Remember a Charity Week at Guildhall School

This week we are celebrating Remember a Charity Week, a national movement recognising those who have included charities in their Wills and offering an opportunity for us all to consider leaving a gift to a charity close to our heart.

We are very grateful to the incredible people who have chosen to support Guildhall School by leaving a gift to us in their Will. Gifts in Wills are truly vital: they help protect the future of the School and ensure that talented students can continue to access world-leading performing arts education, regardless of their personal circumstances. 

We celebrate the generosity of all who tell us they have chosen to include a gift in their Will by including them in our 1880 Society. Below, you can read stories from three members of the 1880 Society: Lesley, Julia and Nicholas.

If you are interested in following in their footsteps and supporting Guildhall students with a gift in your Will, please contact Meg Ryan, Deputy Head of Development, at meg.ryan@gsmd.ac.uk / 020 3834 1561 and talk in confidence about how you could make a difference to our students for years to come.

Lesley McAlpine

“Guildhall played a key role in the lives of both of my parents, William McAlpine and Barbara Gill. My father’s first career was as a bricklayer, but he was heard singing on a building site and encouraged to audition for Guildhall. He was offered a place here and had the singing lesson before my mother, who often arrived late and out of breath! After a while, he finally plucked up the courage to ask her for a date.

After leaving Guildhall, my father pursued an international career singing lead tenor roles at Sadler's Wells Opera, the Paris Opera, Opera Berlin and Covent Garden, before teaching for 25 years at Guildhall. My mother launched her own successful singing teaching business.

I am leaving a gift to Guildhall in my Will because music has so enriched my life and those of my late parents, and I want a Guildhall student to similarly benefit from the best possible teaching. If you are considering doing the same, it’s worth attending the concerts and dramas taking place at the School: you will see and hear things that will astonish you.”

Julia Bridle

“My first encounter with Guildhall School was in 1969 when I took my first audition for a place on the Drama course (Teaching). I liked the atmosphere, but didn’t get a place. I returned in 1970 for a further audition and was placed on the reserve list. Third time lucky, I was given a place in 1971.

As an alumna of Guildhall, I am proud of my achievements there and want others to have the same experience, so it was a natural step to include a gift in my Will. My advice to anyone thinking of doing the same would be to consider the talent out there in the arts and do what you can to help these young people achieve their potential, whatever their background. So much talent goes to waste due to a lack of financial help.”

Nicholas Lambourn

“My mother, Jean Lambourn (1931-2007), was a mature student of Robert Collett, former professor of piano at Guildhall School. Having initially studied piano as a young girl in the 1940s, she took lessons with him during the ‘80s. She would catch the train up from home in Oxford, come by to have a pub lunch with me in South Kensington, before taking the tube to John Carpenter Street. 

Growing up, there were always pianos and classical music in the house - the young Daniel Barenboim and Paul Tortelier on the black and white TV on Sundays in the ‘60s, and the Amadeus Quartet on the Grundig in the ‘70s. Mum was a permanent piano pupil herself, but also taught young children at home and at a local school. The piano was just one of very many studies she took up in later life, enrolling on countless courses on literature, philosophy, art, music and history.

She was a natural teacher and very driven by the desire to give someone else a helping hand. A gift in her memory to Guildhall School seems an appropriate legacy, which might just see her helping a few more young ones on their way.”

If these stories have inspired you to explore what you can do for our students, please contact Meg at meg.ryan@gsmd.ac.uk / 020 3834 1561.

The Guildhall School Trust is a registered charity number 1082472.