May 2025
Ronald
Corp OBE
1951-2025

It is with great
regret that we record the death
of Ronald Corp, OBE, who passed
away suddenly on May 7th 2025,
aged 74.
LLMMG attendees
will remember that Ronald was our
guest at the meeting in May 2024
and is of particular interest as
the creator of a series of six
Light Music CDs, four of British
and one each of European and
American compositions. These were
on the Hyperion label, and
featured his New London
Orchestra, with which he made
many other recordings. He
specialised in Choral Music and
ran two choirs in London.
A prolific
composer himself, Ronald was
ordained as an Anglican priest in
1999, latterly serving at the
Church of St Alban the Martyr In
Holborn.
An obituary for
Ronald Corp can be found in our Obituaries Section.
Tony Clayden
May 2025
May 2025
New CD
from Gavin Sutherland

The new album by
GAVIN SUTHERLAND conducting THE
FAST TUNES ORCHESTRA and ROYAL
BALLET SINFONIA.
Newly recorded at Abbey Road
Studios
available from
Ebay on CD or Double LP
52 tracks (see
Ebay item descriptions for full
details)
April 2025
Bank
Holiday Afternoon Concert
by the Aspidistra Drawing Room
Orchestra

on 26th
May 2025, 2:30 pm
at Lauderdale House, Highgate
Hill, London N6 5HG
Tickets:
Full price £10, Concessions
(over 65) £9, Children (under
12) £5
will be available from www.LauderdaleHouse.org.uk
This years
programme is to include:
Love Last Word is
Spoken - Cesare Bixio
Baion de Santos - Eric Jupp
Para Ti, Rio Rita - Enrico
Santeugini
Illusions Perdues - Jacob Gade
Love in Arcady - Haydn Wood
Sleepy Melody - Clive Richardson
Dardanella - Felix Bernard
They were doin the Mambo -
Sonny Burke
Por Una Cabeza - Carlos Gardel
Skye Boat Song Trad (Arr
Roy Bell)
Ukrainischer Tanz - Zygmunt
Noskowski
The Black Cat Rag Frank
Wooster
Aspidistra
Webpage: www.aspidistra.org
Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCG4tDIrMNGP0_LpijfTvk5A
April 2025

(click to enlarge)
March 2025
Legends of
Light Music
All of the
articles in the above category,
which appeared on the RFS website
over the years, have now been
reproduced and posted in the 'Articles' section of the LLMMG
website for easy reference.
March 2025
RFS
Website
Due to
insurmountable technical
problems, Geoff Leonard, who has
run the website of the former
Robert Farnon Society for the
last ten years, has been obliged
to permanently shut the site
down.
I am pleased to
inform you that I have been able
to acquire the entire set of data
files, as a result of invaluable
assistance from Jonathan Burns,
and with due thanks to Geoff
Leonard.
These will now be
held as an archive; no further
additions will be possible, but
they will soon be accessible via
the LLMMG website.
Tony Clayden
14/03/2025
March 2025
Robert
Walton

It is with great
sadness that I have just learned
of the death in Ireland
of Robert Walton, which
occurred about six months ago.
Robert had been a
stalwart member of the former
Robert Farnon Society for many
years and after having
retired to the 'Emerald Isle'
he maintained a steady
stream of contributions to the
RFS website, which were always of
great interest.
An obituary can be
found in the 'Obituaries' section
here.
Tony Clayden
14/03/2025
March 2025

For information
about past and upcoming episodes
of Friday Night is
Music Night on BBC
Radio 3 you can follow this link:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001xmxc/episodes/player
It shows previous
episodes which are still
available for replay via BBC
Sounds (for up to 30 days after
broadcast).
23rd May
2025 at 7.30pm
Great Yarmouth
The BBC Concert
Orchestra conducted by George
Jackson returns to the iconic
Hippodrome in Great Yarmouth for
a special Friday Night is Music
Night concert celebrating the
orchestra's long-standing Create
Yarmouth residency. Therell
be songs from classic musicals
performed by West End singing
sensation Rachel John. The
orchestra premieres two brand new
commissions from locally-based
young composers of the community
arts group Freshly Greated, plus
there'll be a taste of Fado
the passionate popular
song from Portugal - with local
singer Zara Maia. Naturally,
therell be popular classics
old and new, including The Dam
Busters March, and a whole
squadron of British favourites
inspired by land, air and sea
as well as a spotlight on
one of the BBC Concert
Orchestras own stars,
principal horn Andrew Littlemore.
Presented by Katie Derham.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0024xv4
30th May
2025 at 7.30pm
Paris in the Jazz Age
The BBC Concert Orchestra, live
from Alexandra Palace, with
violinist and conductor Fiona
Monbet, in Gershwin's American in
Paris, and clarinettist Giacomo
Smith in works by Ellington,
Reinhardt and Debussy.
A Friday Night is Music Night
featuring French music and jazz
from the early years of the 20th
century. The orchestra is joined
by the effortlessly virtuosic
clarinettist Giacomo Smith.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002cjd3
13th June
2025 at 7.30pm
Opera Gala (repeat)
Soraya Mafi and Nicky Spence join
conductor John Andrews and the
BBC Concert Orchestra in a gala
evening of operatic favourites,
recorded in the grounds of
Hampshire's West Green Opera in
July 2024.
Presented by Petroc Trelawny.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0025llf
January 2025
Laurie
Holloway
(1938-2025)

The composer,
pianist and musical director
Laurie Holloway has died at the
age of 86.
An obituary by
Anthony Wills can be found in our
Obituaries section, HERE
January 2025
"The
History of the Northern Dance
Orchestra"

The BBC Northern
Dance Orchestra was a big band
run by the BBC and formed in 1956
as the successor to the BBC's
Northern Variety Orchestra. Known
to listeners as the NDO, it
broadcast on the radio daily,
usually from recordings made at
the Playhouse Theatre in Hulme,
Manchester, and on many trips to
halls throughout the UK.
The NDO project
produced for Serenade Radio
3 x one hour programmes on
the NDO and NVO, with
contributions from people who
knew and worked with the bands,
and lots of great music!
Listen
here!
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