John Drummond (arts administrator)
Encyclopedia
Sir John Richard Gray Drummond CBE
(25 November 1934, London
– 6 September 2006) was an English
arts administrator who spent most of his career at the BBC
. He was the son of a master mariner in the British India line and an Australian lieder
singer.
He was educated at Canford School
and, after his National Service in the Navy, read History at Trinity College, Cambridge
. At Cambridge he was a member of the Marlowe Society
, performing in Christopher Marlowe’s
Edward II
, which was broadcast on the Third Programme
in 1958 with Derek Jacobi
in the title role. At the time he had already gained a BBC general traineeship (Carpenter p316).
His early career at the BBC was as a foreign correspondent (Drummond spoke fluent French and Russian) and then director/producer of arts programmes for BBC Television; ultimately he became Assistant Head of Music and Arts before becoming director of the Edinburgh International Festival
at the end of 1977. Drummond's period at the Festival was particularly successful, and Norman Lebrecht
commended him in a tribute for his multi-disciplinary approach in a celebration of 'fin de siècle
' Vienna in 1983.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aAJ14gwOATiQ&refer=home
After leaving his post in Edinburgh in 1983, he returned to the BBC and was appointed Controller, Music (in tandem with his predecessor Robert Ponsonby for a year as Controller, Designate) in 1985 and then Controller of Radio 3
(1987-92) when the two posts were merged. He was succeeded by Nicholas Kenyon
as Controller of Radio 3, but Drummond continued to be responsible for the Proms until his last season in 1995. While Controller of Radio 3, Drummond introduced the co-ordination of interval talks with the evening concert, doubled the length of the Saturday morning Record Review programme and scheduled the first Jazz concert at the Proms with Loose Tubes
in 1987. Drummond had a low opinion of the Radio 3 audience, which he saw as consisting of “thirty minority tastes, each of which is characterised by its intense dislike of the other twenty-nine” (Carpenter p335).
Drummond attacked Nigel Kennedy
in 1991 for wearing a black cloak and 'Dracula' make-up while performing Berg's
Violin Concerto,http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_20020926/ai_n12015106 and comparing Kennedy's usual punk clothing to the vulgarity of Liberace
(Carpenter p335). Most opinion in the media sided with Kennedy.
Having chosen not to renew his contract as Radio 3 Controller for a second five-year term in 1992, he became openly critical of the Birt
regime at the BBC, for its managerial and populist instincts. For Drummond, the BBC "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."http://www.for3.org/third/history3.html At about the same time, he called Tony Blair
a "professional philistine" and attacked the Blair government for destroying "the national sense of culture".http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4053491,00.html
John Drummond was chairman of the Theatres Trust near the end of his life (1998-2001). He had also been on the Council of Management of the new music group, the Fires of London
.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(25 November 1934, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
– 6 September 2006) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
arts administrator who spent most of his career at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. He was the son of a master mariner in the British India line and an Australian lieder
Lied
is a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
singer.
He was educated at Canford School
Canford School
Canford School is a coeducational independent school for both day and boarding pupils, in the village of Canford Magna, near to the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, in South West England. The school was founded in 1923. There are approximately 600 pupils at Canford, organised into houses...
and, after his National Service in the Navy, read History at Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. At Cambridge he was a member of the Marlowe Society
Marlowe Society
The Marlowe Society is a Cambridge University theatre club for Cambridge students. It is dedicated to achieving a high standard of student drama in Cambridge...
, performing in Christopher Marlowe’s
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
Edward II
Edward II (play)
Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud...
, which was broadcast on the Third Programme
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...
in 1958 with Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
in the title role. At the time he had already gained a BBC general traineeship (Carpenter p316).
His early career at the BBC was as a foreign correspondent (Drummond spoke fluent French and Russian) and then director/producer of arts programmes for BBC Television; ultimately he became Assistant Head of Music and Arts before becoming director of the Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh International Festival
The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, over three weeks from around the middle of August. By invitation from the Festival Director, the International Festival brings top class performers of music , theatre, opera...
at the end of 1977. Drummond's period at the Festival was particularly successful, and Norman Lebrecht
Norman Lebrecht
Norman Lebrecht is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs and a novelist. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 until 2002 and assistant editor of the Evening Standard from 2002 until 2009...
commended him in a tribute for his multi-disciplinary approach in a celebration of 'fin de siècle
Fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...
' Vienna in 1983.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aAJ14gwOATiQ&refer=home
After leaving his post in Edinburgh in 1983, he returned to the BBC and was appointed Controller, Music (in tandem with his predecessor Robert Ponsonby for a year as Controller, Designate) in 1985 and then Controller of Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
(1987-92) when the two posts were merged. He was succeeded by Nicholas Kenyon
Nicholas Kenyon
Sir Nicholas Roger Kenyon CBE is an English music administrator, editor and writer on music. He was responsible for the BBC Proms 1996-2007 following which he was appointed Managing Director of the Barbican Centre, Europe's largest multi-arts centre.-Education and career:After attending St Bede's...
as Controller of Radio 3, but Drummond continued to be responsible for the Proms until his last season in 1995. While Controller of Radio 3, Drummond introduced the co-ordination of interval talks with the evening concert, doubled the length of the Saturday morning Record Review programme and scheduled the first Jazz concert at the Proms with Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
in 1987. Drummond had a low opinion of the Radio 3 audience, which he saw as consisting of “thirty minority tastes, each of which is characterised by its intense dislike of the other twenty-nine” (Carpenter p335).
Drummond attacked Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
in 1991 for wearing a black cloak and 'Dracula' make-up while performing Berg's
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
Violin Concerto,http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_20020926/ai_n12015106 and comparing Kennedy's usual punk clothing to the vulgarity of Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
(Carpenter p335). Most opinion in the media sided with Kennedy.
Having chosen not to renew his contract as Radio 3 Controller for a second five-year term in 1992, he became openly critical of the Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt is a former Director-General of the BBC who was in the post from 1992 to 2000.After a successful career in commercial television, first at Granada and then at LWT, Birt was brought in as deputy director-general of the BBC in 1987 for his current affairs expertise...
regime at the BBC, for its managerial and populist instincts. For Drummond, the BBC "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."http://www.for3.org/third/history3.html At about the same time, he called Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
a "professional philistine" and attacked the Blair government for destroying "the national sense of culture".http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4053491,00.html
John Drummond was chairman of the Theatres Trust near the end of his life (1998-2001). He had also been on the Council of Management of the new music group, the Fires of London
Fires of London
The Fires of London, first formed in 1965 as the Pierrot Players, was a British chamber music ensemble which was active from 1965 to 1987....
.
External links
- "Former controller of Radio 3 dies", BBC News 7 September 2006
- "Sir John Drummond dies, aged 71" The GramophoneThe GramophoneGramophone is a magazine published monthly in London by Haymarket devoted to classical music and jazz, particularly recordings. It was founded in 1923 by the Scottish author Compton Mackenzie...
, 7 September 2006 - Obituary in The Daily Telegraph, 8 September 2006
- Obituary in The Guardian by Humphrey BurtonHumphrey BurtonHumphrey Burton, CBE is a British classical music presenter, broadcaster, director, producer, and biographer of musicians....
and Nicholas KenyonNicholas KenyonSir Nicholas Roger Kenyon CBE is an English music administrator, editor and writer on music. He was responsible for the BBC Proms 1996-2007 following which he was appointed Managing Director of the Barbican Centre, Europe's largest multi-arts centre.-Education and career:After attending St Bede's...
, 8 September 2006 - "Champion of music, cleaner of floors", by John TusaJohn TusaSir John Tusa is a British arts administrator, and radio and television journalist. From 1980 to 1986 he was a main presenter of BBC 2's Newsnight programme. From 1995 until 2007 he was managing director of the City of London's Barbican Arts Centre...
The Guardian, 8 September 2006 - Obituary in The Times, 8 September 2006