My formative years were spent in the place of my birth in North Manchester. I served daily morning Mass as an altar boy at St. Anne’s Roman Catholic Church, Crumpsall, for endless years! My mother, a violinist and pianist, father, pianist and organist at St. Sebastian’s Dominican Priory Pendleton where I was a leading chorister. In the choir I was dealt a musical diet of Palestrina, Monteverdi, Byrd, Viadana, etc. How rich an introduction to the world of music.

However, all this was something of a nuisance to a small boy in short grey pants, hell-bent on becoming the second Cyril Washbrook or Denis Law, with the prospect of a career peak driving a Corporation bus! At St. Bede’s College I sang the leading lady in two G&S operettas, scored 65 not out against Manchester Grammar School (an under-14s school record), legitimately broke a window scoring a six at Kings School, Macclesfield and, a highlight of my academic career, was being caught fast asleep in a Greek lesson. When I left primary school my mother said ‘It is high time Laurence did something!’ Given the option of violin or cello, it was ‘cool’ to take the cello like big brother Christopher, who was already a member of the Hallé cello section. I left school and life began!

I studied the cello at the Northern School of Music and privately with Douglas Cameron in London. I was also privileged to have two cello lessons with Pierre Fournier (my idol). My family has been connected with the Hallé for many years. My mother’s uncle, Albert Barnes, was a leading violinist in the 1920s and 1930s. He also played quartets with Joseph Joachim, a close friend of Brahms. My father attended Manchester concerts all his life, selling programmes in his youth to obtain free entry to concerts. My brother Christopher was a cellist in the Orchestra all his life until he retired three years ago. My other brother Stephen is still Chairman of the Charles Hallé Foundation Trustees, and off the platform I was Chairman of the Society’s Pension Fund Trustees for several years.

After a brief visit to the BBC in Bristol and three years with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra, at last I was given the opportunity to walk onto the Free Trade Hall platform with the highly accomplished and successful musicians I had so long held in such awe. So life in the Hallé began.

Having worked for the Hallé for 30 years, it would be hard to imagine having had such a varied experience with any other orchestra. There have been many highlights. In the early years tours to the Hong Kong festival and Australia; working with Covent Garden Opera for a month; performing Madama Butterfly and Il trovatore at the Palace Theatre; Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony with Stanislaw Skrowaczewski in Poland; the opera St Francis of Assisi with Kent Nagano at the Salzburg Festival; opening the season in our new home, The Bridgewater Hall, with Mahler’s Symphony No.8. More recently, with Mark Elder, Elgar’s Symphony No.3 and Tippett’s The Mask of Time. Many soloists stand out in my mind: Claudio Arrau playing Brahms, Clifford Curzon, Daniel Barenboim, Jorge Bolet, Alfred Brendel, Pierre Fournier (the first time I led a cello section was when he played the Elgar in Cape Town), Mstislav Rostropovich, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Yehudi Menuhin, Ida Haendel, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern, Dame Janet Baker singing Mahler, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa – and some conductors, including Kurt Sanderling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Witold Lutoslawski, Pierre Boulez, István Kertész, Bruno Maderna and many exciting performances of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with Arvid Yansons.

On a lighter note, I very much enjoyed the 40th anniversary concert at the Edinburgh Festival with Johnny Dankworth, Cleo Laine, Sean Connery and Hannah Gordon; a charity concert with Danny Kaye; a concert in The Bridgewater Hall backing the English Light Orchestra; concerts in the Hollywood Bowl with Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave and more recently, very exciting jazz concerts with John Wilson and Claire Martin. How varied a diet can you get? During my years with the Hallé I have taught the cello at Stonyhurst College, which now has quite strong links with the Orchestra.

I feel the Orchestra is in extremely exciting times, with many new ideas of programming and styles of playing with Mark Elder. The Hallé is on a high, and still rising. I have been fortunate enough to make many good friends in the Orchestra over the years – notably Frances Wood and Sharon Costello – who one knows will be friends for life.

During my life in the Hallé, I met my loving wife Maureen. She learned the cello at school but mathematics won the day. Then the greatest day of my life – which completely changed my direction and purpose – our daughter Alexandra was born. Many many happy loving hours have been spent since. She plays the piano, sings, works hard at school, but just like her father, always seeks a window of opportunity to ‘go out and play’.

Life is so rich and full that this synopsis merely scratches the surface. I have recently had an important birthday 40….? 50…? …? I care not to remember which. If this is typical life, much more of the same please.

Laurence Wood