A Perfectly-Pitched Mission
After Nick Hely-Hutchinson graduated from St Andrews with an MA in History of Art in 1982, he spent his working career in the city. Thoughout this time, however, his first love remained classical music. Here he describes his mission to share that love through a podcast.
I can’t deny that one of the main attractions of applying to St Andrews in 1976 was my love of golf.
When I arrived as a student, the annual rate to play on any of the (then) four courses, any day of the week (except Sunday on the Old) was £7.50. After St Peter, I always ranked the starter on the Old Course as the most important gatekeeper I was likely to meet. Staying on the right side of him allowed me to play on that course more times than I can remember.
And they are precious memories, too, since I am now in a wheelchair with MS and will never be able to do it again.
The University was considerably smaller in 1977 – my recollection is that the student population was less than 4000. It may sound hokey but, as many others will attest, I have made friendships which have lasted for life – as well as meeting my future wife, who is still, as I write, putting up with me after 36 years.
After graduating from St Andrews in 1982 with a History of Art degree, I spent my entire working career in the city in a number of well-known establishments. But my real love has always been classical music. In my 30s, I resumed piano lessons in the city with Richard Meyrick, whose assessment of my first playing for him was “You know, I think you could fool a lot of people that you’re really quite a good pianist.” Praise. Damned. Faint.
In a blisteringly hot day last year, I wheeled up to the village pond for some quiet solitude. After exchanging some polite platitudes with someone I’d never met before, he let slip that he volunteered on a local radio station. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to say how I’d always wanted to give that a try.
Less than three days later, I was rung to be told I had a two-hour slot on a Sunday morning!
Choosing the music, writing my own script, recording and editing my own programme all amounted to a very steep – or, more precisely – very flat learning curve for the first few weeks. But it has been a wonderful experience. In just over a year of Sunday mornings, we have covered nearly 500 different pieces of music and some 90 composers.
The mission was simple: to show that anyone who likes a good tune (and I still love all the music I was brought up on and listened to as a student – including Bowie, Dire Straits and Elton John) will like something in classical music.
And from this experience I have now launched the Perfect Pitch Podcast, available on all major platforms, to spread the word wider. One of the instant benefits already has been to reconnect me with fellow alumni I’ve not seen or heard from for years.
The first three episodes are available now, and the weekly episodes will start on July 6th. You can find it on perfectpitch.buzzsprout.com If you like it, please do rate, review, and follow it – and pass it on!
I really hope you enjoy it!
