Peter G. Fletcher
Encyclopedia
Peter G. Fletcher was a noted British orchestral and choral conductor, music educator and author.
under the tutelage of Thurston Dart
. Subsequently he was in the British army
as a band master.
before being appointed Music Advisor to the East Riding of Yorkshire in conjunction with organist of Beverley Minster. At the age of 30, after 4 years at Beverley, he left Yorkshire to become Staff Inspector of Music with the Inner London Education Authority
in 1966. During his 7 year tenure with the ILEA he established the Centre for Young Musicians
, the Special Music Course at Pimlico School, and the foundation course for musicians at Kingsway FE College. He was also conductor of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra
: one or two recordings remain from this period, notably
The Viola Suite by Bloch with Daniel Daggers as soloist.
In 1973 Fletcher emigrated to Canada
to take over the chairmanship of the Music Department at Dalhousie University
, Halifax, Nova Scotia. At Dalhousie, he was conductor of the Dalhousie Chorale and the Dalhousie Orchestra, and with the chorale gave performances of several large works including the St. John Passion
of Johann Sebastian Bach
and Belshazzar's Feast
by William Walton
. As department chair, Fletcher was a key figure in bringing to Halifax William Tritt, Carol van Feggelen and Phillipe Djokic, who all enriched the musical life of the port city for decades. Fletcher was also one of the principal founders of the Dalhousie Opera Company, and over several seasons he conducted the Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, the Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini and Tosca
by Giacomo Puccini
.
In 1976 Peter Fletcher returned to the UK to work in School Music in Leicester
, and took over the directorship of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra
following the retirement of Eric Pinkett
. With the orchestra, as Principal Music Advisor for Leicestershire, he embarked upon a series of tours throughout Europe, and as a group they became known for the quality of their performances of Gustav Mahler
, Dmitri Shostakovich
, Messaien, Charles Ives
, Michael Tippett
, Elliott Carter
, Douglas Young, Iannis Xenakis
and other 20th century composers.
LSSO archivist John Whitmore recalls that Douglas Young [Composer in Residence in Leicester for 3 years, 1981-84] developed a close musical partnership with Fletcher; this artistic relationship stretched the orchestra's technical and musical abilities greatly, and moved the ensemble forward to a new peak of excellence.
During his 8 year tenure at Leicester, Fletcher also conducted the Leicestershire Chorale and with the orchestra recorded Tippett
's The Shires Suite and Young's The Hunting of the Snark. The Chorale was founded in 1977 largely by the efforts of Dr Andrew Fairbairn, the then Director of Education for Leicestershire and Rutland
, who had himself been a choral scholar at Trinity College Cambridge. When he and others perceived the need for a choir which would provide, in particular, a performance outlet for teachers in Leicestershire he took his ideas to Peter Fletcher and he agreed to be the first Musical Director of the Chorale, a role which he continued until 1984. By then excellent links had been established with the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and they had accompanied several Chorale performances. This was the beginning of the tradition unique among Chamber Choirs in the region to have a least one major work accompanied by orchestra in each season.
In 1984 Fletcher was appointed Director of the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He attempted to dismiss a number of members of staff: disapproval by the governing body led to the termination of his contract [Classical Music magazine carried a headline 'early bath for Fletcher']. From 1990 to 1993 Fletcher held the post of Dean of Music at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
, after which he retired to a cottage in North Wales to focus on the writing of his book "World Musics in Context". He had also been the author of the earlier book "Roll over Rock"[1981], a study of the position of music in contemporary culture.
Just before he died of cancer in 1996, Peter returned to St James the Greater, Leicester to conduct the Leicestershire Chorale in a remarkable performance of J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor.
Peter Fletcher in Leicestershire:
Centre for Young Musicians website:
Pimlico School Special Music Course website:
Early life and education
Fletcher finished his early music training as an organ scholar at Jesus College, CambridgeJesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
under the tutelage of Thurston Dart
Thurston Dart
Robert Thurston Dart , was a British musicologist, conductor and keyboard player. From 1964 he was Professor of Music at King's College London....
. Subsequently he was in the British army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
as a band master.
Career
After leaving the army, Fletcher taught for two years at Uppingham SchoolUppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
before being appointed Music Advisor to the East Riding of Yorkshire in conjunction with organist of Beverley Minster. At the age of 30, after 4 years at Beverley, he left Yorkshire to become Staff Inspector of Music with the Inner London Education Authority
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority was the education authority for the 12 inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990.-History:...
in 1966. During his 7 year tenure with the ILEA he established the Centre for Young Musicians
Centre for Young Musicians
London's Centre for Young Musicians, or CYM, is a Saturday music centre for children up to 18 who play an instrument, currently run by Stephen Dagg...
, the Special Music Course at Pimlico School, and the foundation course for musicians at Kingsway FE College. He was also conductor of the London Schools Symphony Orchestra
London Schools Symphony Orchestra
The London Schools Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra with musicians drawn from students in London schools, and featuring professional conductors and soloists. It was founded in 1951. Its founder and original director was the late Dr Leslie Russell, at one time assisted by Niso Ticciati....
: one or two recordings remain from this period, notably
The Viola Suite by Bloch with Daniel Daggers as soloist.
In 1973 Fletcher emigrated to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to take over the chairmanship of the Music Department at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
, Halifax, Nova Scotia. At Dalhousie, he was conductor of the Dalhousie Chorale and the Dalhousie Orchestra, and with the chorale gave performances of several large works including the St. John Passion
St. John Passion
Several composers have written works known by the title St John Passion, which denotes a passion based on the Gospel of John...
of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast is described in the Book of Daniel. The Babylonian king Belshazzar profanes the sacred vessels of the enslaved Israelites. As prophesied by the writing on the wall, and interpreted by Daniel, Belshazzar is killed and Darius the Mede succeeds to his kingdom.There are many...
by William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
. As department chair, Fletcher was a key figure in bringing to Halifax William Tritt, Carol van Feggelen and Phillipe Djokic, who all enriched the musical life of the port city for decades. Fletcher was also one of the principal founders of the Dalhousie Opera Company, and over several seasons he conducted the Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, the Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini and Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
by Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
.
In 1976 Peter Fletcher returned to the UK to work in School Music in Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
, and took over the directorship of the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra
Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra
The Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra is a youth orchestra based in Leicester, England. The players, aged between 15 and 18, are all drawn from secondary schools in the county of Leicestershire and the City of Leicester.-History:...
following the retirement of Eric Pinkett
Eric Pinkett
Eric Pinkett O.B.E. , was the founder of the internationally famous Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra. He established the Leicestershire County School of Music in 1948 and continued to conduct the orchestra until his retirement in 1976.His memoirs were published in 1969 by way of a 21st...
. With the orchestra, as Principal Music Advisor for Leicestershire, he embarked upon a series of tours throughout Europe, and as a group they became known for the quality of their performances of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
, Messaien, Charles Ives
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives was an American modernist composer. He is one of the first American composers of international renown, though Ives' music was largely ignored during his life, and many of his works went unperformed for many years. Over time, Ives came to be regarded as an "American Original"...
, Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, Douglas Young, Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
and other 20th century composers.
LSSO archivist John Whitmore recalls that Douglas Young [Composer in Residence in Leicester for 3 years, 1981-84] developed a close musical partnership with Fletcher; this artistic relationship stretched the orchestra's technical and musical abilities greatly, and moved the ensemble forward to a new peak of excellence.
During his 8 year tenure at Leicester, Fletcher also conducted the Leicestershire Chorale and with the orchestra recorded Tippett
Tippett
Tippett is the surname of:*Andre Tippett , American footballer*Clark Tippet , American dancer*Dave Tippett , ice hockey coach*Gerald Tippett, fictional character in Shortland Street...
's The Shires Suite and Young's The Hunting of the Snark. The Chorale was founded in 1977 largely by the efforts of Dr Andrew Fairbairn, the then Director of Education for Leicestershire and Rutland
Rutland
Rutland is a landlocked county in central England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
, who had himself been a choral scholar at Trinity College Cambridge. When he and others perceived the need for a choir which would provide, in particular, a performance outlet for teachers in Leicestershire he took his ideas to Peter Fletcher and he agreed to be the first Musical Director of the Chorale, a role which he continued until 1984. By then excellent links had been established with the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and they had accompanied several Chorale performances. This was the beginning of the tradition unique among Chamber Choirs in the region to have a least one major work accompanied by orchestra in each season.
In 1984 Fletcher was appointed Director of the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He attempted to dismiss a number of members of staff: disapproval by the governing body led to the termination of his contract [Classical Music magazine carried a headline 'early bath for Fletcher']. From 1990 to 1993 Fletcher held the post of Dean of Music at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts , located near the north coast of Wan Chai on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong, is both an academic institution and a venue for performances....
, after which he retired to a cottage in North Wales to focus on the writing of his book "World Musics in Context". He had also been the author of the earlier book "Roll over Rock"[1981], a study of the position of music in contemporary culture.
Just before he died of cancer in 1996, Peter returned to St James the Greater, Leicester to conduct the Leicestershire Chorale in a remarkable performance of J. S. Bach’s Mass in B minor.
External links
Peter Fletcher's book "World Musics in Context":Peter Fletcher in Leicestershire:
Centre for Young Musicians website:
Pimlico School Special Music Course website: