Noel F. Cox

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Noel Cox OBE BMus FRCO LRAM FRAM (25 December 1917 – 30 August 2005), English-born musician.

Noel Cox was born in Grantham on 25 December 1917. He attended The King's School, Grantham, and had private piano lessons and in 1935 gained a place at the Royal Academy of Music, London, graduating BMus, FRCO and LRAM and winning the Chappell Gold Medal for Piano and the Limpus Prize of the Royal College of Organists. He played the bassoon in the academy's Senior Orchestra, trained by Sir Henry Wood, and in the London Senior Orchestra under Ernest Read.

Cox was passionate about musical education. After six years teaching at the (then) High Storrs Grammar School in Sheffield and four years as Director of Music at Oakham School, he became Musical Adviser for the City of Nottingham for 11 years. In 1961, at the invitation of the Principal, Sir Thomas Armstrong, he returned to the academy as a professor, was elected ARAM and later FRAM, becoming Warden (Vice-Principal) from 1973 to 1983. He was appointed OBE, for services to music, in 1985, and served as an examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music for 45 years including assignments in Canada, Africa, Trinidad and the Far East.

Although Cox was best known as a choral conductor, he was also fully conversant with orchestral technique and, when he went to Nottingham, became trainer (and, in the concerts, bassoonist) of the orchestra of the Nottingham Harmonic Society, which was conducted, with or without the choir, by Herbert Bardgett. When Cox eventually succeeded Bardgett he brought real expertise in both fields, which enhanced the performances considerably. Cox had first conducted the society in a concert performance of Gounod's Faust in 1949, but during his own conductorship in Nottingham there were many fine performances of works such as Belshazzar's Feast, Jacob's The Nun's Priest's Tale, Tippett's A Child of Our Time and, most notably, in 1969, Genesis, by his academy colleague Franz Reizenstein.

To begin with, Genesis was not a popular work with the choir, by comparison with Dvorák's Te Deum, which was the companion piece, but by the time of the concert the singers were enthusiastic, excited, and note perfect, and gave an excellent performance. It was on this occasion that Cox reassured his singers of their ability to do justice to the piece by telling them, " I'm not afraid of these big scores. Trust me and all will be well."

He was an inspirational conductor, at both rehearsals and concerts, and his Nottingham choir and orchestra were a source of great pleasure and justifiable pride. In London he also conducted the People's Palace Choral Society of Queen Mary College, London, with which the Nottingham Harmonic Society occasionally combined for works such as Bach's St Matthew Passion, and his approach to this very different group of singers was noted with interest and admiration.

Cox did not forget his bassoon playing and, for the Associated Board, edited New Pieces for Bassoon and composed two of the items in that collection, as well as composing and arranging music for wind ensembles. In 1975, 1976 and 1982 he adjudicated at National Brass Band Championships.

Despite increasing administrative responsibilities at the Royal Academy of Music, his musical gifts were still much in evidence as a conductor and as a fine accompanist with brilliant sight-reading. But he had the stamina and enthusiasm not to limit himself only to the demands of that institution and, before and after retirement, undertook more festival engagements than any of his colleagues and was Director of the Junior Orchestral Summer Course held annually at Bradfield College.

Besides his work as an executant, Cox was chairman of the Essex Music Association and of the council of the Ernest Read Music Association; he was a Vice-President of the Royal Choral Society and the British Federation of Festivals, and served on the council of the Royal Philharmonic Society. He also served on the adjudication panel of the BBC's Let the People Sing competition and the National Festival of Music for Youth.