RSM People: John Smith OBE
Following a successful career as a player, John Smith has spent much of the last few decades standing up for the rights of musicians across the UK. Underlining this work has been his longstanding membership of RSM, which he first joined in August 1973. To celebrate the 52nd anniversary of his time at the Society, he looks back on what got him here.
Thank you for supporting the Society as a Member for more than 50 years. How does it feel to be one of our longest serving Members?
Being a member of the RSM is almost second nature; I’ve always been a part of the Society as a musician and as an administrator. The reason I joined when I was so young was my father-in-law, Wilfred Hambleton, who was a stalwart of the RSM and the Visitor for a time. He insisted, “now you’re a professional, you must join the Society”. I was quite young and meetings were all suits and ties in those days, while the members were fairly welcoming in their own way, it was quite formal and a little intimidating for a 23 year-old… it’s very different today! It was only a couple of years since I’d been a student and a lot of the members present at my first meeting were professors at the various conservatoires and I was a little bit in awe of them.
Wilfred’s father and grandfather were Members, so the family’s association with the RSM goes back a long way. Colin Coleman, RSM's archivist, has a photo of Sandra, my wife’s great-grandfather, who Thomas Hardy wrote a poem about; the essence of which describes the miserable looking violinist playing in a cafe! Sandra is a Member, my brother-in-law Hale joined at the same time as me, and his sons are both Members, so yes we’ve got the next generation of the family coming through.
What made you first want to become a musician and why did you choose the tuba?
Initially it was school band, the music teacher handed me a euphonium and said, "I think you'll be able to play this". I graduated to the tuba eventually, and then joined the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra, which was very active in those days. Our Patron was Michael Tippett, who regularly came along and conducted us. As a 15 year old it washes over you, the significance of it! Not many musicians will have performed Britten’s Four Sea Interludes with Tippett conducting… All my friends at the time were involved in the youth orchestra and a number of us went on to various conservatoires. As orchestral playing was something that I loved continuing to do it as a full-time student was a natural progression. After leaving the Academy, I freelanced then went to ENO in 1974. There was a lot of work around for freelance players; at that time, extra work with orchestras, touring companies, recording work, brass chamber music and session and, teaching work. It's much harder for young musicians now; I think it's changed a lot over the years. It was always tricky, never easy, but there were many more opportunities back then, you just had to be in a position to take them.
After a distinguished playing career at ENO, you went on to serve the profession in a variety of administration roles, including General Secretary of the MU, Chair of PPL and President of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM). What made you want to represent the interests of music professionals in this way?
I got involved with orchestra politics at ENO, I was voted on to the committee. Then I became Chairman of the committee, so got involved in all sorts of negotiations with the management. It's a myth that as a union rep you don't get on well with management; there’s lots of troubleshooting and jointly seeking solutions to day-to-day problems . We had some sticky moments, of course, but I took that attitude that it's much better to be collaborative than confrontational. Then I ended up joining the West End Theatres’ Committee at the MU and getting involved in the union in other ways, going on to Chair the MU Opera and Ballet Orchestras committee for a while. This was all when I was still a player. Eventually, I got to know lots of people at the MU and when a vacancy came up in the London District, as it was, they asked me if I'd like to apply. It was a big change because it meant giving up playing as a professional. I took the plunge in 1994, by going to work as full-time official at the MU. My international work and my involvement at PPL naturally followed on from my experience in running the MU.
Is that what also made you want to serve RSM as a member of the Court of Assistants, Governor and ultimately Chair as well?
I was a modernising General Secretary at the MU and that experience proved to me that organisations can't stand still. I knew from experience what a great organisation RSM was and what good work it did for musicians, but I could see other similar organisations in the music industry evolving and modernising. So I, along with a number of other people, felt we needed to get more involved and take RSM forwards as much as we could without losing our proud heritage and history. I’ve always believed in a balance between continuity and change. That was one of my main motivations when I was a Governor and certainly when I was Chair. You've got to respect your past but remain relevant to the community that you are serving and I think the modern RSM is absolutely relevant to the musicians that it serves now.
Where do you see the Society in another 50 years?
I'd like it to continue this attitude of continuity and change, interpreting its wonderful heritage in a way that's relevant to current Members, and to prospective and younger Members across all genres. There's been massive progress in that regard, it's great that the membership now represents more than ever a cross-section of the music sector and those that work in the profession of music in the broadest sense. I want RSM to stay independent and for it to go from strength to strength!
If you want to find out more about becoming one of more than 2,000 young and young at heart Members across the UK, who are all musicians committed to helping their fellow musicians in need, please visit www.rsmgb.org/join