An RSS feed (or news feed) is a means by which you can stay informed about what's going on at Cantiones without having to regularly visit the website.
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Cantiones upcoming events:
https://www.cantiones.org.uk/dbaction.php?action=rss&dbase=events
Cantiones news:
https://www.cantiones.org.uk/dbaction.php?action=rss&dbase=uploads
To make use of an RSS feed, you need some "feed reader" (or "aggregator") software. Most modern web browsers have feed readers built in.
The RSS feeds for Cantiones are listed below...
Cantiones upcoming events:
https://www.cantiones.org.uk/dbaction.php?action=rss&dbase=events
Cantiones news:
https://www.cantiones.org.uk/dbaction.php?action=rss&dbase=uploads
‘Potted biography’ of John Moore
John was born in Lancaster and educated first at a local Primary School and then at
Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He showed an early preference for Classical languages,
taking up an option for Greek in his second year and opting for the Classical Sixth Form at
the age of 15 after scoring well in Ordinary Level G.C.E. (the precursor of G.C.S.E.).
During these years he was introduced to the singing of Church music and the operas of
Gilbert and Sullivan. Soon after he entered the Sixth Form he began to attend services at
the Priory Church of St. Mary in Lancaster, which at that time was a church of similar
status to St. Oswald’s, with a choir of a similar standard. His secondary school career
culminated in good ‘A’ and ‘S’ Level passes and the winning of a Minor Scholarship to
Trinity College, Cambridge.
Whilst reading Classics at Trinity John sang as a volunteer (i.e. not a Choral
Exhibitioner) in the Chapel Choir, which at that time was four-part male-voice choir,
directed by Raymond Leppard. He continued to do so after graduating in 1964 and
embarking upon a Certificate of Education course (now called a P.G.C.E.) in the
Cambridge Department of Education, though of course not in the Lent Term, when he was
out of Cambridge on Teaching Practice. This he did at Rossall School, Fleetwood, where
again he was able to sing good music with a good School Chapel Choir. At Rossall he met
a teacher who had just moved from Barnard Castle School in County Durham and by him
was put in touch with the Head of Classics at that School. There was a vacancy in the
Classics Department at the time and he was fortunate to secure the post.
John taught Latin and Greek at Barnard Castle for the next 16 years and for the last
10 of those years was a House Tutor. Among his pupils were Rory Underwood and Robert
Andrew, both England Rugby Internationals in the later ’80s. For those 10 years he also
coached the Cricket 2 nd XI with considerable success. Here too there was a good School
Chapel Choir, with which he sang Counter-Tenor in those days. Also he collaborated with
another colleague in several School productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in which
he both directed the music and conducted the performances. One of the early ‘stars’ of
these productions was Kevin (Inspector Lewis) Whately, who was Captain Corcoran in
their production of HMS Pinafore. They were largely happy times, but towards the end the
slow and painful death of his father and the strain of protecting his mother from the truth
of the final prognosis led, amongst other factors, to unhappiness and to his resignation
from the post in 1981.
Perhaps the unhappiest period of John’s life was the two years that he spent at a
large Inner London Education Authority Comprehensive School, then called Furzedown,
now Graveney School in Tooting, South London. He took a post there with the mistaken
idea that it would be less stressful than the full and exacting life of a resident boarding-
school master: the opposite turned out to be true. The one redeeming feature of these two
years was being able to sing with a good Church Choir, St. Peter’s in Streatham. However,
with the aid of Messrs. Gabbitas and Thring he got out of London and out of secondary
education and at last found his true place in the Preparatory School system at Ashdown
House School in East Sussex.
There followed four happy years at Ashdown in which John taught Classics, Maths
and French, coached Rugby and Cricket and sang in the School Chapel Choir and assisted
in School musical productions, both directed by David and Helen Woodgates, whose son
is his Godson and is now a rising young composer and professional musical director.
Outside of School he sang with a local Chamber Choir, The Prodigal Singers. However
the Headmaster of the School was also a Classicist and taught the subjects to all the most
senior classes. This was the only reason why he made his final move to Packwood Haugh
School in 1987.
Packwood in the 1980s was still an ‘old-school’ establishment with great emphasis
on Classics, Mathematics and organised games. The academic emphasis was soon to
change under a new Headmaster and John, as Head of Classics, was able to modernise the
rather archaic teaching methods that had prevailed in his Department under the previous
regime. With the help of his colleagues he was able to achieve a series of excellent
Common Entrance and Public School Scholarship examination results throughout his 16
year tenure of the post. Packwood was still well-known for Games and John played a full
part in these activities, for many years introducing boys to their first taste of Rugby at the
age of 9 and often being called upon as strict but impartial referee at other levels. He also
continued his musical activities, singing with the School Choir and assisting with School
productions. During these years he sang with the Oswestry Choral Society under the baton
first of Christopher Symons and then of Geoffrey Talbot and from the early ’90s until the
present time with Cantiones, of whom he was Chairman for 25 years until October 2019.
The full life of a boarding-school left little time for activities outside of School, but John
managed occasionally to ‘fill in’ as an extra Tenor with St. Oswald’s Choir. In the last two
years of this period, a legacy from one of his mother’s brothers enabled him to retire
gradually from teaching, seeing his last two groups of Scholarship candidates successfully
through to the end of their courses.
From the mid-’90s John was a member of the Salop Club, an old-style Professional
Gentlemen’s Club, which later evolved into the Shropshire Luncheon Club, of which he
was a founder-member. He later became Honorary Secretary, a post which he still holds.
Through this Club he met Denise Alexander and, as they were both singletons, they began
to go out for meals together, initially to improve their social lives. As the years went by
their friendship grew warmer and closer and they began to be integrated into each other’s
wider families.
John’s retirement coincided with the beginning of the decline of the health of his
mother, now in her late 80s and living in Cumbria. He was thus able to spend a lot more
time with her, but she died just before the end of 2008. In that year John had had the first
of his heart problems, which necessitated a triple by-pass operation. With the help of
Denise and careful management of his recuperation, he was able to ensure that his mother
Now having fewer family responsibilities, he was able to devote more time to singing. He
continued to sing with Cantiones, frequently undertaking solo parts and also became a full
member of St. Oswald’s Church Choir and later of its offshoot, ‘The Scholars and
Gentlemen of St. Oswald’s’. During these years also he grew closer to Denise and her
family, becoming a courtesy grandfather to her grandchildren, Olivia, Oscar and Phoebe.
He enlarged the former home of his mother in Cumbria, which he had inherited from her,
and this has become a popular holiday retreat for John and Denise and many members of
both their families and other friends. In 2018 he had a second cardiac episode, suffering a
mild heart attack and later having a pacemaker implanted. After this he has remained in
reasonably good health, though he has been obliged to take life rather more slowly than
before.
John was born in Lancaster and educated first at a local Primary School and then at
Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He showed an early preference for Classical languages,
taking up an option for Greek in his second year and opting for the Classical Sixth Form at
the age of 15 after scoring well in Ordinary Level G.C.E. (the precursor of G.C.S.E.).
During these years he was introduced to the singing of Church music and the operas of
Gilbert and Sullivan. Soon after he entered the Sixth Form he began to attend services at
the Priory Church of St. Mary in Lancaster, which at that time was a church of similar
status to St. Oswald’s, with a choir of a similar standard. His secondary school career
culminated in good ‘A’ and ‘S’ Level passes and the winning of a Minor Scholarship to
Trinity College, Cambridge.
Whilst reading Classics at Trinity John sang as a volunteer (i.e. not a Choral
Exhibitioner) in the Chapel Choir, which at that time was four-part male-voice choir,
directed by Raymond Leppard. He continued to do so after graduating in 1964 and
embarking upon a Certificate of Education course (now called a P.G.C.E.) in the
Cambridge Department of Education, though of course not in the Lent Term, when he was
out of Cambridge on Teaching Practice. This he did at Rossall School, Fleetwood, where
again he was able to sing good music with a good School Chapel Choir. At Rossall he met
a teacher who had just moved from Barnard Castle School in County Durham and by him
was put in touch with the Head of Classics at that School. There was a vacancy in the
Classics Department at the time and he was fortunate to secure the post.
John taught Latin and Greek at Barnard Castle for the next 16 years and for the last
10 of those years was a House Tutor. Among his pupils were Rory Underwood and Robert
Andrew, both England Rugby Internationals in the later ’80s. For those 10 years he also
coached the Cricket 2 nd XI with considerable success. Here too there was a good School
Chapel Choir, with which he sang Counter-Tenor in those days. Also he collaborated with
another colleague in several School productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in which
he both directed the music and conducted the performances. One of the early ‘stars’ of
these productions was Kevin (Inspector Lewis) Whately, who was Captain Corcoran in
their production of HMS Pinafore. They were largely happy times, but towards the end the
slow and painful death of his father and the strain of protecting his mother from the truth
of the final prognosis led, amongst other factors, to unhappiness and to his resignation
from the post in 1981.
Perhaps the unhappiest period of John’s life was the two years that he spent at a
large Inner London Education Authority Comprehensive School, then called Furzedown,
now Graveney School in Tooting, South London. He took a post there with the mistaken
idea that it would be less stressful than the full and exacting life of a resident boarding-
school master: the opposite turned out to be true. The one redeeming feature of these two
years was being able to sing with a good Church Choir, St. Peter’s in Streatham. However,
with the aid of Messrs. Gabbitas and Thring he got out of London and out of secondary
education and at last found his true place in the Preparatory School system at Ashdown
House School in East Sussex.
There followed four happy years at Ashdown in which John taught Classics, Maths
and French, coached Rugby and Cricket and sang in the School Chapel Choir and assisted
in School musical productions, both directed by David and Helen Woodgates, whose son
is his Godson and is now a rising young composer and professional musical director.
Outside of School he sang with a local Chamber Choir, The Prodigal Singers. However
the Headmaster of the School was also a Classicist and taught the subjects to all the most
senior classes. This was the only reason why he made his final move to Packwood Haugh
School in 1987.
Packwood in the 1980s was still an ‘old-school’ establishment with great emphasis
on Classics, Mathematics and organised games. The academic emphasis was soon to
change under a new Headmaster and John, as Head of Classics, was able to modernise the
rather archaic teaching methods that had prevailed in his Department under the previous
regime. With the help of his colleagues he was able to achieve a series of excellent
Common Entrance and Public School Scholarship examination results throughout his 16
year tenure of the post. Packwood was still well-known for Games and John played a full
part in these activities, for many years introducing boys to their first taste of Rugby at the
age of 9 and often being called upon as strict but impartial referee at other levels. He also
continued his musical activities, singing with the School Choir and assisting with School
productions. During these years he sang with the Oswestry Choral Society under the baton
first of Christopher Symons and then of Geoffrey Talbot and from the early ’90s until the
present time with Cantiones, of whom he was Chairman for 25 years until October 2019.
The full life of a boarding-school left little time for activities outside of School, but John
managed occasionally to ‘fill in’ as an extra Tenor with St. Oswald’s Choir. In the last two
years of this period, a legacy from one of his mother’s brothers enabled him to retire
gradually from teaching, seeing his last two groups of Scholarship candidates successfully
through to the end of their courses.
From the mid-’90s John was a member of the Salop Club, an old-style Professional
Gentlemen’s Club, which later evolved into the Shropshire Luncheon Club, of which he
was a founder-member. He later became Honorary Secretary, a post which he still holds.
Through this Club he met Denise Alexander and, as they were both singletons, they began
to go out for meals together, initially to improve their social lives. As the years went by
their friendship grew warmer and closer and they began to be integrated into each other’s
wider families.
John’s retirement coincided with the beginning of the decline of the health of his
mother, now in her late 80s and living in Cumbria. He was thus able to spend a lot more
time with her, but she died just before the end of 2008. In that year John had had the first
of his heart problems, which necessitated a triple by-pass operation. With the help of
Denise and careful management of his recuperation, he was able to ensure that his mother
Now having fewer family responsibilities, he was able to devote more time to singing. He
continued to sing with Cantiones, frequently undertaking solo parts and also became a full
member of St. Oswald’s Church Choir and later of its offshoot, ‘The Scholars and
Gentlemen of St. Oswald’s’. During these years also he grew closer to Denise and her
family, becoming a courtesy grandfather to her grandchildren, Olivia, Oscar and Phoebe.
He enlarged the former home of his mother in Cumbria, which he had inherited from her,
and this has become a popular holiday retreat for John and Denise and many members of
both their families and other friends. In 2018 he had a second cardiac episode, suffering a
mild heart attack and later having a pacemaker implanted. After this he has remained in
reasonably good health, though he has been obliged to take life rather more slowly than
before.
