Today we reach the fourth category in our countdown to the Examiner’s Pride of Huddersfield Awards sponsored by Syngenta and reveal the three nominees in the running for the Arts award.

Pride of Huddersfield Awards

Here are the nominees for the Arts award:

Oscars

Examiner Pride of Huddersfield Arts Award, Oscars Stage School, New North Road. Principal Paula Danholm with student and winner of the Christopher Gable award for most progress made in ballet Megan Hughes.

Oscars is so much more than a drama school ... it reaches out to help the community.

Over the years this Huddersfield school of performing arts has raised money for The Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire charity by performing at shows and events.

And in 2013 they started supporting The Firefighters charity, again by performing in shows and organising events such a cake bake sales and last year took part in the firefighters annual calendar.

Oscars was nominated by Mary Rogers from The Carers Trust Mid Yorkshire, who said: “Over the last few years Oscars has raised several thousand pounds for local charities and continues to work hard to incorporate every aspect of their work to benefit others.”

Oscars Theatre Academy – itself a registered charity – was founded in February 2000 by the current principal Miss Paula Danholm and Miss Emmy Wilde and teaches students music, dance and drama.

It is based at New North Road near Huddersfield town centre and students have performed at the prestigious Edinburgh Festival, the London Palladium and Broadway in New York. They have also taken lead roles on stage and screen performing with stars such as Ronan Keating and Russell Watson.

The school has around 55 students aged from five to their late teens.

Mary added: “Oscars builds students who are professional, respectful and have a full understanding of the arts and all its disciplines. Students are encouraged to build on their strengths and explore new horizons.”

Oscars administrator Paul Knutzen said: “The charity work shows our students what is involved in helping others and gives them a sense of purpose. It’s wonderful when they meet some of the people they’ve helped.”

Paula added: “Not every student will achieve or choose to achieve a career on the stage but with the skills we teach – confidence, self discipline, teamwork, reliability and imagination – every student will be equipped to tackle any walk of life.”

The Oscars name came from Oscar Wilde who was very much admired by Paula and Emmy and it also has its own Oscars awards for its students at an annual ceremony which has been running for 16 years.

Dr George Redmonds

George Redmonds

Dr George Redmonds has been fascinated by words ever since he was a young boy.

Over the years he has honed that into an indepth knowledge of surnames – so much so that he has become a world expert on names, their research and how they have evolved over the years.

The 80-year-old now has quite a following in America where he used to go on lecture tours and then hosted heritage tours in the UK for American tourists.

George has changed the methodology on how the history of names are studied, insisting there should be a sequence which links the first time the word is used right through to its modern equivalent which would show how the name has changed and evolved.

George, of Lepton, has published many books over the years and these include Old Huddersfield 1500-1800 (1981), The Making of Huddersfield (2003), The Place Names of Huddersfield (2008), Yorkshire Surname Series, part two – Huddersfield and District (1992), Slaithwaite: Places and Place-names (1988), Holmfirth: Place-names and Settlement (1994), Place Names of Kirkburton, Shepley and Shelley (2010), Huddersfield and District under the Stuarts (1985), Places of Kirkheaton and District (2005), Christian Names in Local and Family History, National Archives (2004) and A Dictionary of Yorkshire Surnames (2015).

Yet his first works were published in the Examiner at the time he was working in the town at the Oastler teacher training college above the Co-Op in Huddersfield town centre – a role which also involved writing academic courses for polytechnics.

For he wrote a series of articles – as many as 400 – for the Examiner in the early 1970s and 175 of them were on surnames. The first 50 articles were published as a booklet.

George – a former French teacher who taught at Huddersfield New College from 1960-64 before teaching in Nairobi, Kenya, until 1966 – gained his doctorate at Leicester University working predominantly on a project which led to the publication of Yorkshire West Riding English Surnames Vol 1 in 1973.

He was born in East Bierley near Bradford, attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and has his father to thank for his fascination with words.

“He loved walking around the Bradford area telling me what things meant,” said George. “I have always been fascinated by words, then names and then local history. All my life I have been trying to show how words impact on our history.”

And he never stops working, with his latest publication called The Early Vocabulary of Yorkshire Coal Mining due out anytime now.

George has been married to Ann-marie since 1963 and the couple have a son Michael, who lives in the Pyrenees, a daughter Dani who is in Portugal and another daughter, Josie, who lives in Malawi. They have two grandchildren, 12-year-old Frank and nine-year-old Betty.

Mrs Sunderland Music Festival

Mrs Sunderland Festival, Kirklees Music Centre and friends perform 'The Armed Man' with lasers in the Concert Hall.

It has been going for 127 years, champions music across Huddersfield and far wider afield and is always looking to update itself to bring in new musicians and audiences.

We are talking about the Mrs Sunderland Music Festival and the dedicated team who work so hard behind the scenes to not only keep this great Huddersfield tradition going but also to move with the times.

Committee chairman Ray Brown, his wife Glenis and the team are helped by a 10-strong committee and then 50 helpers once the event gets underway.

“Without all this wonderful help we wouldn’t be able to function,” said Ray.

They have been nominated by Caroline Lee from One 17 Architects and Interior Designers which have sponsored the event for the last three years and so have got to know just what is involved in running it.

Caroline said: “We are nominating them for the fantastic work they have done and are still doing to ensure this magnificent Victorian festival is as inspiring and relevant today as it was in 1889, both in terms of its organisation and outreach to the local community. The fact that the whole festival is organised entirely by volunteers is also extremely impressive and it provides young people with the opportunity to develop their musical and performing skills.

“While maintaining the professional quality and integrity of the competition, the festival now includes workshop events that reach out to inspire and enthuse more young people in our area every year.”

These include a primary schools choirs workshop where this year 900 children and teachers from 25 local primary schools attended the Sing, Swing and Sign workshop led by Thom Meredith and Paul Whitaker. A special needs workshop involved students from Castle Hill, Longley, and Ravenscliffe High Schools taking part in activities stimulated by the theme The Elements. It was so good a similar event will be staged next year.

More than 3,300 performers took part this year – up 17% on the previous year – and the festival is one of the most prestigious events in the north of England, attracting performers from all parts of the United Kingdom. It is named after a famous local soprano soloist Susannah Sunderland – dubbed The Yorkshire Queen of Song – who performed for Queen Victoria.

This year featured a new concept dubbed The Big Sing where 300 people got together to perform The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins. They did their first rehearsal on the Saturday morning and performed that afternoon with Kirklees Youth Symphony Orchestra, receiving a standing ovation. The same concept will be repeated next year.

The venue for this nine day event is Huddersfield Town Hall with many classes being held in its magnificent concert hall. As well as an extensive range of vocal solo classes, there are classes for adult and junior choirs, piano, brass, woodwind, recorder, strings and percussion, as well as school orchestras and bands.

There is also a speech and drama section which includes solo verse-speaking, prepared reading, solo and group dramatic classes and poetry-writing.

Lynn Brooks, of Highburton, who also nominated the festival, said: “Each morning, afternoon and evening session is open to the public for the princely cost of only £3, making the Mrs Sunderland Festival one of the most affordable and accessible arts events in the north.”

Award sponsor: Perrys

We are proud sponsors of the Perrys Arts Award and we are delighted to present this award to a talented and worthy winner.

The Arts play a major part in the marketing of our business from graphic designers who are key in providing us with sleek, eye-catching designs which capture our interest to the campaign writers who provide us with the ability to carefully convey the best deals to our customers.

Without the Arts, our business profile would be non-existent.

Perrys logo

Perrys Huddersfield is a local business which provides great quality service to local people. With more than 100 years in the motor trade we know that with our experience – whether it is for a new or used vehicle, service or parts – we will provide the very best customer service in the area and you will always be in safe hands with Perrys.

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