It is with huge sadness that we learn of the death of Chris Pollard, a member of the third generation of the Pollard family whose involvement with the magazine started in 1924. Chris’s enthusiasm and boundless energy made him a great colleague but also a much-loved figure in the classical record industry, an industry for which he had enormous passion and knowledge.

Schooled at Merchant Taylors in Rickmansworth, where one of his teachers was Gramophone’s great vocal expert, John Steane (JBS), Chris joined his father Tony at Gramophone in 1977, aged 20, in the Advertisement Sales Department, a job he freely admitted wasn’t for him. After a three-year business management course, he returned to the magazine in 1981 to work in the editorial department, first as Managing Editor and then, in 1986, as Editor.

He helped raise the profile of the Gramophone Awards and was instrumental in securing the ITV broadcast of the 1997 Awards from Alexandra Palace – with a galaxy of classical music’s stars, including Murray Perahia, Andreas Scholl, Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Paul McCartney, Kiri Te Kanawa, Luciano Pavarotti and the LSO. The broadcast reached an audience of almost 2.5 million.

A bon vivant, he was a keen rugby player and also a car enthusiast – when our annual meeting with Harmonia Mundi in Arles came round, he would take to the road, a chance to enjoy his very fine sporty Audi on a long French drive, invariably stopping at a noted restaurant in Burgundy.

The Pollards sold Gramophone to Michael Heseltine’s Haymarket Group in 1999, but Chris retained an informed and enthusiastic interest in the classical recording world. He will be greatly missed by his many friends and former colleagues.

James Jolly