Registered UK charity No 275793

President
Sir Charles Mackerras

Vice Presidents
Myer Fredman
Ole Schmidt
Lionel Friend
David J Brown
James Kelleher
Malcolm MacDonald

Leslie Head

Principal officers
Dr John Grimshaw  Chairman
Mark Henegar  Vice-Chairman
Damian Rees   Secretary
Kathryn Henegar  Treasurer

Committee
Martin Anderson . Martyn Becker . Ray Hollands . David Jenkins . Gary Jobsey . Kevin Mandry . Jeremy Marchant . Alan Marshall . Jürgen Schaarwächter

HB Society contacts

The Society offers several benefits for a modest annual subscription.

Newsletter  The bimonthly Newsletter publishes articles of the highest quality on Brian's music and on all aspects of the composer.  There are few composer societies which have demonstrated such a consistent track record of quality - over a quarter of a century - in the material it has published;  much of it has stood the test of time and appears on this website.  Items from future Newsletters will also appear on the website, but delayed by six months.  In any case, there is much in the Newsletters which does not normally appear on the website:  including news, views and the occasional crossword.

Recorded Music Library  For a modest fee, members can borrow tapes and CDs of performances of Brian's music, in many cases of works not otherwise recorded.

Subscription is a mere £12 (UK), £5 (UK concessions), £16 (Europe and international surface mail), £19.50 (international air mail).  To join, please send a cheque for the appropriate amount in favour of "Havergal Brian Society" to Damian Rees, the Secretary, as a sterling draft or Eurocheque in sterling (we can manage US$ checks provided about $4 is added on to cover our costs of conversion).   UK members are strongly encouraged to covenant their subscriptions.  Enquiries to Damian Rees, too.

Donations are always acceptable!  The Society has a Major Projects Fund dedicated to the ongoing series of recordings by Marco Polo/Naxos.  The Society also undertakes the production of scores using the Sibelius 4 computer system and professional editing funds are needed for this.

The HBS can only continue to function with regular income.  If you have found this website informative and useful, please consider supporting us by either becoming a member, making use of the advantages that carries, or by making a donation to help our work in making scores and information available, sponsoring recording and promoting Brian in other ways such as this website. 

Brief history

The Society is possibly the third of the name that has existed:  one may have been formed after the publication in 1945 of Reginald Nettel's Ordeal by Music, the first biography of the composer, and another certainly existed in the early 1960s (more here).

The present Society, which enjoyed the distinguished Patronage of Sir Adrian Boult until his death in 1983, was founded informally in 1974 by Martin Grossel and James Reid Baxter. With the clarification of its principal aims and objectives (shown below), a more formal structure was established in 1977, and charitable status was granted in 1978.  Membership has continued to grow, and is now multi-national.

1 To act as an information source about the composer and his music for both the general public and for musicians.  The Society is currently looking at ways in which it may play a more active educational role.  This website is a major step towards the widest promulgation of information about Havergal Brian.

2 To promote and sponsor recitals, concerts, and recordings of Brian's music.  A concert performance of the opera The Cenci was mounted in 1997.  Piano and song recitals have been given, a major contribution was made towards the first performance of The Tigers, and numerous recordings have been sponsored, including the current series of CDs on the Marco Polo label which is intended to encompass all of Brian's extant choral and orchestral music, including the 32 symphonies.

3 To advise and assist prospective performers in their choice of works and in the acquisition of performing materials.  The Society has an active subcommittee which is editing and computer setting Brian's music, thereby enablng high quality hire material to be available. 

4 To publish original material on Brian and his music.  Over 160 issues of a bi-monthly Newsletter have been published, many containing authoritative articles on aspects of the composer and his music discussed in no other source.  The Complete music for solo piano has been reissued in a single hardback volume, and a book about the Gothic Symphony has been published.  The Society is also involved with a series of volumes of Brian's journalism, as well as the continuing publication of his music.  The Society is working on a published Havergal Brian Song Edition.

5 To gather as much information as possible on the whereabouts of Brian's missing scores, most importantly the full score of Prometheus unbound.  As the result of a reward offer made by the Society, the full score of The Tigers was recovered in December 1977 after being missing for 30 or more years.  More on the results of the Society's offer of a £500 reward for the discovery of lost Brian works is here.

One of the most important areas of the Society's operations is the maintenance and development  of an Archive devoted to Brian.   This is held at Keele University and is open to public inspection.   Please  contact the Archivist, David Jenkins, for information.  

An introduction to the Archive, very much work in progress, is here. Selected archive items will be available to view on the website.

Score setting

The Society has a flourishing and enthusiastic team which is computer setting Brian's works using Sibelius 4 for United Music Publishers.  The following works have been completed to date

English suite 3
Symphony 23
Symphony 24
Two choruses from Prometheus unbound
Some songs and partsongs

Other works are well advanced.

The Society offers a lending library service to its members.  Tapes and CDs of performances of Brian's music not otherwise available can be borrowed for a modest fee.  For more details, see here. 

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