I was sorry to hear today that Eric Roseberry had died after a very short illness. I sang for him only once, in a Marshfield Bach Singers Christmas concert. He had a deceptively mild and scholarly manner, and nevertheless coaxed good performances out of us. I think I made a favourable impression, but my name never got on to the mailing list of singers and although friends occasionally invited me to sing with them again, it never happened, which I now regret.
Eric was a survivor from a gentler and less technology-ridden age. My dealings with him were in 2005 and I think he was the last choirmaster I’ve encountered who didn’t use email (I’m not sure about John Marsh at the Lord Mayor’s Chapel) – I had to ring him up and give my details, and maybe that was why I never got onto the choir register. (I do still know one or two people in the choir world who think an email is an empty text message with a Word document attached. I know who they are because I’ve had to whitelist them, otherwise their messages get classified as spam.)