QE contemporaries Chris Shurety and Jerry Golland both received awards in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Chris (OE 1956–1963) received an MBE for services to Music, while Jerry, who was also at QE from 1956 to 1963, was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to Business and Charity.
Chris, who is Artistic Director of Contemporary Music for All (CoMA), has devoted a large part of his life to enabling as many people as possible to get involved in music-making. Having started to play instruments himself from around the age of 40, he founded the late-starter orchestral movement in 1983 by establishing the East London Late Starters Orchestra.
He set up CoMA in 1993 to enable musicians of all abilities to play an active role in contemporary music. Today it has a national network of instrumental and vocal ensembles, an expanding international programme and a unique music collection comprising hundreds of works of new music.
CoMA Chair Tom Service, a leading BBC Radio 3 presenter who also writes about music for The Guardian, said: “No single figure in contemporary musical life is responsible for commissioning as much and inspiring as much new music and music-making as Chris Shurety. But what’s most important is how he has realised his radical vision of a fully open, fully participative musical culture – and how an idea that started with CoMA is now radiating across the whole of musical culture, from schools to professional ensembles. He is one of the essential, inspirational presences in contemporary music, and the most deserving of this recognition!”
Richard ‘Jerry’ Golland, a solicitor who lives in Welwyn Hatfield, helped hundreds of young people during more than a decade with The Prince’s Trust. He continues to work with The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust, a charity formed with the £5.2m assets of an antique dealer which helps vulnerable children and families affected by illness in the UK and supports development projects in Africa.
Now retired, he spent more than 40 years as a lawyer with a number of firms, having benefited from a QE connection for the vital first step in that successful career. He was also the Hertfordshire Chairman – and, later, East of England Regional Chairman – for the Institute of Directors.
On the announcement of the Birthday Honours last month, Jerry told the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “I am surprised, but tickled pink. It is nice to know that people notice, especially as it is local people who have nominated me.”