Jane Burke

During the first week in August, Jane Burke, the Head of Music at the University of Central Lancashire (Lancashire Polytechnic) during the 1980s, died. Her nephew let me know the sad news as I was climbing Camaderry, a mountain in the Wicklow Hills in Ireland.

An excellent pianist and musicologist, Jane fostered the development of older students such as myself. Although I'd left Huddersfield School of Music in the late 1970s with several flute diplomas, it was Jane who invited me to join the London Bmus course at Lancashire Polytechnic in 1983. And what an incredible course it was! I began by passing several Trinity College of Music diplomas in harmony, counterpoint and orchestration to exempt me from the Bmus Preliminary Exam, before going onto the final two parts of the degree. Tuition came from Jane, Dr. Frank Salter, Tom Wess and Dr. Gareth Curtis. Their lectures were a revelation; their teaching exemplary. I finally passed the Bmus in 1989.

It was Jane who suggested I should turn to composition after I'd shown Frank Salter a Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis I'd written. With that in mind, she subsequently suggested I have composition lessons with James Wishart and Nicola LeFanu.

I will never forget Jane, the tutors, the course and her kindness.