Tributes, music and photos
Please see below for tributes to Jonny.
If you would like to publish your full tribute on this site, please email jonnywebbmusic@gmail.com. Photos (along with your text tribute) are very welcome.
If this seems like too much, and you would rather leave a short message, please consider writing a comment about Jonny on this page instead.
I was Jonathan’s maths teacher until I left Chetham’s School of Music in 1986. For no particular reason, it just entered my mind the other day to try to find out how he was getting on and the news of his passing shocked me.
As a pupil, Jonathan was very intelligent. He was in the top set for maths and he sailed through the subject with never a difficulty. He sat on the front row next to Stephen (on the right in the photo below).
He might make a quip before or after the lesson – but never during it; he was respectful and a model student. His humour, at least with me, was that he liked to make wry observations, but he was never unkind. He didn’t tell jokes. He was always cheerful with a twinkle in his eye – but he was not a show-off. He was not loud and he didn’t draw attention to himself. In fact, he seemed a rather gentle boy and maybe a little shy. Perhaps it was because he was smaller than average and slightly built, and that made him seem younger than he was.
I was 13 years older than Jonathan and he would always say something if our paths crossed at school, but there were areas of his school life about which I knew very little. For one thing, although I lived at the school, I was never involved in boarding so I cannot say how he got on there. Some boys and girls would come to my flat for coffee, to talk and to listen to classical CDs – but never Jonathan. I also took swimming sessions and went on summer camp with the school, neither of which he was interested in. But I remember hearing him play the Malcolm Arnold clarinet sonatina with Stephen and thinking it was just as good as the professional recording I had.
Chetham’s is a unique school and not to everyone’s taste. I know of some who loved it and miss it sorely but I also know of someone who said that he would have gone mad if he’d stayed there any longer. There were some arrogant pupils (which was not Jonathan’s style at all) and competition between players, but most were very nice to know and my own memories are very fond ones. Boarding seemed a happy place as far as I could tell, despite the odd case of bullying. The school was very liberal and perhaps pupils needed more support and structure.
I am grateful that Jonathan ended up having such a positive influence on so many young lives, to have brought so much joy to them, to be supported by so many good friends and colleagues, and to have been so talented; how many people have lived such lives?
I shall always remember Jonathan with affection and I feel privileged to have known him.
Continue reading “Tribute from Tony Watson”Mill Hill County High School headmaster, Geoffrey A Thompson, wrote about Jonny in the June 2018 edition of the Head’s Newsletter. The full piece appears below. Click here to view this written piece as originally appeared in the PDF.
Jonny Webb attended the world-renowned Chethams School of Music, Manchester, an independent specialist boarding school which admits students solely by music audition, from where he went to study at Trinity College of Music, graduating in 1994, a finalist in Trinity’s top instrumental award, the Harold Clarke Prize for Woodwind.
His earlier musical career showed a number of impressive awards, including winning the National Festival of Music for Youth Open Jazz Competition in 1986, aged 16. It is clear that he was a young performer of considerable promise and no-one who knew Jonny in his years at MHCHS would be in the least surprised by that. After a short spell teaching privately and at the Music Centres in East Finchley and in Edgware, Jonny was appointed as a peripatetic teacher of woodwind at MHCHS in 1995. Continue reading “Tribute from Head Master at MHCHS”
Don and I had known Jonny for almost 23 years – just about half of his life – and it was back in 1995 that Jonny applied for the post of clarinet teacher at MHCHS for two days a week. His CV was clearly impressive as a performer, having won the National Festival of Music for Youth Open Jazz Competition at the age of 16 and going on to being finalist of Trinity College of Music’s top instrumental award, the Harold Clarke Prize for Woodwind. It soon became apparent that he had much more to offer than teaching solely the clarinet, and within a short period of time he increased his teaching to include saxophone, flute and Jazz piano. Jonny’s warm and friendly personality and ‘easy going’ manner attracted more students to have lessons with him until he was teaching a record number of pupils every day of the week. Continue reading “Tribute from Maureen & Don McCanlis”
Dear Jonny,
I don’t know how to begin… I can vividly imagine you sitting there in your music room, welcoming me in saying “hello dear, do come in”, with that mischievous smile of yours. All this seems surreal.
It’s strange – I always knew that you were important to me, but I did not realise just how much. You are ingrained in who I am today – let me tell you how. Continue reading “Tribute from Emily Cobbing”
I first met Jonny around about 20 years ago at school. I remember my first encounter with him clear as day.
I was having my singing lesson in the music room opposite to his and my friend had just finished her clarinet lesson and was talking to Jonny, she called me over and introduced me to him and we had been friends ever since. Continue reading “Tribute from Rum Samasuwo”
Jonny somehow managed to be both a brilliant friend and excellent teacher to those that knew him. Many teachers manage to be mentors, but Jonny crossed that line into genuine friendship for many of us. His smile and sincere passion for his students somehow allowed him to form bonds in an incredibly unique way. The other tributes here paint an excellent picture of Jonny, so I wanted to add some anecdotes that will hopefully resonate with anyone who had lessons with him or knew him and bring back some memories of good times. Each paragraph a different memory I enjoyed. Continue reading “Tribute from Ben Windsor”
When I heard the news about Jonny, I felt truly sad. For his friends, his family, but most pertinently, for him. A great loss for a man so young. He was always kind, always playful, and always made you feel at ease. Continue reading “Tribute from Tim”
When anyone said the name Jonny Webb to me, I immediately smiled. That is the effect he had on people, he made people smile and laugh.
I knew him for almost 23 years through my mum and dad when he began working at Mill Hill County High School; my Dad was Director of Music at the time. I started lessons with him when I was 9 at the Saturday Music School before I started as an MHCHS pupil, age 12, and started saxophone lessons with him. Continue reading “Tribute from Fiona McCanlis”
Well, what to say about Webbo? Blimey, no words exist. I have tried to describe him to people I work with, but he isn’t really someone you can compare to anyone else. A child in a man’s body, but with the musical brain of a God. The personality that can flex and change depending on who he is teaching or chatting with, but a man who deeply cared about every relationship he had, and every job he had to get done. All whilst having an immense sense of humour and incredible laugh (even rivalled mine!)
When I started to write this piece, I struggled with the start. Unlike others, I hadn’t witnessed the chaos of Jonny’s music room at school, nor had the privilege of spending a great deal of time with him. This is when I remembered that I still had the VHS recording of the one and only gig (I say gig, more like hastily cobbled together performance to a smattering of our friends/hecklers at Powerleague) that my band Justice performed back in 2004. So after scrabbling around in my loft and finding it, I fired up my VCR (yes I still have one) and pressed play.
I met Jonny, then known to me as Mr. Webb, during my first saxophone lesson at Mill Hill County High School in September 1996.
By my second lesson, I had already asked him, “You’re mad, aren’t you?”
Little did I know that this crazy man would be responsible for one of the most significant friendships in my life.
Thank you, Mr Webb, for being my teacher, and for tolerating me for the years you taught me saxophone. I was by far a very awkward teenager, and you somehow made it ok for me to be myself and be weird like that.
I took up studying music in university and have one year left; you were one of the reasons why I chose to study this. You made music much more enjoyable when I was at a point of not knowing what to do in the future. Though I never got to say this to you personally, I want to thank you for your kindness and guidance throughout my Mill Hill years 🙂
All my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.