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Sir John Drummond CBE (11 September 1934-6 September 2006) was a British arts administratot who spent most of his career at the BBC. He was the son of a master mariner in the British India line and an Australian lieder singer. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are...
September 11 is the 254th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (255th in leap years). ...
1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...
September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ...
2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Founded in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company Ltd (a privately owned company), subsequently Incorporated and nationalised in 1927 as The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. ...
Lied (plural Lieder) is a German word, literally meaning song; among English speakers, however, it is used primarily as a term for European classical music songs, also known as art songs. ...
He was educated at Canford School and, after his National Service in the Navy, read History at Trinity College, Cambridge gaining a first. At Cambridge he was a member of the Marlowe Society, performing in Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II, which was broadcast on the Third Programme in 1958 with Derek Jacobi in the title role. At the time he had already gained a BBC general traineeship (Carpenter p316). Canford School is a full boarding coeducational school with a significant minority of day pupils, in Wimborne Minster, Dorset. ...
National Service in the 20th century referred primarily to conscription for military service. ...
Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names Kings Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street...
An anonymous portrait, often believed to show Christopher Marlowe. ...
Edward II is an Elizabethan play written by Christopher Marlowe. ...
The BBC Third Programme was the third national radio network broadcast by the BBC, has since become Radio 3, but was originally known (at least within the BBC) as C. The other two were the Home Service (mainly speech based) and the Light Programme, dedicated to light music, usually cover...
Sir Derek Jacobi plays Gracchus in Gladiator. ...
His early career at the BBC was as a foreign correspondent (Drummond spoke fluent French and Russian) and then director/producer of arts programmes for BBC Television; ultimately he became Assistant Head of Music and Arts before becaming director of the Edinburgh International Festival at the end of 1977. Drummond's period at the Festival was particularly successful, and Norman Lebrecht commended him in a tribute for his multi-disciplinary approach in a celebration of 'fin de siècle' Vienna in 1983.[1] The Edinburgh International Festival is a festival of performing arts that takes place in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland over three weeks from around the middle of August. ...
Fin de siècle is French for end of the century. The term turn-of-the-century is sometimes used as a synonym, but is more neutral (lacking some or most of the connotations described below), and can include the first years of a new century. ...
After leaving his post in Edinburgh in 1983, he returned to the BBC and was appointed Controller, Music (in tandem with his predecessor Robert Ponsonby for a year as Controller, Designate) in 1985 and then Controller of Radio 3 (1987-92) when the two posts were merged. He was succeeded by Nicholas Kenyon as Controller of Radio 3, but Drummond continued to be responsible for the Proms until his last season in 1995. While Controller of Radio 3, Drummond introduced the co-ordination of interval talks with the evening concert, doubled the length of the Saturday morning Record Review programme and scheduled the first Jazz concert at the Proms with Loose Tubes in 1987. Drummond had a low opinion of the Radio 3 audience, which he saw as consisting of “thirty minority tastes, each of which is characterised by its intense dislike of the other twenty-nine” (Carpenter p335).
Drummond attacked Nigel Kennedy in 1991 for wearing a black cloak while performing Berg's Violin Concerto,[2] and comparing Kennedy's usual punk clothing to the vulgarity of Liberace (Carpenter p335). Most opinion in the media sided with Kennedy. Nigel Kennedy (born December 28, 1956 in Brighton, England) is a violinist and violist. ...
Alban Maria Johannes Berg (February 9, 1885 – December 24, 1935) was an Austrian composer. ...
Liberace shows off his rings (circa 1980). ...
Having chosen not to renew his contract as Radio 3 Controller for a second five-year term in 1992, he became openly critical of the Birt regime at the BBC, for its managerial and populist instincts. For Drummond, the BBC "has been an organisation which has seen itself as leading society, not following taste. If it no longer wishes to be that, I can't see any reason for its existence."[3] At about the same time, he called Tony Blair a "professional philistine" and attacked the Blair government for destroying "the national sense of culture".[4] John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944), served as the Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from 1992 to 2000, having previously been deputy director-general since 1987. ...
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the UK Civil Service, Leader of the UK Labour Party, and Member of the UK Parliament for the constituency of Sedgefield in North East England. ...
John Drummond was chairman of the Theatres Trust at the end of his life. He had also been on the Council of Management of the early music group, the Fires of London.
Bibliography
- Fine and Private Place (with Joan Bakewell), 1977, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, ISBN 0297774328
- Tainted by Experience, A Life in the Arts, 2000, Faber, ISBN 0-571-20922-X
- Speaking of Diaghilev, 1997, Faber, ISBN 0-571-17864-2
Joan Bakewell (born Joan Dawson Rowlands on April 16, 1933) is a British journalist and television presenter. ...
Reference - Humphrey Carpenter (1996[1997]) The Envy of the World: Fifty years of the BBC Third Programme and Radio 3, Weidenfeld and Nicolson [Phoenix pbk, ISBN 0-75380-250-3, pp316-36]
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (April 29, 1946 – January 4, 2005) was an English biographer, author and radio broadcaster. ...
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