In July 2024 we interviewed the educator Peter Renshaw, who has been a huge influence on the development of socially engaged practice and research at Guildhall and the initiatives we’ve heard about in this podcast series so far: Leadership, PACE, The Institute for Social Impact Research in the Performing Arts and Disrupt.
Peter has written extensively on music, education and socially engaged practice and is an influential figure in the worlds of community music and collaborative practices.
Echoes and the Unsaid
EPISODE 06 | JUNE 26 | 2026
Jo Gibson | Sophie Hope
In the first part of this conversation we hear from Peter about a seminal experience he had in 1961 visiting refugee camps in Austria when he was a student and his experience as principal of the Menuhin School where he introduced music students performing in schools, hospices and prisons and coal mines.
Peter then moved to Guildhall in 1984 to set up the Performance, Communication Skills course. We hear about his ability to get external funding to set up that course, about the staff Peter got involved to run the course in the early days and the necessary allies and partners he connected with to support the development of the programme.
We end this episode with Peter inviting Sean Gregory into the conversation. Sean was a student of the course in 1989 and is now Vice-Principal & Director of Innovation and Engagement at Guildhall.
We’ll hear more from Sean and Peter in episode 7.
Menuhin School https://www.menuhinschool.co.uk/
The Society for the Promotion of Educational Reform Through Teacher Training (SPERTT / SPERTTT) https://www.proquest.com/openview/20d1005ac955a54bc50241aaf1f28439/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1820949
Dame Cicely Saunders, palliative care pioneer https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cicelysaunders/about-us/cicely-saunders
Carl Rogers, humanistic psychology https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/carl-r-rogers
Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_London_Education_Authority
John Hosier, principal of Guildhall (1978-89) https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/apr/03/guardianobituaries
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s The Arts in Schools report written by Ken Robinson (1982) https://cdn.gulbenkian.pt/uk-branch/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/1989/01/The_Arts_in_Schools.pdf
Sally Bacon and Pauline Tambling’s Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s The Arts in Schools: Foundations for the Future (2023) https://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-Arts-in-Schools-full-report-2023.pdf
Peter Brinson – Director of UK and British Commonwealth Branch,Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation 1972-82 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-peter-brinson-1614720.html
Helena Gauntt https://www.rwcmd.ac.uk/staff/helena-gaunt
