A Written History of Newham Academy of Music
Stephen Brown, a past member of Newham Academy of Music and NYO member is writing a book on the history of NAM.
This is indeed an exciting project, and one which members past and present may be able to help with. There is much research to be done but this will enable the history of our Academy to be recorded and documented.
Stephen is planning to include something about the evidence for the value of musical education & then use the story of the emergence & growth of the service in Newham as an example. So apart from the academic evidence for the above you may have, he is also interested to learn anything of member's recollections of following broad outline of chapters:
1 What was there before the Music Service in the 2 County Boroughs, & what what pertained elsewhere in the country.
2 What was the Music Service like before the Academy, and in particular how, when & why did it start? What were the initial East/West Ham differences? What was happening in other nearby local authorities, especially Ilford, Waltham Forest, etc?
3 Whose idea was the Academy?
4 What happened to the first 2 Music Advisors (Philip Pfaff, Rudolph Sabor)? Wher did they come from, what did they do, where did they go? Before Newham Goes to Town there was East Ham Goes to Town, but how did it start, and how did it end (was the last one at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984?
I have more information about Michael Toll's time, as I've been lucky enough to interview him a couple of times. However there are lots of areas I'd like to delve into there.
6 The Youth Orchestra - & all we know about about Debden, Maria Grey, Sir Adrian Boult, Denmark, other foreign trips, and especially post 1970 achievements (need info from alumni - & any concert programmes?)
7 Characters - Ted Parker, Bill Roskelly, Pat Macallister, Les Hatfield, Chris Harrison, any specific recollections from alumni on all these - 8 Subsequent history & (post-Toll years)
9 Post 1970 history (lots needed here especially post 1984) & loss of Academy building, change of service to Trust-based model, change from NAM to NMT - what's the future?
10 Personal stories/reminiscences could be included separately or inserted one story at a time between other chapters, or follow on from Chapter 7 as a sort of mirror image, or I could put some case histories between chapters.
Stephen would be grateful for any information about any of these things. Personal stories are good - perhaps if people are interested to add their memories or knowledge they might email him at [email protected]
This is indeed an exciting project, and one which members past and present may be able to help with. There is much research to be done but this will enable the history of our Academy to be recorded and documented.
Stephen is planning to include something about the evidence for the value of musical education & then use the story of the emergence & growth of the service in Newham as an example. So apart from the academic evidence for the above you may have, he is also interested to learn anything of member's recollections of following broad outline of chapters:
1 What was there before the Music Service in the 2 County Boroughs, & what what pertained elsewhere in the country.
2 What was the Music Service like before the Academy, and in particular how, when & why did it start? What were the initial East/West Ham differences? What was happening in other nearby local authorities, especially Ilford, Waltham Forest, etc?
3 Whose idea was the Academy?
4 What happened to the first 2 Music Advisors (Philip Pfaff, Rudolph Sabor)? Wher did they come from, what did they do, where did they go? Before Newham Goes to Town there was East Ham Goes to Town, but how did it start, and how did it end (was the last one at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984?
I have more information about Michael Toll's time, as I've been lucky enough to interview him a couple of times. However there are lots of areas I'd like to delve into there.
6 The Youth Orchestra - & all we know about about Debden, Maria Grey, Sir Adrian Boult, Denmark, other foreign trips, and especially post 1970 achievements (need info from alumni - & any concert programmes?)
7 Characters - Ted Parker, Bill Roskelly, Pat Macallister, Les Hatfield, Chris Harrison, any specific recollections from alumni on all these - 8 Subsequent history & (post-Toll years)
9 Post 1970 history (lots needed here especially post 1984) & loss of Academy building, change of service to Trust-based model, change from NAM to NMT - what's the future?
10 Personal stories/reminiscences could be included separately or inserted one story at a time between other chapters, or follow on from Chapter 7 as a sort of mirror image, or I could put some case histories between chapters.
Stephen would be grateful for any information about any of these things. Personal stories are good - perhaps if people are interested to add their memories or knowledge they might email him at [email protected]