NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

CHAPTER TWELVE
THE NEWCASTLE CONSERVATOIRE
The word Conservatoire, from the Italian, Conservatorio, which can mean any
number of things, was used not so long ago as a synonym for a school of music.
It sounded just that bit more impressive and so when two Newcastle music
teachers decided to pool their talents and open a school of music in Claremont
buildings, Barras Bridge they hit on the idea of calling it, rather pretentiously, the
Newcastle Conservatoire. This was a period when music schools were being
established in a number of the larger provincial towns in England. Birmingham
founded its School of Music in 1854 and Manchester followed with its College of
Music in 1893. There had never been any shortage of music teachers in
Newcastle but these teachers were limited in scope, usually teaching one or two
instruments at which they, themselves, were proficient. In the early 19 th century
many music teachers had their names posted in the local directory under the
heading ‘Academies’. In the Newcastle Directory for 1894, a list headed
“Professors” included 66 who taught music, seven teaching languages and six
dancing. One of these professors was Mr W McConnell Wood and it was he, who
with Miss Maud, a pianist, joined forces and founded the Newcastle
Conservatoire of Music in 1898
The new establishment obviously thrived and by the turn of the century it had
an impressive list of patrons, including the Countess of Ravensworth and Lady
Ridley, as well as five musical knights namely Charles Grove, A. Mackenzie,
Walter Parratt, James Stainer and Frederick Bridge and the Mayor of Newcastle.
Information on the Conservatoire’s early years is hard to come by but it seems
that Mr Wood left and went off to teach on his own, but not before he had started
a tradition of modest concerts by the pupils. These concerts comprised chamber
music of substantial content with a variety of vocal and instrumental music by
both classical and (then) contemporary composers and were given in the Grand
Assembly Rooms, Barras Bridge, Connaught Hall and sometimes in the King’s
Hall at Armstrong College. Many of the programmes have been preserved for us
in the City Library Archives and show that these concerts continued until at least
the year 1929.
In 1901 Miss Maud was the Principal and the Conservatoire had a known staff
of two but there were probably others. In 1906 it moved its premises to 22 St
Mary’s Place and by 1912 the Conservatoire was obviously in full swing and the
future looked very promising. The newly appointed Principal was Edgar
L.Bainton, a talented London born musician and one of the rising generation of
British composers destined to contribute extensively to the English Musical
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