This year (2025) sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder of St Michael’s College, Rev. Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley. Various events are being planned, and one such event was at the Three Choirs Festival, this year in Hereford, which included Ouseley’s anthem Jerusalem on High in a broadcast Choral Evensong...
Dear Members and Friends I hope you are all well. As previously mentioned, we will be holding our Annual Reunion this year on Saturday, September 27th. And there’s some great news – we have been given permission to hold our AGM in the old College library! Thanks go to the new owners and the headmaster...
Some great news – St Michael’s College has been sold and it is planned to reopen as an educational establishment in September 2025. Students will be drawn from the UK and abroad and be of a similar age range as the previous international college. The close proximity of St Michael’s Church is believed to...
The new iteration of St Michael’s is due to be launched in September 2025. It will be known as St Michael Abbey School. The prospectus has been launched – here are the details The new School’s website can be browsed here ...
Benjamin Britten wrote a specially commissioned work for the Centenary of the College in 1956. Old Boy David Wells-Cole (1953-1959) writes: Last week (August 2024) I went to the Britten-Pears Archive in Aldeburgh to present my copy of Benjamin Britten’s Antiphon (signed by Britten on the day of the performance) to the Archive. I...
The work to provide level access to the College Chapel has been completed (September 2024). Details from the Tenbury Advertiser. ...
The 2023 Magazine is now available along with the booking details for the 2023 Reunion....
You will recall our appeal to fund a new set of blowers for the Willis Organ in the Chapel. Members responded magnificently to the appeal, and after a few false sarts (mainly due to the pandemic) the blowers were ordered. The latest news (as of 18th Oct) is that the blowers have arrived at...
We are very sad to report that Jenny Paxman, former Warden’s wife, teacher and parent at St Michael’s, has died at the age of 91. Our thoughts and condolences are with Richard, James and Victoria and their families. Jenny’s funeral took place on Monday 19th September at 2.45pm at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium, Sheffield. A...
Roy Massey has let us know of the following publication, which may well be of interest to members: I don’t know whether it would interest members of SMCS but I have recently written my memoirs entitled An Organist Remembers published by the RSCM (musicdirect@rscm.com}. Chapter 8 is entitled St Michael’s College, Tenbury and is a...
Congratulations to Andrew Nethsingha, currently Director of Music at St John’s College, University of Cambridge, who has been appointed the new Organist and Master of Choristers at Westminster Abbey. More information...
Reunions Updates from the 2021 reunion and the SMC Society Magazine...
UPDATE Sept 21: Memorial Recital recording and tributes It is with great sadness that we report the death on Friday 12th February 2021 of Lucian Nethsingha, a former organist and choir master at St Michael’s. Lucian had been in poor health for a while, and latterly had been in a hospice in Cambridge.Born in Colombo, Ceylon, in...
Dear Members and Friends I am writing to you to ask for your help to raise money for something that I know will be close to many of your hearts – the Father Willis organ at St Michael’s. To be precise, it’s for the blowers – the lungs of the organ which we can...
List of known Recordings and broadcasts from St Michael’s College compiled by Frederick Appleby...