Queen’s Honours List celebrations
A LOCHABER musician has been awarded a prestigious award in the Queen’s New Year Honours List for dedicating his life to music.
Peter Rose, director of Lochaber Music School, was named as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to musical education and conservation in the UK and abroad.
The award recognises the teacher’s work with Anne Conlon, who also received an MBE. The pair have been writing choral music for more than 30 years, including the world’s first ecological musical, Yanomamo, in 1983, highlighting the threats posed to the world’s rainforests.
Peter, who lives in Upper Inverroy, Roy Bridge, was a grad- uate of the Royal Manchester College of Music before being appointed head of expressive arts at St Augustine’s RC High School in Lancashire.
He said: ‘We would like to thank all of those who have offered congratulations and expressed such great pleasure at our being awarded MBEs in the New Year Honours List. The award came as a total but lovely surprise. We do have to say that the award’s citation ‘for services to music education and conservation, in the UK and abroad’ surely has to embrace everyone who has been involved in our environmental choral works, whether as performer, colleague, parent, helper and not least, close friend and family.’
Anne has now retired from teaching but the pair continue to write together and plan to publish new work this year.
Also credited on the Honours List was Calina MacDonald of Carbost, Skye, who was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to business and horticulture in Skye and Lochalsh.