Divine Art To Issue Second Album Commemorating the late Sir John Manduell

Sir John Manduell was a pivotal figure in British music, known for his fluent creative thinking, for his own compositions and for his devotion towards the teaching of music. As the founding Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music he led the college into being a world-leading institution, and is regarded as a most vital inspiration and influence on a great many British composers through his leadership and his pioneering work as a producer at the BBC and in his founding of the European Opera Centre. Indeed, Sir John’s outstanding qualities, character and achievements have been well recorded in the many assessments made during his lifetime and in the many tributes that honour his memory.

In 2020 Divine Art released “Songs for Sir John” – a tribute album featuring works by 16 composers in Sir John’s memory – composers who had been influenced, inspired or encouraged by the great mentor – a wonderfully constructed program of chamber music in its own right, cemented by each work’s connection to Sir John Manduell.

The sequel to that album is ‘The Fabulous Sir John’. Recording has taken place between June and October 2021 in Stockport, England, and the album is scheduled for release in July. This recording includes several pieces by Manduell as well as tribute works by Adam Gorb and Michael Berkeley (whose father Lennox was one of Manduell’s teachers), a piece by Sir John’s close friend and admirer Richard Stoker, and one by Sir John’s other teacher, William Alwyn.

Divine Art and Executive Producer John Turner are grateful for the financial support of sponsors Castlefield Investment Partners LLC and the Ida Carroll Trust, and for invaluable contributions to the programme notes from Kent Nagano and Bryan Fox whose words sum up the feeling of so many musicians: “There is no way of adequately describing someone who superbly filled so many roles; any list would exhaust the available space before encompassing its brief. He was unique, and we are all deeply in his debt.”