The Yorkshire College of Music and Drama

The Yorkshire College of Music and Drama is a non-profit making charitable trust, registered with the Charity Commission no. 0529220, run by a Board of Trustees on a voluntary basis.

Since the Yorkshire College was founded, our aim has been to introduce the pleasures of music, singing and drama to as wide a public as possible. Children benefit from having individual lessons at their own pace, and for adults, learning an instrument or taking up singing opens up a newly enriched world. Although exam tuition is offered for all the main musical and dramatic examination boards, taking exams is optional and the College encourages students to develop a broad range of musical experiences, before deciding whether to take examinations.

The College receives no grants from any source. Our funding comes mainly from tuition fees, which we aim to keep as low as feasible, in order for the courses to be as accessible to as many people as possible. We are sometimes helped by the receipt of donations, and if the aims of the College strike a chord with you, and you would be willing to support the College with a donation, no matter how small, we would very much appreciate your gift.

A sincere “thank you” to all of you who make a donation.

Dr Simon Lindley
on behalf of the Board of Trustees

Since 1965, the Yorkshire College of Music & Drama has been a non-profit making charitable trust, run by a Board of Trustees serving the College on a voluntary basis.

One of the Trustees, Mr Donald Halliday, is a founder member of the Trust, sharing an enthusiasm for singing and drama with Madame Stiles-Allen (see History of the Yorkshire College), and being responsible for securing the future of the College by obtaining charitable status.

Mr Keith Foster, Trustee, brings his expert commercial experience to the benefit of the College, together with undertaking responsibility for the upkeep of the building.

Mrs Marian Gent-Monks JP, Trustee, is an Honorary Alderman and former deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds. Together with fellow Trustee, Mr Michael Sayles Fox DL, a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and like Mrs Gent-Monks former deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds, they offer the Yorkshire College invaluable experience in running a publicly accountable organisation.

Dr Simon Lindley is the most recent Trustee to be appointed. Dr Lindley is well known to many as the Organist of Leeds Parish Church and Leeds City Organist, and the breadth of his musical experience is beneficial to the Yorkshire College in innumerable different ways. For more information on Dr Lindley’s musical background and current activities, visit www.simonlindley.org.uk.

The Board of Trustees is supported in its role by key members of the teaching staff, who are Honorary Trustees. These notably include Miss Margaret Dawson, Mr Tony Myers and Miss Hazel Smith, all of whom have made an incalculable contribution to the life of the Yorkshire College during their many years of service. In fact, Margaret’s connection with the College can be traced back to the days when she was a pupil of the late Victor Helliwell, whose support for the College is mentioned in the “History of the Yorkshire College” below. Further details about the background and achievements of each of the teaching staff can be found by visiting Teachers.

History of the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama

The year is 1894. Queen Victoria is enjoying a revival of popularity and William Gladstone is still Prime Minister at the age of 85. The first modern Olympics will not be held for another two years, and it will be another decade before the first rugby international takes place. Brahms is still very much alive, and the gramophone has just been invented. It is only a year since Verdi composed his opera, Falstaff, at the age of 80, and since Tchaikovsky wrote the symphony destined to become his requiem, the Pathétique. It is 1894 - the year that the establishment to become the Yorkshire College of Music & Drama was founded in Leeds.

The early years

The College was the brainchild of the Haddock family, who had a long tradition as part of the Leeds music-making scene. Indeed it was under the leadership of one of the Haddocks that the inaugural concert of the first Leeds Orchestra had taken place in 1864 at the then newly built Town Hall, performing works by Beethoven, Mozart and Rossini. Several generations later, in 1932, it was another member of the family, Mr G Marston Haddock, who was one of the founder members of the Leeds Music Club still flourishing today.

Under the auspices of the Haddocks, the Yorkshire College thrived throughout the first decades of the twentieth-century, even enjoying royal patronage. Eventually the baton was passed to Mr Victor Helliwell, another founder member of the Leeds Music Club, and the College continued to flourish.

A tribute to Madame Stiles-Allen

It was during this period that the College established its reputation in the fields of singing and drama, but sadly in 1964, Victor Helliwell died and the College found itself without premises. After a very difficult period, a benefactor came to the rescue in the form of Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen.

Madame Stiles-Allen, a renowned soprano in the 1920s and 1930s, performed with such illustrious conductors as Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Henry Wood (who founded the Promenade concerts at the Royal Albert Hall). Her recordings included Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and also Cavalleria Rusticana with the Covent Garden Royal Opera House - both recordings now available on CD.

In the 1940s, Madame Stiles-Allen decided to pass on her expert knowledge of the voice to the next generation of budding singers. One of her protégées was Miss Julie Andrews, who started early lessons with Madame Stiles-Allen at the age of eight, before going on to become an international actress and film star.

It was during this time that the paths of Madame Stiles-Allen and the Yorkshire College started to merge, and when Madame Stiles-Allen heard of the difficulties that the Yorkshire College was facing in finding suitable premises, she generously made her house - 19 Shire Oak Road - available to College students.

Madame Stiles-Allen was born just two years after the Yorkshire College was founded. In parallel with the Yorkshire College, her life was dedicated to the performing and teaching of music, and it is a fitting tribute to her love of music that her four-hundred year old home is now owned by the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama for the benefit of future generations of musicians, actors and singers.

info@yorkshire-music-lessons.co.uk