Margaret Mulvaney (right) and chums. Margaret was a pupil at the Northern School of Music. Perhaps these other two were as well.

Ref: MBaron

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Margaret Mulvaney, Northern School of Music student, in 1952.

Ref: MBaron

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

It's Messiah! The Northern School of Music loved performing Messiah. This is one of the performances in the Houldsworth Hall in Deansgate.
Date is approximate.

Ref: MBaron

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Margaret Mulvaney. She and all 3 of her children went to the Northern School of Music!
The date on this is approximate.

Ref: MBaron

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

From the top floor to the basement, this amazing floor plan was drawn from memory by RNCM alumnus Michael Baron. It shows the layout of the school after the Mancunian Way was built (when some of the school premises were demolished to make room for the Oxford Road flyover).
What do you remember about this building, its rooms, corridors and offices?

Ref: MBaron

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A string orchestra performance which includes music from the school's "rival". Alan Rawsthorne was a pupil at the Royal Manchester College of Music and one of his pieces is programmed here.
(Also Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings, a personal favourite.)

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Not sure of the year for this one either. A summer concert in Houldsworth Hall with its high windows and wooden interiors. Hope it wasn't too hot!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Not sure of the date of this one but it looks like a packed recital. That's a lot of piano music!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Another jolly Christmas concert by the Northern School of Music, with carols, hymns and more.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A pretty impressive chorus here! That's a lot of bodies on such a small stage. We can also see all the companies and individuals that contributed to making the staged operas so professional - costumers, lighting, scenery, furniture, all had to be bought or rented and set up in the Lesser Free Trade Hall, as the school had no hall of their own.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

According to John Robert-Blunn's history of the school, "it was a difficult opera to realise and it seemed that the school had overreached itself." However, one student's memory of it was of being the High Priest and it was a great experience. It was produced by Sumner Austin, famous baritone for Sadlers Wells. He would come up on Thursday all the way to the evening, he was about 76 or 77. He would ask the students, in rehearsals, to sing anything, a story, in recitative and they would have to carry on the story. It made them sing very clearly and concentrate hard!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Christmas music! A jolly concert of season's greetings from 1966, performed by the Northern School of Music in the Houldsworth Hall on Deansgate.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The impact that this performance had on one of the students was so profound that when she saw it nearly 50 years later at the RNCM, it took her straight back to the school performance at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, like a sense memory.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

This performance was so large that one of the alumni remember that you could sing as loud as you wanted but you wouldn't be able to hear yourself at all!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

More lovely programme notes from the Northern School of Music describing the music performed at their orchestral concert.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A surprise feature of Rae Woodland, a leading soprano of the time! Well connected and influential, this would have been a performance to delight, and shows the resourcefulness of the school.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

A pretty wide range of music programmed from the Northern School of Music, with composers spanning nearly 250 years!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Despite the similarity in names, I have been assured that the soloist in this programme is not the beloved fictional child occupying the daydream Hundred Acre Wood.

We can imagine differently, though.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The full orchestra! Do you recognise any students or alumni? Often staff and former students would play in the orchestra and chorus to make up the numbers when needed. For a production this big, they used the main hall at the Free Trade Hall.
They seemed to be making their way through all of Elgar's big works!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The University of Salford, likely their Maxwell Hall, was one of the venues that the Northern School of Music used. Having no audience-friendly space on their premises, the school used different venues across the area.

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Another packed Easter concert at the Houldsworth Hall by the Northern School of Music. Must have been quite the evening!

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

3 pieces from Vaughan Williams performed by the Northern School of Music. Does anyone remember attending or performing this or any others of the school?

Ref: GWilliams

Part of the #NSM2020 project "A 20/20 Legacy: the centenary of the Northern School of Music" supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.