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Our history
Unlock the power of music
Music Centre opened
The music centre first opened its doors at the beginning of the 1974/75 school year.
Foxhills school was the first home of the groups that met under the then banner of ‘Scunthorpe and District’. The music centre moved a couple of times in the coming years, first to Highridge Lower School on Britannia Corner and then onto Brumby Junior School, where a discover of asbestos in the roof saw a number of instruments go in the bin and the service on the move once again.
10th anniversary
In 1985, the 10th anniversary of the music centre was in part celebrated by a concert in Hull City Hall, featuring an original composition by Winterton-born composer Colin Hand. At its pomp in the 1980s and 90s, up to 400 young musicians attended the music centre each week, with the service running 3 concert bands, 3 orchestras, 2 swing bands and a youth choir amongst others.
John Leggott College
By the mid-90s, the music centre was at John Leggott College and Easter 1996 saw a significant concert at The Baths Hall to mark Scunthorpe’s transition from Humberside into the new unitary authority of North Lincolnshire. This was a joint concert given alongside the Scunthorpe Co-Operative Junior Choir and the choir from John Leggott College and featured a new piece written by the esteemed British composer Howard Goodall, who was in attendance on the night. The concert concluded with a massed performance of extracts from Carl Orff’s mighty orchestral and choral work Carmina Burana.
Gold Award Winners
2002 saw national recognition for the music centre as the North Lincolnshire Youth Band were Gold Award winners at the National Concert Band Festival in Manchester. The music centre groups have also made appearances further afield over the years, including two tours to Salzburg, a trip to Lunaberg in Germany (which is twinned with Scunthorpe) as well as tours to Holland and France, most recently in 2012.
40th anniversary
2009 saw the retirement of Steve Fareham, who had led the music service for 20 years, having first joined as a woodwind teacher in 1972.
The 40th anniversary of the Music Centre was also celebrated with concert here at The Baths Hall and featured an original composition by Charlotte Harding, an alumnus of the music service who has gone on to have an international composing career. Highlights also include a performance with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms in 2017.
Baths Hall
More recently, the Music Centre has moved homes again here to The Baths Hall. You will read elsewhere in this programme that we are set to launch activities in additional centres across North Lincolnshire in September and, as we continue to rebuild our provision after the impact of the Covid pandemic, we look forward to seeing what the next 50 years have in store for us!
