Thanet Music and Drama Festival

The festival is entirely self-funding and receives no public financial support

Decorational image of musical notes

In 1930 the Adjudicator was Julius Harrison, who had recently been appointed Conductor of the Hastings Municipal Orchestra. He made complimentary remarks about the Margate Municipal Orchestra, which he had been to conduct three years previously. A minute of one of the committee meetings for that year shows that the entry fees for Elementary School Choirs were reduced from 7s 9d to 6s 3d (this was the middle of the Great Depression). The AA road report in one of the papers says that the road was up at Westgate crossroads for pipelaying: some things never change!

In the Executive Committee for 1930-31 the name appears for the first time of Miss Marjorie Crawshaw, known to us all as Marjorie Gore.

In 1932 the Adjudicator was Mr (later Dr) Herbert Howells, who is best known today for his church music. He was apt to be far from complimentary in his comments, but on this occasion he was full of praise. A decrease in the number of Elementary School Choirs was noted.

In 1934 the Adjudicator was H. Plunket Greene, a bass singer well known in his day. He had come at short notice, in place of another adjudicator who was ill. He wrote to Miss Raven afterwards to say he had had '... a ripping time'.

In 1936 classes for Boy Scouts' Choirs are mentioned, and Piano Solo (any age) appears for the first time. The Piano classes must have flourished, because in 1938 Harold Craxton, a well-known Piano adjudicator, came for these classes. Classes in Choral Speaking were discussed in committee.

In 1939 Thomas F. Dunhill, who had adjudicated the Choral classes back in 1925, returned as Piano Adjudicator. In the meantime he had composed a set of piano studies The Wheel of Progress, which are still used today.

Valid XHTML 1.1 Strict! Valid CSS!