Neither parent was particularly musical, though both had an interest, and my mother sang in her church choir. I was fortunate to attend the City of Norwich School, which had a very healthy musical tradition. Each year the school produced a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, and I still remember singing Iolanthe, declaring my undying love for the elderly deputy headmaster as the Lord Chancellor. The school orchestra played “real” music, my first ever rehearsal consisting of Mendelssohn’s Fingal’s Cave Overture and the last movement of Beethoven 5. Whilst in the sixth form I played the oboe in 3 or 4 amateur orchestras during the term, as well as the Norfolk Youth Orchestra each holiday. A friend and I even had the opportunity to perform oboe and cor anglais in some Bach cantatas at the University of East Anglia, where Philip Ledger was the Director of Music. My interest in music led me to study for a degree at the Royal College of Music, where I also took lessons on piano, oboe and piano accompaniment.

Apart from the good company (of course), I love exploring and learning unfamiliar repertoire, especially as I have been involved in instrumental (rather than vocal) music for most of my years. Having taught and later examined music for decades, it is a real pleasure to take a back seat and let somebody else do all the organisation and hard work!

I only joined TCC after I had retired from the demands of both my earlier careers, replacing my second son Tristan in the bass section shortly after his death, and the most memorable experience was (in lockdown) performing and recording Bruckner’s In locus iste in memory of and in tribute to Tristan.

Far too many to mention, though Mahler’s 2nd Symphony comes near the top of the list for personal reasons, with Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony somewhere in the higher reaches. Since joining TCC, I now also love Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G minor which, and don’t tell the conductor, I used to find a bit of a bore – perhaps it was just the performances which were substandard!

Though we had a piano in the house, I refused lessons till I was fourteen, having taught myself in a rather haphazard fashion. My first teacher was brilliant, and she had to correct many a fault, but I was able to take my Grade 3 examination after a couple of terms. Having found a spare instrument in a cupboard, the school encouraged me, also at 14, to take oboe lessons – free in those days! In my teaching career in independent schools, I found myself having to play the organ on a very regular basis, but under no circumstances would I ever dream of calling myself an organist.