Concert celebrates man's 50 years of composing

A concert will celebrate a Coventry music teacher's 50 years of composing in the city.

Robert Ramskill from Finham has arranged and composed music for Songs of Praise, Aled Jones, and Russell Watson, as well as lots of local music groups.

This includes approximately 200-300 arrangements for Songs of Praise.

"The great thing about writing for Songs of Praise you always know professional instrumentalists are going to play the parts you've written, and will play them perfectly, so the satisfaction in that is great," Mr Ramskill said.

Mr Ramskill moved to Coventry from Leeds in 1975, when he got a job at the Coventry School of Music, which eventually became a centre for performing arts before joining Coventry University.

The composer built up his body of work through his teaching.

"Part of it is because I had to write music for the students sometimes," he told BBC CWR.

"You have a group of instruments, well there's no music actually been written for that particular group so you set about writing or arranging something.

"In Coventry in the 70s and 80s and early 90s there were lots of youth orchestras and bands and choirs and they were always looking for new music, so I was always happy to supply and develop my style based on that."

He joked: "I must apologise to my wife and family for spending so long in the study composing."

It was a surprising turn of events that led to him composing for Songs of Praise.

Mr Ramskill had been asked to write an arrangement of The Teddy Bear's Picnic for the Coventry Youth Orchestra in 1989, by conductor Brian Chappell.

"He said I want you to go to town and make it a big deal," Mr Ramskill said.

"It was an elaborate arrangement with references to all kinds of different music. Wham got in there somehow. So it was a big deal."

Songs of Praise conductor Paul Leddington Wright was in the audience at one of the performances, as his two daughters played in the orchestra, and asked Mr Ramskill if he wanted to compose for the programme.

Reflecting on why Songs of Praise kept asking him to compose more arrangements, Mr Ramskill said: "Because I didn't have a church background I think they liked that I had a slightly novel approach to arranging hymns."

The concert will take place at Drapers' Hall on 23 March at 14:00 GMT.

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