Born Oldham in 1928, James was the only child of parents who worked in the Lancashire cotton trade. He had piano and later organ lessons with a local teacher, Arnold Eastwood and started his musical life as a choirboy in his local church choir alongside Margery Thomas, five years his senior, who inspired him when she sang the contralto solos in ‘Messiah’, and who later went on to be one of Britain’s greatest singers.
After leaving school, he worked in local government until he won a place at the Royal Manchester School of Music. There he took joint first studies of piano, with Iso Ellison, and also organ, and later studied voice with Elsie Thurston. He then became a music teacher at Hollinwood Secondary Modern School in Oldham, where he started a school choir, winning festivals and doing broadcasts for BBC North.
It was at this point that he realised that success in music can boost self-confidence which was what youngsters at the school lacked, and that it can help people achieve in other areas. He believed wholeheartedly that music is for everyone and that singing can bind people together like nothing else.
In 1961 the Director of Education, Gerald Pritchett, asked him to become Music Advisor for Oldham, with the aspiration of building music in the town and developing singing and instrumental teaching. In 1963 he founded the Oldham Youth Choir (mixed choir of 60 voices) and a junior choir. He also initiated a huge non-competitive music festival which took place over three days each year, involving hundreds of youngsters and this event, together with the Oldham Music Centre, is still very much thriving today, and the flame he lit still burns brightly.
In 1968 he became a Principal Lecturer in Music Education at Bretton Hall, with particular responsibility for the one-year P.G.C.E. course. He was also highly respected as an adjudicator at Music Festivals and lectured all over the country on music education and vocal training.
He conducted choirs all his life and as well as starting the Oldham Music Centre groups, he conducted the Royton and Oldham Choral Societies for many years. Later he directed the Bretton Singers, Sheffield’s Sterndale Singers and formed Sine Nomine in 1988.
In 1964, along with a number of others, he attended a course in Bristol for singers and conductors, run by tutors from the French ‘A Coeur Joie’ Choral movement. Following this, there were meetings and discussions about how to develop a British version and the National Choral Organisation, ‘Sing for Pleasure’ was born, which will also be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. A founder member, James was elected Chairman in 1972, and remained so until his death in 1996, working with hundreds of singers and conductors during that time.
He would be so proud to know that those he trained are now out there, inspiring others as he did and that hundreds of people have had their lives enriched by the joy of singing thanks to his encouragement. As his epitaph says, ‘The singing will never be done’.
