Golland, John

John Golland was born in Ashton-under-Lyne on Sep 14 1942, to John Edward Golland (b.1912) and Anne (nee Whitley, b.1912). Both parents had worked in the cotton industry, his father later becoming a window-cleaner and his mother working as a dressmaker. John was an only child, who after a difficult birth suffered problems with his sight until the age of 26, and with other physical disabilities.

At the age of 2 he was found playing nursery rhymes on his maternal grandmother's piano, and his parents bought their own piano when John was aged 4, learning with Peggy Mayers outside school. He was educated at St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Dukinfield, moving to de la Salle College, Salford, on a scholarship aged 11. At de la Salle he was taught piano by the school music-master and began to learn the violin and recorder; he also began to compose and to arrange hymns for the annual speech days. In 1960 he attended teacher training college in Oldham (also de la Salle), beginning his first job as a music teacher at St Anselm's School, Oldham in 1964. He also studied part-time at the Royal Manchester College of Music, with Thomas Pitfield (for composition) and Marjorie Clementi (for piano).

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