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Finale marks the end of Mr Music’s career
AT the age of 70, Michael Crabb, one of the most famous names on the Essex music scene, has announced his departure from the conductor's podium.
Leading musicians often take their final bow to the sound of fanfares, wailing choirs and wailing audiences.
Michael has chosen a more muted exit. Just a concert consisting of two beloved works, the Mozart Requiem and Haydn's Nelson Mass. But the occasion also coincides with something that may last long after the melodies fade, a prize for young musicians.
Even this is tinged with a faint sense of regret, however. The Young Musician of the Year award was for many years open to children and teenagers across the region. For most of its life it attracted 25 to 30 contestants every year. It gave lift-off to the careers of many fine young musicians
Two years ago, however, the contest was quietly and unceremoniously shut down. Entries had dwindled to a trickle. "No more than about a dozen a year," Michael says. It was a sign of the musical times.
"It's not that young people have lost their interest in music or didn't want to enter the contest," Michael says. "But young people kept telling me they are under so much pressure for exams and to hit targets they just can't make the commitment to music any more."
In a bid to fill its place, the trust has launched a new type of award, the Birn Prize for Music. Each school in Southend borough will be invited to nominate a student as its own young musician of the year.
The prize is a modest £100 per school. But as Michael says: "It maintains the tradition and helps to keep alive the memory of Bobby and Joyce Birn, the founders of Southend Music Club."
The refusal to accept defeat also carries the spirit of Michael Crabb, the quiet man who has made a huge noise. Michael has helped to nurture and maintain Southend's reputation as Britain's "musical town" for more than half a century.
He is best remembered as the founder of the Southend Boys Choir. Launched in 1970, it gave a collective voice to the passion for music-making that just seems to come with the water in Southend.
The core of the choir was the 200-strong ensemble Michael built up during his time as head of music and deputy headmaster at Southend High School for Boys.
The new choir rapidly built up an international reputation. It has worked with all the major British orchestras, and many international ones, along with luminary composers and conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, Colin Davis and George Solti.
It would be easy for Michael to namedrop, but he says that what he actually remembers from this glittering period isn't the star human figures but the sound of music.
Lifting the conductor's baton, he says: "You just become totally absorbed in the music. You can be feeling ill. But you forget how bad you feel when the music starts and you are part of it, along with so many other people, all working towards the same thing."
As always, Michael is quick to pay tribute to other musicians. But many of those "other people" cite Michael's musicianship and leadership as the inspiration that coaxed them from being OK music-makers to being remarkable ones.
The MBE he has earned says it all. So does the post of chief arts officer and musical director of Southend, a unique post with no equivalent elsewhere in the UK. It was created by Southend Council to allow Michael to give full focus to his musical activities.
He went on to become director of the Southend Festival Chorus, which combines a full orchestra and chorus to create one of the largest music-making ensembles in the South East.
The size and self-confidence of the chorus allows it to tackle highly ambitious works, such as Beethoven's choral symphony.
A sense of timing is a vital part of any musician's skills, and Michael Crabb has always believed in knowing when to step down.
He handed over the leadership of Southend Boys Choir in 1997, on the eve of his 60th birthday.
Now Michael, 70 this month, is also retiring from the Festival Chorus. "I want to hand over while I am still compos mentis," he explains. "It's always been in my mind to go while I am still achieving my best."
The Birn Prize for Music is available to all educational establishments in Southend borough. Schools planning to enter should contact: The Honorary Secretary, the Birn Trust, 7 Fremantle, Shoebury, SS3 9HU.
Michael Crabb's farewell concert, with the Southend Festival Chorus and Orchestra, is on Saturday, May 17, at Crowstone United Reformed Church, King's Road, Westcliff, starting at 7.30pm.
2:44am Thursday 8th May 2008
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