Astra Blair

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Astra Blair is a former British operatic singer, agent and charity fundraiser

Born in India, Astra Blair was educated in England and finished her education in west Africa before taking up a scholarship to study music at The Royal Academy of Music with singing as her principal study. Her professional debut was as a Mezzo-Soprano with Glyndebourne Festival Opera and later she became a member of the Sadlers Wells Opera, later to become the English National Opera. Whilst working as a young professional singer, Astra and her husband, international operasinger Raimund Herincx, converted a part of their Bedfordshire home into a small concert hall and founded the Quinville Concerts Trust to raise funds for disabled and handicapped children.

Sir Colin Davis and Sir Charles Groves became joint presidents and for 13 years international musicians, singers and actors from all parts of the world, including the leading opera houses, took part in fund raising concerts.

During that time countless children were helped with essential equipment, specialised transport, holidays and leisure activities to alleviate the pressures of life.

Among the innovations that the Trust was able to finance and develop, with the support of British Steel, was the Quinville caliper for disabled and handicapped children, which was used with great success at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. During these exceptionally busy years with three young children, Astra decided on a change of career, creating and establishing Music and Musicians Artists' Management - an operatic and concert agency - in London.

She was able to secure contracts for her artists all over the world including all of the major companies in Great Britain. Whilst visiting the Paris Opera, negotiating on behalf of her artists, she met Line Renaud, who suggested a joint Anglo-French Gala with the French"Association des Artistes contre le SIDA".

This in turn, led to Astra founding the British Charity, the "Association of Artists Against Aids" with her colleague, the English tenor Peter Jeffes. After its formation Astra invited the following distinguished celebrities to become Patrons. June, the Marchioness of Aberdeen & Temaire, Kate Adie, Shirley Bassey, Jane Glover, Jonathan Miller, Michael Parkinson, Jeffrey Tate and Fay Weldon. After the highly successful Gala Franco-Brittanique at the Champs Elysees Theatre in Paris with the involvement of the French and British Governments and distinguished members of the medical profession, considerable funds came from Paris which Astra donated to the National Aids Trust, which had only recently been formed.

As a result she was asked to organise a Royal Gala at the Drury Lane Theatre, to be given by the Association of Artists Against Aids, for the National Aids Trust. She decided to devote the Gala to the music of Stephen Sondheim and went to New York topersuade him to come over to attend, as guest of honour, a show which was to be called"Being Alive", in which international artists, film stars, musicians, TV personalities, opera singers and conductors would take part.

In the event, all of the artists, whose names read like a "Who's who" of stage, screen, theatre and concert hall, gave their services, including Sondheim himself. The Gala was an unqualified success and the considerable funds raised were devoted to the Milestone Aids Hospice in Edinburgh.

Astra then organised five other major events and also co-ordinated a vocal recording entitled "An Anthology of English Song", performed by major artists from the Royal Opera House. Proceeds from all of these events were also donated to the Milestone Aids Hospice. As Music and Musicians became increasingly more influential in the musical world, moreinternational artists sought Astra's management.

Meanwhile, her personal interests expanded as she became more deeply involved with the organisation of prestigious fund raising events for children's charities, notably Queen Charlotte's Children's Hospital.

Many of her celebrity artists supported her in this. She was involved for three years (one as vice-president) in the successful organisation of Queen Charlotte's Birthday Ball.

Concurrently, her activities for the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital required similar expertise and she became very closely involved in this work for four years. As her company prospered, she decided on another career change, developing an interest in English Wine and she was able to purchase a favourably located vineyard close to the Somerset Levels.

Apart from the culture of the vines and the process of vinification, it seemed to her that greater expertise was needed to market the wines, requiring a more advanced marketing strategy -an ability derived from her experience in music management. This was to prove eminently successful, so that her wines and many related products wereintroduced into leading London hotels, into restaurant and buffet cars on Great Western Rail and were to be found on many specialist wine lists. After the experience of 50 years devoted both to music and its management, fundraising and latterly horticulture, she and her husband decided to move to Bath, where she is currently involved with Bath University at the Holborne Museum of Art. Her keen interests in music and the musical theatre remain as strong as ever.

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