Roy Henderson (baritone) - Kathleen Ferrier

Kathleen Ferrier

Henderson became a Professor at the Royal Academy of Music in 1940. He first met Kathleen Ferrier when both sang in a performance of Elijah at Runcorn on 23 December 1942. A few weeks later, she came to him at the Royal Academy asking for lessons. (Dr Hutchinson of Newcastle upon Tyne had previously taught her.) Their relationship as pupil and teacher lasted for seven years. He began her coaching in Bach, Handel and Brahms, and steered her away from Verdi. He prepared her for her first The Dream of Gerontius in Leeds in November 1944 (insisting that she sing it from memory), and in that year they had also studied the Four Serious Songs of Brahms. He sent her to Professor Carl Ebert (producer of the pre-war Glyndebourne Mozart), on his return to Glyndebourne after the war, and to Hans Oppenheim when she was preparing lieder recitals with Bruno Walter. Walter thoroughly introduced her to the work of Mahler. Henderson is the conductor of the recording of the Pergolesi Stabat Mater with Ferrier and Joan Taylor, the Nottingham Oriana Choir and the Boyd Neel String Orchestra (Decca AK 1517-1521). He wrote an account of his teaching of Kathleen Ferrier in the memoir edited by Neville Cardus. He was also the teacher of Jennifer Vyvyan and Rae Woodland.

Henderson retired from the stage in 1952, and devoted nearly all of his time to teaching and writing music.

In 1991,Roy Henderson made a BBC Radio 4 broadcast in conversation with Richard Baker and Sir Keith Falkner. In July 1999 he celebrated his 100th birthday. An album was released for the occasion, entitled Roy Henderson: A Centenary Recital. He died eight months later, in March 2000, in Bromley, Kent.