“John Maw Kirk was born in 1850, and made his mark in Doncaster musical circles, first as a bass singer – in 1873, and many subsequent years, he appeared in the annual Grammar School concert. He also took solos in a Doncaster Musical Society concert at the Guild Hall, in J. H. Eyre’s Popular Entertainments, in the performance of Messiah, under Eyre, in 1875 and in 1876, and, in the eighties, in Doncaster Glee Union entertainments.

By 1885 he was leading a troupe of Danum Darkies (i.e. Black & White Minstrels.) The press said he was “not made for sentimental songs but let him take something of the humorous and it is ten to one on his bringing down the house”.

Kirk, keen artist and interested in science, was also a violinist but his ambitions lay in conducting. He became choirmaster at the Parish Church early in the 1880’s, for which he received £15 a year, and had earlier directed the Amateur Vocal and Instrumental Society (50 members) in things like Matthew Lock’s Macbeth Musical (a Doncaster Premiere) and Andreas Robert’s ‘The Bay of the Bell’. In 1881 Messiah was done in the Corn Exchange with an orchestra of 53, a chorus of 230 and an audience of 2,000; a repeat in 1887 led to the formation of a new Doncaster Musical Society in November 1888 with Kirk as conductor, who programmed Messiah and creation within six months, then Juda Maccabeus, Elijah, Hymn of Praise, St. Paul, Athalie (Mendelssohn), Acis, & Galatea and a concert performance of Maritana before he died of dropsy in 1894.

He directed the Doncaster Orchestral Society from about 1885. In that year he conducted nine players (!) in Mozart’s Linz Symphony but the orchestra, which supplied the instrumental nucleus for choral and mixed concerts locally, was twenty strong for its first Annual Concert in 1891. Musically, Kirk was an amateur – he earned his living latterly as first Librarian of the Free Library – but his genius and devotion heralded the modern era in Doncaster music. His early death was a grievous blow.”

Philip S. Scowcroft, 8 Rowan Mount, Doncaster, DN2 5PJ

This draft article was prepared for the Doncaster Free Press.

[Found in the archives, was a typed copy of the above, with accompanying hand written letter, which was sent to Colin Howes, 7 September 1982.]