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History
Making Music, The National Federation of Music Societies was founded in York on 23 February 1935 with the support of The Carnegie UK Trust and at the instigation of Sir George Dyson (1883-1964), the first Chairman and President. A year after its constitution, the organisation was brought before the public eye at its first conference by Sir Thomas Beecham's scathing attack on the BBC in his speech addressing 900 delegates from 300 member societies.
The organisation was initially created from regional federations of music societies to provide mutually beneficial services for its members through the provision of centralised information and representation. Voluntary regional committees remain a vital part of the organisation at local level, regularly liaising with our Music Office in London. Making Music's regional committees in England correspond with the boundaries of the Arts Council regional offices. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are represented by national committees.
The Federation has had 12 Presidents since Sir George Dyson. These are:
1935-1940 Sir George Dyson
1940-1946 Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams
1946-1947 The Earl of Shaftesbury
1947-1948 Sir Thomas Beecham
1948-1950 Sir Malcolm Sargent
1950-1954 Sir Adrian Boult
1954-1960 Dr Reginald Jacques
1961-1967 Sir Thomas Armstrong
1967-1972 Prof. Myers Foggin
1972-1980 Sir Charles Groves
1980-1989 Sir David Willcocks
1989-present Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
The Federation historically distributed funding to music societies. It began distributing those of The Carnegie UK Trust in 1935 and the establishment of CEMA (The Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts) allowed us to allocate national funds to larger performing societies and music clubs who were not eligible for support from Carnegie. When CEMA became the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1945, this role continued. The decentralisation of government funding, reflected by the formation of the Regional Arts Boards in 1986, has seen a reduction in our work providing national funding, but a number of Regional Arts Boards and the Scottish Arts Council continue to place responsibility for administering grants in our hands.
As well as supporting its member societies at a local level, the Federation has always maintained an important national presence through lobbying and national events. In 1943, we produced twelve 'People's Concerts' and a few years later, took part in the Festival of Britain celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall. In 1977, massed choirs were organised to perform a Te Deum in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee in the Royal Albert Hall. In 1985, our own Golden Jubilee was celebrated with twelve regional performances of Geoffrey Burgon's Revelations. We celebrated our Diamond Jubilee with a Royal Gala Concert featuring Jose Carreras. Concert profits created the Diamond Jubilee Endowment Fund, which safeguards our future work.
In 1993 Making Music teamed up with BT to undertake Making More of Music, a project which enabled 10,000 representatives of member societies to attend training opportunities across the country over of three years. Making Music worked again in partnership with BT on the community development project, The Music Experience, funded by The National Lottery through The Arts Council of England and publicly launched in September 1998. This was the largest project ever undertaken in the voluntary arts sector in this country.
In 2000, with the launch of the new five year plan Making Music Happen, The National Federation of Music Societies (usually known as NFMS) took the historic decision to change its working title to Making Music, to reflect the new inclusivity and breadth of membership that was becoming so important. Since then membership has continued to grow rapidly, and now includes a very wide range of musical genres, from choral societies and orchestras to steel bands and gospel choirs.
Content last updated:
19th October 2008
