a mixture of Shangri-la and Gotham City, a vision of the future but also of Hell. The Barbican Centre was being built throughout our time there but wasn't finished until later. Practice rooms were plentiful but acoustically awful and the theatre and recital rooms pretty weird. The main recital space, where we had song classes, was challenging and vertigo inducing, but with expert tuition from such as Walter Grüner, Paul Hamburger, Ben Luxon, Robin Bowman, David Roblou and many more, we were amazingly lucky. The singing teachers varied in quality but the best were splendid and visiting stars often popped in.
The administration worked reasonably smoothly and artistic standards were high. The transition from the Embankment to the City had been somewhat traumatic but I reckon we got a good deal. It was certainly a lot cheaper than nowadays, and there were lots of scholarships available.
Looking back over forty years, it was all a bit hit or miss, but I think we were all conscious of the fact that anything was possible with hard work and a bit of luck. I'm not sure if it was a Golden Era, and perhaps that accolade might apply to the generation just after us, but it was great fun, and this reunion brought home to me how important that period of my life and career was. Certainly, my love for song recitals and early music was kindled then, and my subsequent fluency in singing in foreign languages owes everything to those song classes.
Most of our teachers have retired to Valhalla, but a few are still extant, most notably my singing teacher then, Laura Sarti, who recently celebrated her 100th Birthday! Laura has a direct relevance to us in Scotland, as she sang Geneviève in Debussy’s ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’, in Scottish Opera’s first ever season in 1962, conducted by Sir Alexander Gibson!
It was noticeable that this reunion, unlike school and university occasions of a similar nature, was much more about our memories of the time and place than a ‘what have you done in your life?’ scenario. We were all fascinated to remember what we did then, rather than investigate what we have done since, and I think that’s a very clear difference, and a fitting celebration of a most important part of all our lives.
Photo credit: Paul Cochrane
