History of the Southern Pro Musica

Roots

Southern Pro Musica traces its roots back to the freelance orchestras assembled for the concerts of the Portsmouth Choral Union (PCU) and the Portsmouth Philharmonic Choir. For more than a century the normal practice for choral societies wishing to engage a professional orchestra for major events was to appoint an honorary orchestral manager to find and individually engage the musicians required.

If sufficient funds were available, the bigger choral societies would sometimes engage an established professional orchestra ‘en bloc’. The Huddersfield Choral Society’s regular engagement of the Hallé orchestra is a well known example of this.

On the other hand, Beresford King-Smith’s book Crescendo, on the history of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra carries an interesting account of bass player Sam Grimshaw’s travel from Preston to participate in a freelance orchestra for a music festival in the Midlands in 1832. Because the railways were in their infancy and a double bass would take up most of the space in a stage-coach, Mr Grimshaw was instructed to bring his ‘Dbl basso’ on a horse-drawn barge from Manchester to Wolverhampton where he would be met! We don’t know what works were performed but the whole exercise will have taken more than a week of Mr Grimshaw’s time!

Free-lance orchestras assembled in this way were variable in quality and the inadequacy of the orchestra assembled in Birmingham for the first performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah is well documented.

PCU

The Portsmouth Choral Union has been the principal choral society in SE Hampshire since 1880. You can find more about its history on its web-site at www.pcuchoir.org.uk

The PCU was typical of leading provincial choral societies in the UK and occasionally after WWII it was able to afford the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for its more important events. But generally it assembled its own free-lance band whose competence varied according to the knowledge and contacts of the honorary orchestral secretary at the time and the fees it was able to afford.

Hampshire Pro Musica

This was the situation in 1971 when three principals in the free-lance orchestra engaged for a performance of Elijah (again!) felt the orchestra did not reflect the improving quality of the community of free-lance musicians now available in SE Hampshire and W Sussex. These three, Geoffrey Bridge (oboe), Harold Bennett (horn) and Bryan Burdett (cello), approached the committee with an offer to manage the recruitment of musicians for PCU concerts. The offer was accepted, the new arrangements came into effect but the orchestra was not given a name at this time. The first leader of this new orchestra was Geoffrey Smith.

Jonathan Willcocks

In 1975 Portsmouth Grammar School appointed Jonathan Willcocks directly from university to be its Director of Music and shortly afterwards the PCU also engaged him as their Director of Music. So Jonathan now became the conductor of their freelance orchestra and it was he that gave it the name Hampshire Pro Musica.

Chichester Sinfonia

In 1976 the untimely death of Anne Lawrence left the Chichester Singers without a Musical Director for its performance of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius and Jonathan Willcocks stepped in at short notice. Soon afterwards Jonathan was appointed to succeed Anne as Director of Music and instituted arrangements for its freelance orchestra similar to those he had inherited at Portsmouth.

Initially the Chichester orchestra retained its name of Chichester Sinfonia and continued to be led by Christopher Bearman but in all other respects was the Hampshire Pro Musica under another name. Chris and his wife Jane Gomm came down from London for these events and some years later Jane was to return as principal second violin of Southern Pro Musica.

The Chichester singers has its own web-site at www.chichestersingers.co.uk and more detail of its history can be found there. In 1984 Chris Bearman emigrated to Australia, Geoffrey Smith became the leader and in personnel the Chichester Sinfonia was now effectively the Hampshire Pro Musica.

Kathleen Merritt and the Southern Orchestral Concerts Society

During these years and indeed since the mid-forties another professional chamber orchestra had been in existence in nearby Petersfield. The Kathleen Merritt Orchestra took its name from its founder and conductor. It gave six to eight concerts a year in the small towns and villages of SE Hampshire and W Sussex, usually in the village church or church hall.

In each location Miss Merritt assembled a volunteer team to help with the publicity, sale of tickets and concert management. Wealthy friends and patrons provided financial support and in 1952 Miss Merritt and her friends formalised this operational and financial support into the Southern Orchestral Concerts Society (SOCS).

That Kathleen was able to recruit some of the finest chamber orchestral musicians in the country for her little orchestra was probably due as much to her charm as to the funds that SOCS was able to raise for her.

Kathleen Merritt retired in 1981 so the SOCS committee engaged small London chamber orchestras such as the Thames Chamber Orchestra to take the place of Kathleen’s orchestra. Inevitably this proved much more costly and eventually chamber orchestra concerts ceased and were replaced by string quartets and other smaller groups.

Inter regnum and Chris Teale

By now Jonathan Willcocks had moved on to be Director of Music at Bedales School, and was living in Petersfield. Around this time two key SOCS committee members come into the picture. They were Averil Spence the chairman from 1975 to 85 and Chris Teale the concerts secretary during the same period.

American born Chris Teale had boundless energy and concurrently with raising a family, was wife of the leading veterinary surgeon in the area, admissions secretary at Bedales School, secretary of the Petersfield Festival and concerts secretary of SOCS.

Chris willingly joined in discussions with Jonathan Willcocks and Bryan Burdett to prepare a proposal for restoring orchestral concerts to the annual SOCS programme.

In due course, with the support of Averil Spence the Chairman of SOCS, this proposal was put before the SOCS committee. After a lot of persuasion it was agreed that the new orchestra would present three concerts annually as part of the wider SOCS programme and it was given the name Southern Pro Musica.

The new orchestra was effectively the Hampshire Pro Musica strengthened with the best orchestral musicians available in the region and reinforced by some distinguished London musicians who had been part of Kathleen Merritt Orchestra in the sixties and seventies. Jonathan Willcocks would direct these concerts and would use his extensive musical contacts to procure suitable soloists.

Early days of SPM

The new orchestra also took over from the Hampshire Pro Musica as the resident orchestra for the PCU and the Chichester singers and was available to accept engagements from other choral societies. The creation of the new orchestra excited wider interest and the orchestra’s very first appearance was at an opera gala in August 1991 in Portsmouth Guildhall.

John Ludlow was engaged as the first leader of SPM and the first SOCS concert was in St John’s Church, Alresford on 19th September 1992. The programme was Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachsmusik, Bach: Cantata No 160 (Ich weiss dass mein Erlöser lebt), Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and strings and Dvorak’s string serenade. The soloists were a young tenor James Oxley who has subsequently appeared many times with SPM and the orchestra’s principal horn, Peter Clack.

In order to accommodate larger audiences, subsequent orchestral concerts have taken place either in Petersfield Festival Hall or in Bedales Quad. Sadly, Kathleen Merritt’s concept of intimate concerts in village churches and halls has receded into the past.

Other engagements followed with the Leith Hill Festival, the Petersfield Festival, the Hook, Haslemere and Hindhead Music Society, The Southampton Choral Society and the Dorset Guild of Singers. More recently the orchestra has worked with the Epworth Choir in Guildford.

The next significant event was the appointment of Elizabeth Gotto in 1994 to succeed Chris Teale as SOCS concerts secretary. SOCS has been very fortunate to have such outstanding concerts secretaries/managers. By this time SOCS was already engaging the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra for one concert each season and Elizabeth decided that she would like in addition to promote a concert for school children.

The plan was for Jonathan Willcocks to direct the concert and for Southern Pro Musica to provide the orchestra. However the logistics soon revealed that the orchestra would have to be engaged for two concerts in one day to make it economically feasible. Undaunted, Elizabeth sought business sponsorship and by 1999 the orchestra was presenting four concerts in two days at four locations, Petersfield Festival Hall, Portsmouth Guildhall, Winchester Guildhall and Southampton Guildhall.

The Petersfield concert was managed within the SOCS framework and the others by Elizabeth Gotto herself with financial support from the John Lewis partnership.

For the time being, anyone requiring more information about these schools concerts should call Elizabeth Gotto on 01730 827317