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Richard Knight with wife Carolina |
Concert tribute to school’s music head
FORMER students, friends and family filled the hall at William Ellis School for a concert in memory of Richard Knight, director of music at the boys school.
Mr Knight died, aged 47, in July after a three-year battle with cancer. It is thought he contracted mesothelioma – a form of asbestos poisoning – from his father, who worked with the toxic material.
The malignant form of the disease can lie dormant in the body for up to 40 years.
Mr Knight leaves behind a wife, Carolina, from Ecuador, whom he met in 1995 while working as a teacher in Birmingham.
Mrs Knight told the New Journal: “He asked me if I had any Latin music first of all. Then one afternoon he came to visit me in the staffroom and asked me if I would like to go to his house for tea. I said: ‘Tea? Oh you mean dinner’.”
When she moved back to Ecuador for a year, they continued to write to each other every week – “There was no email then,” Mrs Knight said – and became engaged when she returned. They married in July 1997.
Mr Knight was not only a music enthusiast, but also loved sport. He enjoyed running, walking and cycling, and was a keen fan of Manchester United.
Mrs Knight plans to scatter his ashes in the Derbyshire Peak District, which “he knew like the back of his hand,” she said.
A well-respected member of staff at the Highgate Road school, Mr Knight had a real impact on his pupils. Musician Adam Ludlow, 15, who played at his memorial concert on the last day of November, recalled how Mr Knight opened his eyes to the value of music.
He said: “One morning Mr Knight told me to pick up a trombone and follow him outside. We stood in the square, and Mr Knight said ‘use your ear’, and then stood there silent with the trombone. He was playing 4’33’’ by John Cage, a silent piece that lasts four minutes thirty-three seconds.”
Adam played the Cage piece at the concert, to the confusion of the 500-strong audience.
He said: “The lesson I learned from him that day was anything can be music. It really challenged me. I never considered music as a proper subject until then. Now I’m an incredible music enthusiast and study six instruments.”
Tracey Brennecke, 34, who has taken over from Mr Knight at the school, insists on being called head of music rather than director. “I didn’t want to feel like I’m taking his place – that was his role,” she said.
Ms Brennecke, from Gospel Oak, remembered Mr Knight as a “really lovely bloke and a really sweet and gentle man”.
She added: “He had a gift. He was a very good teacher.”
During his illness Mr Knight visited the school and taught when he was up to it. He called the cancer his “journey”, and believed he would beat it, said his wife.
Headteacher Richard Tanton hailed the evening as a “sensational concert”. He said: “It was a stunning couple of hours. You felt in a way Richard was there and people tried to perform to their very best.”
He remembered Mr Knight as constantly challenging his taste in music.
“You’d say you’ve heard something and he’d say: ‘That’s great but have you heard this?’ and put you on to something else,” said Mr Tanton.
At Mr Knight’s funeral, his wife told mourners: “The disease took away many things from us, dreams, plans and aspirations we had for the future years together.
“But in a strange way, it allowed us to enjoy life to the full and it also brought us closer together. I was happy we had that time together.”
The couple managed to fit in a walking holiday in Portugal before his death.
The concert raised £2,000, which will be spent on protecting a ‘corridor’ of Ecuadorian rainforest from loggers.
CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
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