John Parr, Sheffield bassoonist

[dublugee]

Interesting to read Chairboy's reference in the 50s grammar schools discussion to G F Linstead, with whom I was acquainted in his role as Sheffield Telegraph music critic some 40 years ago. Which led me to an article he wrote in the Musical Times about another Sheffield music stalwart, John Parr. Parr was born in the 1890s, sang in the cathedral choir, and was a bassoon virtuoso. He was constantly in search of 'new' music. When I first met him in the early 1950s he was staging Saturday afternoon recitals with a quartet in one of the side-rooms at the Victoria Hall. Are any of his listeners still out there?