It was a privilege to be one of many boys at Nottingham High School encouraged by Kendrick Partington, who has died aged 88, to share the enjoyment of high-calibre choral singing. As the school's director of music for almost 30 years, he produced generation after generation of exceptional choirs.
In my time at the school, he shared responsibility for music with Austin Scott, a volatile American flautist and composer who supervised the orchestras, the symphonic wind bands and instrumental tuition. Very different in temperament, the two jointly lit the fire of lasting enthusiasm. The annual concerts in the Albert Hall, Nottingham, often featuring an adventurous and demanding choice of repertoire, were recorded and distributed on albums.
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