Over To You
The Great Music ‘Grad’ Reunion of 2010 (Classes of ’82 and ’83)
In September 1980, my fellow ‘Grads’ and I met for the very first time at Guildhall. We nervously picked our way down the steep steps in the Lecture Recital Room, to meet our new music history teacher, Barbara Barry. She was standing at the front with a rather daunting looking crowd of Year 2 Grads and we were each allocated a ‘mum’ or ‘dad’ who would give us a tour of the college and show us the ropes. It was an exciting time and we soon settled into the routine of lectures and lessons and slowly got to know one another. Little did we know back then, that we would all be meeting up 30 years on.
In April 1990, I was working as the resident singer/pianist at the Hilton Hotel in Newbury, Berkshire. I worked between 8pm and midnight, 7 nights a week so I was rather bored during the day. I decided to track down as many fellow ’80 – ’83 Grads as possible for a summer reunion. In June 1990, we all met at Sweeney Todd’s restaurant in Kensington for an evening of wonderful Guildhall reminiscing. Some people were married, some were expecting babies and it was lovely to see everyone
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again. I even managed to persuade Harold Dexter, the famously grumpy (and yet loveable) head of our graduate course to come along with his wife, which made it extra special. The evening came to an end, we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with one another…
In 2000, I was married and had a two year old son, Dominic. My rather wealthy (then) husband owned Newbury Manor Hotel which was the perfect venue for another reunion. On a sunny morning in May, we met at the hotel and enjoyed a buffet lunch outside the River Bar in the grounds. People came from far and wide with their babies and toddlers, their older children, their spouses or their new partners. I painted ‘Hello Harold’ on a huge banner and we all stood under the trees and had our photo taken in front of it. I posted it to Mr Dexter with a letter, not realising he had sadly passed away. Faith Dexter rang to say he would have been thrilled to know we were thinking about him and that she would very much like to keep the photo. The afternoon came to an end, we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with one another...
2009 dawned. 2010 would be the ’30 years since we met at Guildhall’ reunion. Could I be bothered? In the words of Churchill the dog: ‘Oh yes!’ I started contacting people during the summer of 2009 and, slowly but surely, started to build up a picture of where everyone lived and who might be able to come along. I was emailing a school friend on the Friends Reunited website when I came across a chap named David Hooke. Now then, wasn’t there a David Hooke in the year above us at Guildhall? I sent an e-mail and sure enough, it was the same one. I added him to my Grads email list and told him he would be very welcome to come along to our reunion. Then, David had a brilliant idea. Why not try and track down the others in his year and have a joint reunion? So that’s exactly what we did.
On Sunday 25 April 2010, Grads from both the 1979 – 1982 and 1980 – 1983 courses met at Guildhall. With the help of our very own Alumni Relations Manager, Rachel Dyson, we set up camp in the Music Hall from 11.30am and it was a truly wonderful reunion. Grads from all over the UK beat the London Marathon traffic and chaos to be there and some even flew over (despite the eruption of the Icelandic volcano). It was a day of laughter, wonderful memories and an opportunity to catch up with Guildhall Grads from both years. The afternoon came to an end, we said our goodbyes and promised to keep in touch with one another…
Here’s to the Great Music Grad Reunion of 2020!
v Fiona Bennett GGSM LTCL (Piano 1983)
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