The Salopian no. 166 - Winter 2020-21

SCHOOL NEWS 17
been Director of Music at Uppingham
School for 11 years. Stephen’s nonmusical
interests include running and
climbing, and he has experience of
high-altitude mountaineering. He also
enjoys reading contemporary fiction.
John Wright joins us as Housemaster
of Churchill’s Hall from Winchester
College, where he was Head of
Geography. He also spent three
years as an Assistant Housemaster
at Winchester College. John coaches
football, hockey and tennis and is
also experienced in running overseas
and residential educational trips.
He has previously been involved in
the CCF Royal Marines Section with
weekly training and camp adventure
training. He
has also been
a Chaplaincy
Tutor, giving
termly talks in
Chapel and to
the Christian
Union.
Valete
John Moore
Director of Music
1989-2020
Richard Hudson writes:
I have known John for most of his 31 years at Shrewsbury,
since 1996 when our late son Sebastian arrived as a music
scholar. The way John looked after and nurtured him, and
supported the whole Hudson family when he died in 2001
showed the true nature of friendship, subsequently extended
to our other three children all of whom were involved, along
with their father, as band members in successive Edinburgh
Fringe productions.
Over a socially distanced glass or two of wine the other
night, JFM and I reminisced about a handful of the more
memorable moments we have shared on various school
music tours, reminding me once again, as if I need any
reminding, of the formidable energy, charisma and wit of this
amazingly versatile musician. Countless stunning concerts
here in Shrewsbury, at venues in Paris, Austria, Germany,
Italy, France and the US, in St John’s Smith Square, the
Cadogan Hall, Birmingham Town Hall and Symphony Hall
and most recently the University have been well documented,
as have at least ten trips to the Edinburgh Fringe with musicals,
the vast majority of which he composed himself, working
with other legendary names from the past: Peter Fanning,
Alex Went, Peter Hankin and in the present day with Helen
Brown, most recently on Gatsby which I still hope will see
the light of day, or at any rate the stage lights at Shrewsbury
or in Edinburgh, or maybe both.
How best to sing this man’s praises? I thought I’d dwell
briefly on four of John’s qualities which in my view have
made him such a superb Director of Music over so many
years. I have had the advantage of having sat through and
occasionally played in (you see we have a lot of bars rest to
count as trombonists!) countless rehearsals and performances
under his baton.
First is John’s ability to achieve absolute control through
the force of his personality, the unqualified respect for his
musicianship which is shown by young and old, and his
rare ability to see into the soul of the music he is asking you
to perform. I have never seen John issue a sanction; in fact
I suspect he has never given one. He hasn’t needed to. His
pupils will always do the best they can, and never want to let
him down.
Secondly, his prodigious knowledge and understanding of the
repertoire – a man equally at home with classical music, jazz
or rock, and perhaps just as importantly, a man who can relate
equally well to the practitioners of each. I have seen this at first
hand not only in the classical concert hall but in smoky jazz bars
in Prague.
Thirdly, of course, his amazing skill both as a piano soloist and
accompanist. You’d be hard-pushed to find a finer sight-reader
anywhere in the country. To hear him navigate his way through
the most technically brutal and unpianistic of saxophone