John Manduell

South African composer and teacher John Manduell was born in Johannesburg on 2 March 1928, and studied in Strasbourg, Cambridge and London (at the Royal Academy of Music with Lennox Berkeley), settling in the UK.

He was a producer and Head of Music for the Midlands and East Anglia at the BBC, where he worked from 1956 until 1968, then was Director of Music at Lancaster University and, for twenty-five years, Programme Director at the Cheltenham Festival.

From 1973 until 1996 he was principal of the newly formed Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

He was also involved in setting up El Sistema in Venezuela, and served on the boards of many councils and associations.

John Manduell died on 25 October 2017, aged eighty-nine.