1980 October 1st at Margaret Bissett's home. AESS AGM:-

I became President. The speaker on this occasion was Dudley Jones, the actor, who had been working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He spoke of his distress at the decline of spoken English. His words haunted me. My fifteen years as Professor of Speech and Diction in Singing at the Royal College of Music had shown me that the RCM singing students in the Opera School worked hard at their German, Italian and French, but unless I prodded them, they took English for granted and were often unintelligible. I began to wonder whether the Association could inspire them by offering a Prize. When I had been a student at the Central School of Speech and Drama, my skills in speaking had been stimulated by a Competition devoted to the production of and acting in scenes from Shakespeare. Perhaps we too could offer an imaginative and rewarding Competition for singers to improve their diction in English.

1980 November 23rd at Catherine Lambert's home. AESS Committee Meeting:-

Present:- Catherine Lambert - President, Olive Steer (Keeler) - Hon. Secretary, Michael Pilkington - Hon. Treasurer, Ellis Keeler, Rex Stephens, Sheila Moriarty, Dorothy Dayus.

I put forward my idea for a prize. It was unanimously accepted. I asked everyone to write down what the prize should stand for.We discussed the results and ageed on the following:-

'For outstanding ability in the communication of original English words with clarity, understanding and imagination.'

Committee members between them represented the Royal College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. We decided to begin modestly by offering a £25 extra Prize in each College's annual English Song Competition, priming each College's adjudicator as to the particular qualities of our prize. We would establish this for three years, and then develop the Prize further. I undertook to write to the Directors of the three Colleges, Sir David Willcocks (RCM), Sir Anthony Lewis (RAM) and Mr John Hosier (GSMD), to se if they approved of our proposal. They all replied enthusiastically.

1981 January 31st at Gordon Honey's home. AESS Meeting:-

Speaker: Gerard Hüsch

Because of this speaker the meeting was well attended. I had to keep him waiting while I broached the idea of the Prize to the members. This was received enthusiastically except by Sir Keith Faulkner who thought that there were already too many competitions! He was over-ruled by a show of hands. Our project had begun in earnest.

1981 June 13th at Thelma Godfrey's home. AESS Summer Meeting:-

This was given over to fixing dates and rules of the Prize. it was decided that I should send a letter to every member of the AESS with details of the progress of the Prize and ask for financial support. I also asked for, and received thankfully, sponsorships from The Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, The Britten-Pears Foundation, The J.W.Lambert Memorial Trust and Boosey and Hawkes Music Publishers Limited.

1982 The English Singers and Speakers Prize

£25 and Volumes I and II of the 'Heritage of 20th Century British Song' collected by the Asociation and published by Boosey and Hawkes.

This was presented in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. My comments on the three Competitions were as follows:-

GSMD - English Song Competition - Adjudicator: Fabian Smith

There were thirteen singers who each sang one of three songs. I put a * against the name of Helen Charnock. Ellis and Olive Keeler, Michael Pilkington and Lyndon van der Pump kept me company. There was no announcement of the winner and no adjudication and I had to wait three weeks until Michael told me the glad news that Helen Charnock had won our prize. There was no official letter to the Association, but a charming letter from Helen herself.

The RAM - The Major Van Someren-Godfrey English Song Competition- Adjudicator: Wendy Eathorne

There were twenty seven singers who each gave a fifteen minute programme which took all day Thursday and Friday morning with six finalists singing again in the afternnoon. Olive, Michael, Lyndon and Dudley Jones joined me in the big audience in the theatre. Michael and I both wanted Susan Bullock to get one Prize so we were delighted to hear Wendy Eathorne announce that she had awarded the English Singers and Speakers Prize to Susan. She is a pupil of Majorie Thomas.

The RCM - The Major Van Someren-Godfrey English Song Competition - Adjudicator: Heather Harper

Although the competition is the same as that of the RAM, the Major's widow changed the rules for the RCM and restricted the entry to those who have never received a money prize at the College and were going to spend at least another year there.

Thirteen singers presented a twenty minute programme each. There were no printed programmes and names had to be copied from the notice board. Luckily Heather Harper was most friendly, made me sit by her and passed me the details. The very first singer was John Graham-Hall, a tenor who was absolutely outstanding in every way, and no-one came up to the standard he set. I agreed with Heather Harper's decision that he should be placed first and also win our Prize. He is a pupil of Edward Brooks.

1983 Trinity College of Music joined the Competition for the Prize.

1985 The development of the Prize resulted in the Association presenting its own Competition for a twenty minute recital of English Song on a theme chosen by the competitor, and not more than a five minute spoken introduction. This was presented annually in each College in turn, with help from the Colleges' administrators but with adjudicators and stewards drawn from members of the Association. Each College provided two students. The adjudicators marked singers and accompanists out of five marks, which were then added up to find the winners. There were now three Singing Prizes ( £100, £75 and £50) and an Accompanists Prize (£35). Boosey and Hawkes 'Heritage' Volumes continued to be presented to the 1st Prizewinner and at some point Michael Pilkington persuaded Thames Publishing Limited to present his edition of Lute Songs to the 2nd Prizewinner.

1988 Students from the London College of Music also competed.

1990 The AESS Committee decided to relieve the pressure on the busy Colleges and to find its own venue. Fellow AESS member Lyndon van der Pump and I attend St Mary's Church, Primrose Hill, NW3. It has always been associated with music, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams in particular. Lyndon had started his ' Music at St. Mary's Society' from which developed the 'Peter Pears Song Prize'. Lyndon lent us his grand piano, which is there, and kept it tuned. The Vicar, the Reverend John Ovenden, generously allowed us to hire the church on Saturday from 9.45am to 6.00pm for £25. We were also able to hold a post-Competition party in the Parish room when competitors and adjudicators were able to meet each other. Another parishioner kindly lent her house as a warm-up room.

Up to the year 1990 I had been enormously helped and supported in the organisation of the Competition by Thelma Godfrey. This year she became President and Garry Humphreys became the Hon. Secretary. He brought his professional expertise and unstinting help to the Competition and I can never thank him enough. He became disheartened by what appeared to be a lack of interest from members, although it has always been difficult to find times and venues to suit a geographically disparate group of working professionals.. Dorothy Richardson also did much to rally support and other supportive friends included Elizabeth Hawes, Michael Pilkington and Lyndon van der Pump.

I look back on the enterprise with joy and pride because I think it has really helped and inspired many young singers to follow the main aim of the AESS which is 'to encourage communication of English words in speech and song'

by Catherine Lambert (1991).

Catherine Margaret Lambert (nee Read) was born on November 25th 1918. Her father, Alfred Read, was an Army Captain in WW1, and afterwards had two careers, one in business affairs and the other as an amateur singer with a fine baritone voice. Her mother Kitty had trained at the Royal Academy of Music in piano and the violin, and was a expert accompanist to her husband.

1928

Catherine is nine years old. She is standing on a stool behind her mother and brother and sister. She has just been placed first, with a silver medal, in a class for verse speaking in The Croydon Music Festival. Her adjudicator was Elsie Fogerty, the founder and Principal of The Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. Catherine would meet her again in 1937 when she went to the school to train to be a Teacher of Speech and Drama. At the end of 1938 she met the 21 year old journalist Jack Lambert – it was love at first sight! His ambition was to become a theatre critic.

    

1935

Catherine’s father Alfred, (shown above with Mother Kitty), gave three recitals at the Wigmore Hall accompanied by the RAM Professor Harold Craxton as Kitty was too nervous. She had however in 1928 accompanied him in his recital at the Aeolian Hall, when he had been the first to sing in German in London after the WW1. At his last Wigmore Hall recital the composer John Ireland accompanied him in a group of his own songs. He composed a new song for the occasion ‘Great Things’ words by Thomas Hardy, and dedicated it to ‘Alfred Read’. (When Ireland came to dinner with the Reads, he signed Catherine’s autograph book.)

1940

Catherine left the Central School having passed the London University Diploma of Dramatic Art with teaching qualifications. She had been awarded the ‘Sylvia Strutt Memorial Prize’ for Verse speaking and a gold medal for acting. A month later she married Ordinary Seaman Jack Lambert RNVR in the Lady Chapel of Llandaff Cathedral.

1951

Catherine had acted several leading roles with the amateur theatre company ‘The Croydon Players’, the last was ‘St Joan’ in Bernard Shaw’s play ‘St Joan’. She decided to give up acting and give all her time to Jack and their children, Christopher, Caroline and Deborah. Jack was now Assistant Literary Editor of ‘The Sunday Times’ newspaper. He had always loved singing and was now taking lessons with the Baritone Bruce Boyce. After her mother’s death, Catherine was given her father’s repertoire of English, German, French and Italian songs and she accompanied Jack on the piano (wishing she could play like her mother) as together they explored the collection, and tried to perform their favourites.

1964

Recommended by the Central School of Speech and Drama as it was now known, Catherine started to take speech classes at the Opera School of the Royal College of Music. She was to stay for 15 years. She was at this time the Director of Drama at the ‘London College of Dance and Drama’, and working as the Vocal Coach in ‘The British Theatre association’, which ran courses for actors and producers from all over the world. When she discovered how much she enjoyed working with singers, she resigned from the posts.

Opera students were in the School for two years and averaged ten in each group. Everything was sung in English so that they could understand the text. Catherine was able to convince the singing teachers, like Ruth Packer and Meriel St Clair, that what she was doing in the speech classes would benefit the diction in singing of their students. They began sending their non-opera students to her for help with breathing and articulation.

Each term there was a workshop which included scenes from operas and plays. It had to be presented by one student in front of the stage curtains. Catherine insisted on this presentation reaching professional standards. The opera producers Dennis Arundell, and then Douglas Craig, welcomed Catherine to sit in at rehearsals and give notes. The Drama Producer Joyce Wodeman also asked her advice on vocal clarity, and how to project to the back of the Parry Theatre.

The aim of the School was to give the students a knowledge of style in the deportment, manner and costume of various periods from Mozart to Britten in the background history of what was being performed. There was no so-called modernisation, except in a memorable production of Humperdinck’s ‘Hansel and Gretel’ when a tenor playing the Witch whizzed about the stage in roller skates!

Catherine introduced a method of teaching in which she worked with two or three students in half hour periods, and she was allowed extra time for individual coaching. She has kept the Register in which she put ticks for attendance, and it shows that the students appreciated her work. It was a very happy experience for her to learn from talented colleagues, help students blossom, and listen to the student orchestras gain confidence under the skillful baton of the School’s Maestro, Richard Austin.

Jack and Catherine Lambert are being announced in the Savoy Hotel for a luncheon given by ‘The Evening Standard’ newspaper to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s play ‘The Mouse-trap’. Jack was now the Literary and Arts Editor of ‘The Sunday Times’ and Chairman of the Arts Council Drama Panel. He was writing and broadcasting as J.W.Lambert on the theatre, books, opera and English Song. He and Catherine were going annually to all major new productions of plays and operas in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Chichester, Glyndebourne, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Wexford. This background was of immense help to Catherine in her work at the Opera School.

1980

Jack and Catherine are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary at Glyndebourne – it is the long interval in a joyous production of Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’. Catherine retired from the Opera School in 1979. She had been awarded the Hon. R.C.M.

In 1981 Catherine became the then annually elected president of the Association of English Singers and Speakers and the founder of its prestigious English Song Prize. Catherine went on to research and give talks in libraries, luncheon clubs and London’s National Portrait Gallery on the Victorian Actress Ellen Terry and “The Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind.

Reproduced by kind permission of Catherine Lambert, Janis Kelly and Norbert Meyn.

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