Feeney Commission Scores

Scores of musical works commissioned by the John Feeney Charitable Trust as first performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

The John Feeney Charitable Trust was established by the will of John Feeney (1839-1905). He was the son of the founder of the 'Birmingham Post' and he worked for the newspaper from 1863 until his death and for the last 10 years of his life was its proprietor. He was a collector of pictures and arts objects, a traveller to many countries and a benefactor of Birmingham Art Gallery. He had a deep interest in the life of Birmingham and was a generous contributor to its hospitals, its University and its many charitable institutions. The Trustees use the trust fund to further those causes that John Feeney supported during his lifetime and the trust has commissioned works from leading composers since 1955 and these are first performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under its Principal Conductors and other guests and sometimes the composers themselves.

Access to all registered readers.

Please see the full catalogue for further details.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

A condition of each commission was that the autograph full score was supplied to the Trust and these were then deposited in the Barber Institute Music Library. In more recent years only photocopies of manuscripts have been deposited rather than the original score. In 1999, scores were transferred from the Music Library in the Barber Institute to the Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections.

Regular deposits of new scores are made after performance.