We are sorry to announce the death of our previous Conductor, known to most people as Tony Ford, on 19th December 2024 aged 89. His funeral on 10th January was very well attended and a fitting musical tribute to a remarkable man.
Tony was born in Birmingham in 1935, four years before the outbreak of the Second World War during which he was a child evacuee. Later he attended Birmingham university, leaving with a first in Music in 1957.
Tony joined the music department at the university of Hull in 1963 and is still well remembered by many of his former students, several of whom attended the funeral and shared memories. He married Diane, who died in 2022 in 1965 and the couple moved into Victoria Avenue in 1969.
He was conductor of the Hull Bach Choir for 50 years, finally stepping down owing to illness in 2019. During that time the choir put on some memorable and ambitious performances under his leadership. He always strived to find something different, leading to first performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms as well as a great many oratorios from the Baroque era. The programme notes he produced are legendary, and provided excellent reading material for many audiences, especially during some rather long concerts!/p>
After music his other great hobby was trains and he was delighted to be presented with a trip on a steam train bearing his name on the North York Moors railway for his eightieth birthday.
Tony suffered from ill health at various times during his life but always seemed to bounce back. Unfortunately he failed to recover from the health problems he endured during 2024, although even then he remained cheerful and optimistic, regaling his visitors with interesting tales of his life, and enjoying being the grandfather of Beatrice, Sebastian and Lexie.
Tony’s funeral ended with the Amen chorus from Handel’s Messiah. The sound produced both by the two choirs and the audience was tremendous and a fitting send off to a great man.
S.B.
Tony survived his wife Diane by two years. You can still see our tribute to Di here.