Stories from a Life of Music

Stories From a Life of Music

At a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of South Foreland, members and friends listened to a fascinating account of memorable stories from concert organist Charles Spanner’s career in Music.  He is an experienced and talented pianist, organist and conductor who has performed all over the world.  As an educator he has overseen music in five different schools in England; he moved to Dover in 2008 and became Director of Music at Dover Grammar School for Boys.  He established the Dover Community Youth Choir which has performed in many cathedrals in the UK and abroad.  Currently he is organist at Charlton Church in Dover.  He has had an amazing career and has also been lucky, as his first story illustrates.

This story was about how he came to establish the Eastbourne Music Academy in 1990.  A large private school closed and came up for sale, so Charles decided to buy part of the building for his Academy.  A grand piano was moved into the building and all was going well until the owner blocked the sale, the reason being that the part of the school not bought by Charles was to be turned into flats, and a noisy music school would not be a selling point.  This was a difficult time for Charles as he had teaching, choirs and church to deal with.  He spoke to his accountant who advised him to phone a Mrs Priestly who was a member of the church choir.  When Charles told her of his predicament, she decided to buy the whole school with its grounds and allowed him to start setting up his Eastbourne Music Academy.

Charles went on to relate some memories from the time of the Academy.  In the early years he remembers phoning Antony Hopkins who was a well-known composer, pianist and conductor (not the film star).  Antony spoke slowly and in a ‘posh’ accent.  Charles asked if he could give a lecture on Beethoven, for which he would be paid £250.  Antony agreed and asked whether this would be in cash.  He came to a packed audience at the Academy.  The lecture was dreadful, and Antony was unable to demonstrate on the piano.  This was because he had had a stroke, which also accounted for his slow speech.  However, the audience went away happy having seen the great man.

His best memory from the Academy time occurred when it had been open about five years.  There was a knock on the door: it was a boy from the prestigious Eastbourne College who said he wanted to learn to play the piano.  Charles agreed to teach him and gradually got to know Robert who was interested in 19^th Century music.  After about three years Charles played the opening chords of the Warsaw Concerto and asked if Robert would like to play this.  Robert said yes so was given an easy version of the music which he learnt in two weeks. Charles then gave him the sixteen-page version of the music and Robert put in the hours and leant it after several months.  As well as teaching, conducting and concert publicity, Charles managed to give time to Robert who at the age of 16 had made incredible progress.  He was now ready to give a public performance with the Hospice Orchestra which played at Our Lady of Ransome Church in Eastbourne.  This seated 350 people with, 40 in the orchestra.

On the day of the concert the practice with the orchestra went well.  In the evening the church was packed, Robert played beautifully and was given a standing ovation.  By the end of conducting Charles was in floods of tears and could hardly read the music as he was overcome with emotion at Robert’s achievement.

Three years ago, Charles told this story to a lady he knew in Maidstone and she found out that Robert was living in Bristol.  Charles phoned him and learnt that Robert no longer played the piano but had become an accountant.

When Charles was still in his late teens and living in Yorkshire where he grew up, he tried to gain permission to play the organ at the Albert Hall but was unsuccessful.  In the end he went to London to the Albert Hall but was stopped by security.  He could hear the organ being tuned and knew the name of the tuner so told the security guard that Kenneth James was expecting him.  He was then allowed in and explained to Kenneth why he was there, and this is how he came to play the organ at the Albert Hall.

The Eastbourne Chamber Choir sang in many cathedrals including Notre Dame in Paris and St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which was a great honour.  Here, being a practical organist, Charles asked if he could play a traviata at the end of the concert.  The resident organist begrudgingly agreed, so Charles asked him if he would do the stops.  The organist was not at all happy and put down only two stops, but when Charles started playing he realised that Charles was a skilled organist and did all he could to help.

Charles has been abroad many times since 1980.  It was then that he won a scholarship to study with Professor Flor Peeters, an important Belgian composer, and went on to play many recitals in Europe, Scandinavia, New Zealand and USA.

He told of an experience in Lynchburg, Virginia, at a high society party in a grand house where he was introduced to many people.  There was a grand piano in the main room and he was encouraged to play.  Eventually he agreed to play some Mendelson.  When he hit the first chord the keys stayed down and he realised that the piano was unplayable.  Everyone was gathered expectantly around the piano, so he had to think quickly: he said that he had drunk too much and couldn’t remember the music.  This was a most embarrassing experience.

Charles owned an old Daimler Sovereign car which he turned over on a journey from London to Eastbourne and the car caught fire.  He was lucky that some workmen stopped and rescued him from the flames.  He then decided to blow all his money on buying an old Rolls Royce.  This led to a business based around playing the organ at weddings and providing a wedding car.  The Rolls features in the next story.

At the time of the Dunblane Massacre 28 years ago, Charles was driving to Scotland with three students on a concert tour of that area.   The Lady Dean of Dunblane Cathedral asked him to perform in a concert there.  Grace Constable, a soprano, was going to sing in the concert.  The day before she arrived, he went to Inverness Airport with the students and gained permission to drive his Rolls Royce onto the tarmac near the plane to collect Grace when she arrived next day.

The students made a banner to welcome ’The International Singer, Grace Constable.’  The following day Charles dressed as a chauffeur drove out onto the tarmac near the plane and stood to attention as the passengers disembarked.  Grace was last off and was clearly horrified at the attention.  She was very quiet in the car and later asked ’Why didn’t you tell me?’  This was an example of Charles’ humour and zest for life.

Charles had many more tales to tell but finished with the experience of a Friday night choir practice on a cold winter’s evening in Eastbourne.  A Japanese friend of his was there who also taught healing.  Shirley, a member of the choir, was ill but insisted on attending. Charles’ Japanese friend stood at the back of the church with hands extended.  After a few minutes Shirley changed from shivering to feeling hot.  She began to sweat and took off her coat.  After a time, she felt much better as a result of the healing power of the Japanese friend.

Charles ended with a clip from one of the performances of Dover Community Youth Choir which toured sixteen different cathedrals in 2011.  The clip was from ‘Blessed be the God and Father’ where a thirteen-year-old member of the choir was singing his first solo in public.  While being very nervous he sang beautifully.

Charles was thanked for his variety of engaging stories, and for all the work he has done for young people as educator and conductor over the course of his career.