Every now and then we like to showcase our Sections or lovely musicians....

Joan Date - Chairperson and Cellist of Grimsby Symphony Orchestra

Joan has recently been elected as the Chairperson of Grimsby Symphony Orchestra. We all welcome Joan and wish her every success in continuing the musical tradition of the GSO in Grimsby and Cleethorpes since 1940.


Both Joan's parents were member of the Grimsby Philharmonic Society and her mother was a piano teacher and accompanist, frequently playing at events at the local chapel and in concerts, so Joan thinks she really had no option but to take up music. Her first real introduction to it was when her two older sisters started having piano lessons.  At four, and not wanting to be left out, Joan asked her parents to allow her to start lessons too and was entered into her first festival a the age of five. Festivals then became part of her life right up to when she was 18 and was accepted at the Royal Manchester College of Music.

Joan's sisters started on violin at secondary school, as there was a 'family' violin handed down from their grandparents which needed playing, but when she was eight Joan was taken to a concert in the Spa Pavilion in Bridlington while on holiday.  There she saw people playing the 'violoncello' and her mind was made up.

At Cleethorpes Girls' Grammar School she was offered and took the opportunity to have 'cello lessons.  She progressed to playing  in the school orchestra and was eventually encouraged to join the Grimsby, Cleethorpes and District Youth Orchestra and was part of the contingent of members of this organisation who went to Bremerhaven  in 1966.

After the completion of her studies in Manchester, Joan went on to Bretton Hall College. Later her first teaching job was in Bridlington, but after three years there she realised that her father's health was deteriorating and was anxious to return home.  She was offered a post as a teacher of Music and English at The Hereford School in Grimsby, working with Neville Turner. Through this contact with Neville she jointed the GSO and was also asked to be conductor of the Intermediate Orchestra of the GCDYO.

She has recently relinquished the role of Principal 'Cellist with the GSO, shifting one chair along, to concentrate on her forthcoming duties as Chairman of the Orchestra. 


Clarinetist - Sandra Mastin-Smith

Sandra Mastin-Smith (clarinet) was born in Boston and developed an interest in music by pressing piano keys up and down when she was only three, likening the sound to the sea. This launched her into a musical voyage that she still enjoys. At junior school she played in the recorder group and sang in the choir, and when she began piano lessons at eleven she often played the hymn in morning assembly at secondary school. At sixteen Sandra began clarinet lessons and joined the local music service holiday orchestra. She trained as a music teacher after which she taught classroom music for five years before taking time out to gain a B.Ed (Hons) degree with composition as the honours element, to which she later added a clarinet diploma. She was also Assistant Music Director and accompanist for County Operatic And Dramatic Society  in Lincoln and Music Director for the Phoenix Players, performing in many shows at the Theatre as well as teaching flute, saxophone, clarinet and piano privately. 

Sandra played with the Lincoln Concert Band and Lincoln Symphony Orchestra for thirty-two years and is now in her twentieth year with the GSO.  Sandra's teaching career took her to Grimsby's Music Lincs for six years, Lincoln Cathedral School, St. James School in Grimsby and Caistor Grammar School for thirty-four years in addition to her private pupils. Now retired, Sandra still plays with the GSO and sings with Claxby Community Choir. She still enjoys composing and has written music for various ensembles and choirs over the years. Music has always been her passion in life and is likely to remain so.

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