A Note from the Chairman – July 2023 On June 19th, members of the Stanford and Herbert Howells Societies enjoyed a Zoom Talk from Paul Spicer on his new book on Sir Arthur Bliss. This is entitled  “ Sir Arthur Bliss – Standing Out from the Crowd”. Paul, who studied composition at the

A Note from the Chairman – June 2023 I spent most of May in England attending  Stanford recording sessions in Cardiff (discussed last month) and the 2023 English Music Festival in Dorchester and Elgar Festival in Malvern and Worcester. The English Music Festival is now in its 16th yea

A Note from the Chairman – May 2023 On May 4th and 5th, Jeremy and Alison Dibble and I attended recording sessions in Cardiff  for Stanford’s Opus 21, The Elegiac Ode from 1884, and the Opus 66, The  Te Deum, from 1898. These were held at the Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff’s Millennial Cen

“The Leeds Boa Constrictor” How A Provincial Musical Festival Destroyed the Public Careers of Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir Charles Stanford Our next Stanford Society online talk which will be given by Dr Anne Stanyon on Wednesday 17 May at 19:30 (UK time). Please do join us

A Note from the Chairman – March 2023 The past few months have been a disappointing period for Government support of music in England. The Arts Council (England) has announced that it wants to see the English National Opera (ENO) move to Manchester. It has offered financial supp

A Note from the Chairman Stanford’s most successful opera, Shamus O’Brien,(Shamus) opened at London’s Opera Comique Theater on March 2nd, 1896 and had a run of eighty-two London performances. Gustav Holst played in the orchestra as first trombone.  It then went on an extensive provinc

Stanford – The Composition Teacher I recently purchased a new CD on the German Raum Klang label (RK ap 10122) of music by Carl Reinecke and some of his more distinguished students. Reinecke taught composition for more than 40 years at the Leipzig Academy in Germany, and his stud

A Note from the Chairman – December 2022 We don’t normally associate Stanford with Christmas music. His students Ralph Vaughn Williams and Gustav Holst both wrote a large number of Christmas carols, but who has heard of any Christmas Carols written by Stanford ? I was reminded o

Stanford the Conductor The area of Stanford’s career that has probably received the least attention is his work as a conductor. This started during his time with the Cambridge University Musical Society and continued with the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, the Bach Choir in Lond

The Stanford Festival 2024 As 2024 is the centenary of Stanford’s death, we will be hosting the Stanford Festival in Dublin. The preliminary dates are 11 – 13 October 2024, so make sure you put it in your diary! We will begin to upload more information as we progress with