Ian Lace
An appreciation by Len Mullenger

Ian Lace (6 January 1936 - 29 December 2021) was a man of many talents and an encyclopaedic knowledge of music, particularly British composers. He was associated with MusicWeb from almost the very beginning when my web site expanded from The William Alwyn website (1995) to include other British composers and became Music on the Web. Ian Lace, Rob Barnett and I were all members of the British Music Society with Rob also acting as their Newsletter Editor. Ian worked for many years in Public Relations and was an established reviewer for Classic CD, BBC Music Magazine, CD Review and Fanfare. From 1999, for 10 years, he also led Music Appreciation Holidays. He created his own PR/Marketing company, ILA (Ian Lace Associates).

He was a Chairman of the International Subcommittee and Publicity Officer of the Elgar Society, a Founder member of the British Music Society and a Member of the Delius Society. His speciality was British Music and he was a broadcaster with Sussex Radio as well has producing lectures and pre-concert talks.

In 1998 the Institute of Public Relations presented Ian with an award for his services to British Music with the statement “There is little doubt that Ian Lace has had a major impact on the promotion of British Music … Ian has achieved outstanding results which are a credit to both the PR profession and the British music industry.”

Rob Barnett remembers that Ian visited him in Stornoway bringing with him CDs of film music with which Rob was not overfamiliar. Ian hatched the idea of a review website for Film Music and approached me for help. This became a part of MusicWeb called Film Music on the Web from 1998 to 2006 by which time Ian declared that there were insufficient new discs being produced to warrant a separate site and it became subsumed into MusicWeb International. Film Music on the Web has been retained for archive purposes. Although Ian initiated, and for many years ran Film Music on the Web, he was supported by two superb editors in Gary Dalkin and Michael McLennan.

Together with Richard Adams of the Arnold Bax Website I visited Ian in May 1999 and he drove us around the Sussex Downs visiting sites of significance to British Composers such as Elgar’s cottage at Frittleworth where he composed the Cello Concerto and Rock Mill, a windmill near the Chantonbury Ring which was once the home of John Ireland and the White Horse Inn at Storrington where Bax maintained a room from 1941 until his death in 1953. Such are the problems of internet existences that I only met Richard Adams on one other occasion and Ian Lace on a small handful of occasions. We really are very insular settled in front of our keyboards.

In addition to reviewing recordings for MusicWeb International – the music of Korngold was a particular enthusiasm – Ian regularly reviewed concerts, particularly by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, for Seen and Heard. Given his great love of British music, it was fitting that one of Ian’s last reviewing assignments for Seen and Heard was a performance by Kirill Karabits and the BSO of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in May 2019.

Ian is a sad loss to British Music.

Len Mullenger