Jim has conducted Edinburgh Branch for more than 25 years and been its Musical Director for 16. He has also been a visiting conductor for the SRP and has conducted at many Festivals including all Scottish Recorder Festivals, to which he brought new music each year. A wide range of his compositions and arrangements has been published by Fentone Music and Hawthorns Music. In 2003 he decided to retire.

Jim’s last concert as Musical Director

On 16 June 2003 Jim Carey conducted at his last Summer Evening concert as Musical Director of the Edinburgh Branch, along with Henriette Bos, our other conductor who is expected to succeed Jim as MD.

As his contribution to the programme, Jim conducted the branch in the five-part Sonata by Schmelzer, a Canzona by Frescobaldi arranged by Dom Gregory Murray and his own arrangement of Two French Dances – “From Berry” and “From Brittany”.

During the interval Jim cut a cake bearing the inscription “Thank you Jim” and, indeed we at the Edinburgh Branch cannot thank him enough for all he has done for us over the years. We have benefited from his extraordinary musicianship and wisdom and laughed at his jokes and stories. We have been uniquely privileged to be the first to play Jim’s compositions and arrangements which have then gone on to be played by recorder groups all over the world; as a quick search of the internet will soon confirm. The Edinburgh Branch library catalogue lists 27 compositions and arrangements by Jim which can now to be found on the branch music library pages of the SRP website.

Present and former members in the interval

Ceri Ross and Caroline Higgitt

 Trevor Mann and Sandy Howie Mabel Cooney and Isla Wightman

At the end of the concert, Mabel Cooney (Branch Chair) thanked all who had contributed, particularly Jim, whose composition titles were worked into her speech.  Sandy Howie, who had shared the Musical Directorship  for some years, quoted from the internet as evidence of Jim’s fame.  Jim commented how well he had worked with both Sandy and Henriette, despite widely differing tastes in music.  Finally, a first for the branch, there was an encore – Singin’ in the Rain, in the arrangement by Philip Evry.

Farewell dinner, 23 June 2003

Margery Gibb, Margaret Brown, Catherine Penman, Clair Ressel,  Isla Wightman, Pat Beazley, Jane Prince, Helen Nisbet, John Higgitt, Caroline Higgitt, Sandy Young, Trevor Mann, Jean Carey, James Carey, Marg Hall

Eileen Finlayson, Mabel Cooney, Linda Waugh, Margery Gibb Kirstie Hustler, Rosemary Byde Trevor Mann, Jean Carey, James Carey, Marg Hall Ruth Pollit, Kirstie Hustler Henriette Bos, Franny Wraith

 

Speech by Andrew Short, displaying more of Jim’s internet fame Isla Wightman, Pat Beazley, Jane Prince, Helen Nisbet, John Higgitt, Caroline Higgitt, Sandy Young

Mabel presented Jim with a gold wristwatch from his friends in the Branch, and Peter Wraith gave Jean a large bouquet of flowers.

John Higgitt, Caroline Higgitt, Sandy Young, Trevor Mann, James Carey, Marg Hall, Henriette Bos, Franny Wraith

Jim in reply thanked his friends for the gifts and reminisced about the officers who had worked for the branch, especially Eileen Finlayson our long-serving Secretary.  He then passed the baton given to him by the widow of his predecessor, the late Eric Gillett, to Henriette Bos who will take over as Musical Director next season.

Musical tributes

Henriette Bos plays Van Eyck

Margery Gibb with her tribute “Over the Braids and far away”

 

ending with  music by James Carey

“The Helston Furry Dance” “The Blue-Tailed Fly”
Eileen Finlayson, Linda Waugh, Sandy Howie		 “The Tunnel of Love” “Goldfish” Kirstie Hustler, Rosemary Byde, Ruth Pollitt, John Higgitt “Step Stately” “Mock Baroque” Mabel Cooney, Peter Wraith, Caroline Higgitt, Andrew Short

We hope that, although no longer our Musical Director, Jim will often come back to visit us and continue to write for the recorder, and that we will be the first to sample the fruits of his labours.

 

Last updated 12 November 2012