Marilyn Horne

'He's always been available to talk about or help a young singer.'

Andrew Sritheran, a recent PMF scholar, was recommended to Peter Moores Foundation by Marilyn Horne.
"It's very useful for artists not to have to take the next job that comes along just to pay the bills. Kirsten Flagstad said that she was able to develop artistically because she had support from her well-to-do husband. At first I just did it as I could – I helped Joan Sutherland before she became famous, and Colin Davis, when he was a clarinettist and wanted to be a conductor.

I got more systematic later on, and started the Foundation. I went to the London Opera Centre and offered to hear singers and later to organize some prizes through the Royal Northern College of Music.

To be really helpful in anything, you must offer what's needed – you can't just throw money at something or someone. So the Foundation does not offer a prize of a fixed amount, nor is there a fixed number of awards. We identify very gifted, promising people and then we try to determine what they actually need.
And the artists we help don't just get singing lessons; they get fencing lessons and enunciation lessons and acting lessons, and they get very impolite notes from me saying "You're singing flat," and so forth.

We expect results; we expect progress from the people we're supporting, and they have to show us that. They don't get anything for standing still. It's a bit like raising children; you don't give them sweets for not doing their homework."
Mary Plazas & Peter Moores
Clive Bayley and Peter Moores
31 July 2010