Introduction

Biography

Son of a ma­son, Sum­mers was a cho­ris­ter at Wells Ca­thed­ral, and stu­died un­der Hen­ry Gaunt­lett and Will­iam Stern­dale Ben­nett.

He played the or­gan at St. An­drew’s Col­lege, Brad­field (1861); Ho­ly Tri­ni­ty Church, Wes­ton-Su­per-Mare (1864); and St. Pe­ter’s, Not­ting Hill, Lon­don (1865).

In 1865, he and his wife emi­grat­ed to Mel­bourne, Aus­tral­ia.

In Aus­tral­ia, he played the or­gan at St. Peter’s, East­ern Hill (1868–79); All Saints, St. Kil­da (un­til 1896); for the Mel­bourne Phil­har­mo­nic So­cie­ty (1869) (he was al­so the so­cie­ty’s con­duct­or, 1872–74); and the Me­tro­po­li­tan Lie­der­ta­fel (1882–83).

In 1867, he be­came a mu­sic teach­er ex­am­in­er for the Board of Edu­ca­tion.

Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty con­ferred a be­lat­ed Ba­che­lor of Mu­sic de­gree up­on him 1887.

Works

• Music and Mu­si­cians: Per­son­al Rem­in­is­cenc­es, 1865–1910 (Perth, Aus­tral­ia: Gal­way Print­ing, 1910)