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Martin Clare Music Fund • press release
and 'a version' of it in print

 Press release 6 February 2012 : immediate use

A scholarship fund raised in memory of a Fairford music teacher has just topped £5,000.

Martin Clare was a much-loved teacher of flute, guitar and piano. When he died unexpectedly last July, aged 55, his family invited donations to a new charity, in lieu of funeral flowers. The Martin Clare Music Fund has kept on growing.

‘This marvellous response enables us to give Martin a living memorial,’ said his widow Nicky Turner. ‘As a music teacher he was very generous with his time and talent: by subsidising young musicians we are continuing his work in the spirit he would have wanted.’

Pupils already receiving music tuition at Farmor’s School, Fairford, should tell their teachers if they are interested in applying for a Martin Clare Scholarship.

Farmor’s Head of Music, Louise Matley, said ‘In the current climate many families need assistance with instrumental lessons: successful applicants just need to demonstrate their enthusiasm, aptitude and need.' 

Martin's own family was highly musical, this paper has learnt. His great-great-grandfather was Musician-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria for 44 years, organist at Hampton Court and an expert violinist. Martin himself was taught, in Bristol where he grew up, by his aunt Joan Clare.

‘He read Modern Languages at Clare College, Cambridge, and was Musical Director of the university's Light Entertainment Society,’ said Nick Clare, Martin’s elder son. ‘He travelled the world representing the music division of Oxford University Press but always found time to play with other musicians at home, and to encourage my brother Gummo and me to take up the family tradition.’

Both sons played at Martin's funeral, a ninety-minute affair that saw almost 300 people packed into St Mary's, Fairford, where he had sung in the choir. The celebrations were led by a core band of Martin's close relations, all multi-instrumentalists, augmented by friends and Farmor’s pupils. His niece, Jane Clare, had flown some 8,000 miles to be with the family; her brother Peter’s daughter, Darci Clare, was the youngest player at just 6.

Speaking later from Perth, Western Australia, Jane said: ‘Martin got the send-off he deserved: he loved the unexpected and the unconventional. After the funeral I heard one mourner say, “I've been to more miserable weddings!”.’

‘Almost £1,000 was donated at the service itself,’ explained Martin's brother Roland Clare, who arranged the music. ‘Since then we’ve been amazed by the generosity of so many friends, relations, and people who’d scarcely even met Martin!’ Donations were sent from all over the world by fellow Procol Harum fans, who had seen him play bass and piano in their tribute band ten years before.

‘He was an instinctive musician, comfortable in any context,’ said his sister-in-law Linda Clare, also a music teacher. ‘He was devoted to his pupils, who gave him a very satisfying second career.’

‘The Martin Clare Music Fund remains open for donations,’ says Nicky Turner. ‘The family would like to keep on subsidising young musicians in Fairford as long as we possibly can.’

Read more about the Fund at <www.martinclaremusicfund.org>.

Ends