After the second world war British concert and operatic life benefited from keen audiences, expanded education and broadcasting, the commercial success of the long-playing record and public funding of the arts. Remaining gaps – opportunities for young performers, new music and lesser-known operas – called for the flair of an imaginative impresario, though one working in a not-for-profit environment. John Woolf, who has died aged 91 of cancer, was such a figure.
A violinist with what was then the Covent Garden Opera Company, in 1956 he accepted the use of a house in central London – 45 Park Lane, replaced in the 1960s by a nightclub – as the base for an organisation to do the things that others were not doing. For the next 65 years he ran the Park Lane Group virtually on his own, with the help of a supportive committee. Funding came mainly from musical trusts and shared gala performances of West End musicals, with some Arts Council assistance in early years.
