We are pleased to announce that Lyndon Jenkins has accepted our invitation to become President of the Federation, in succession to Edward Greenfield OBE.

Lyndon Jenkins is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster on music. From 1972-1987 he wrote for The Birmingham Post before becoming a regular contributor between 1983-99 to the BBC Radio networks, in particular Radio 3 ('Interpretations on Record', 'Record Review', 'Mainly for Pleasure' etc) and the BBC World Service. For the Independent Radio Network he was Classical Presenter at Mercia Sound 1980-9, BRMB 1986-9 and BBC Radio WM 1989-92. From 2001-4 he presented a weekly programme on another of his interests, light music, for Saga Radio.

In action at Daventry 2008 talking to John Lill

He specialises in British music, British artists, and British musical history and has made documentary programmes about Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Paul Tortelier, Maggie Teyte, Eric Fenby, E J Moeran and Glyndebourne among others. He lectures widely on these and a range of other subjects, and has written extensively on musical subjects for specialist magazines as well as hundreds of CD booklets. He gave the first Adrian Boult Lecture in Birmingham in 1986, and was a founder member of The Delius Society and its chairman between 1994-2000.

A study by him of the relationship between Frederick Delius and his music's greatest interpreter, Sir Thomas Beecham, was published in 2005 and won the Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound from the American Association for Recorded Sound. He has also made contributions to books about the music of Arthur Bliss and William Walton. Outside the UK he is especially interested in Scandinavian composers, and has broadcast on Finnish and Danish Radio about Sibelius, Nielsen and others. His work in promoting Danish music has been rewarded by the honour of a knighthood from H.M The Queen of Denmark for services to Anglo-Danish Cultural Relations in the field of music.

He is Music Adviser at Symphony Hall and Town Hall Birmingham where he advises on programming, interviews many of the world-famous artists appearing there, introduces concerts and arranges special events.

Lyndon Jenkins describes himself as a life-long 'record man', and has been a long-time supporter of the work of the Federation. He is keen to play his part in seeing the recorded music society movement continue to flourish despite all the obvious difficulties facing community groups generally. He has appeared at FRMS societies as far apart as Thurso and Torbay, and has made important contributions to the very successful Daventry Musical Weekends.

We look forward to continuing this association.

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