Bowing out

The Haffner concert, which starts at 7.30pm, marks the countdown to a glorious finale for Roger's 15-year association with the acclaimed ensemble and 40 years of music-making in Cumbria and Lancashire.

Composer, conductor, singer and cellist, Roger waves the baton for the last time in June and hopes to trade one wood for another by spending more time gripping his golf clubs rather than his faithful cello.

"It wasn't an easy decision," says Roger. "I had mixed feelings. But I've thought about it for a long time and it feels right now."

He admits, however, that he is still going to write music.

Hest Bank-based Roger, a graduate of the universities of Manchester and East Anglia and of the Royal Manchester College of Music, originally training as a cellist and composer.

His involvement in music has been far and wide and includes teaching and adjudicating at festivals and young musicians' competitions as well as working as a university examiner.

At Lancaster's St Martin's College, he was responsible for orchestral and choral training. He designed courses to ensure that student teachers not only learned teaching skills, but also had the opportunity to develop their personal musical skills to a high standard.

Compositions regularly flow from Roger's pen, especially choral works.

His Prelude, Interlude and Finale for flutes and guitar has been played several times by the Scottish Flute Trio and Allan Neave since its first performance at the Dunkeld Arts Festival in 1998, including a live broadcast from the Edinburgh Festival on Radio 3.

His Most Worthy in All The World anthem, together with a Royal Fanfare and setting of the National Anthem, commissioned for the service of celebration of 600 years of the Duchy of Lancaster, was sung at Lancaster Priory in July 1999 in front of the Queen.

The Eversley Choral Union centenary concert in February 2001 included the first performance of To the Island of Avilion, a full-scale work for soloists, chorus and orchestra, and Roger's music has graced the innovative Lakeland Composers' concerts.

The Haffner Orchestra has performed his Five Moments for Strings (1988) and his impressive Concerto for Oboe (1996), with Marios Argiros (then BBC Philharmonic principal oboe) as soloist.

For its Jubilee Season (2001-2), the Haffner commissioned a short concert piece, To the Vanishing Point.

As a choral and orchestral conductor spanning 40 years, numerous highlights for Roger include conducting the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra in 1987 and 21 years as director of one of the region's top vocal ensembles the Eversley Choral Union.

In 1980, he conducted the first known performance of a Brahms symphony on the Isle of Man. Earlier in his career, Roger was cellist with the Turner String Quartet, led by Laurance Turner, former leader of the Halle Orchestra, and the Ryland Ensemble.

For many years, Roger has played in a string quartet which includes his wife Wendy and son Julian, both established players in the region's music circles.

He has also shared the stage many times with the excellent Lakeland Sinfonia, from which he retired last year. His other son, Neville, is an accomplished amateur cellist and plays in an orchestra in Malvern.

Roger studied singing with Morag Noble in the 1970s, and has since performed as tenor soloist with many choral societies, mainly in the North West. In 1997, as guest soloist with the Abbey Singers of Carlisle, he performed in Canada and the USA.

As well as Roger's latest piece, tomorrow night's Haffner concert includes Beethoven's Eroica Symphony (no. 3), Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave, and Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.

Although Roger is stepping out of the limelight and into the audience, he tells me he will still be available if anyone wants a guest conductor: "I'll still be around to do one-offs."

For tickets, contact 01524-770503 or Lancaster Tourist Information Centre on 01524-32878.

- Meanwhile, members of the Haffner Orchestra gave a short concert for residents at Gatesbield House, Windermere, along with the Wild Thyme recorder consort and other friends. Owned by Gatesbield Quaker Housing Association, it provides sheltered housing for elderly people.

One reason for the concert was that one of the residents, Harry Routledge, is a retired professional cartoonist, and offered to draw cartoons of instrumental players.

As his wife is unwell, Harry cannot get out to concerts to watch the players in action, so the players decided to bring a concert to him.