KEEPING IN TOUCH

Hello everyone

What a difference a week makes, last Monday it was freezing cold and snowing; this Monday it’s well over 75F in my greenhouse, the sky is blue and the birds are starting to sing. Is Spring just round the corner? Let’s hope so!

Many of our singers have already replied to our Singing Project Questionnaire. If you have received this questionnaire information then please do reply – even if it is to say you no longer want to receive information! And if you haven’t received it then please do click on this link. https://bit.ly/3jIKZRO

Our friends at Lakeside Arts have contacted us to ask if we could let you all know about their online concert series. They currently have 4 forthcoming concerts to suit a variety of tastes, all of which are available to stream from home.

Here are the details:

  • Rachel Podger, baroque violinist, will be performing live tonight (Monday 15 February), and the concert will be available to stream until Monday 22 February.
  • Manchester Collective with guest Soprano Ruby Hughes will be streaming Sunday 21 – Sunday 28 February.
  • Abel Selaocoe, South African cellist, will be streaming Thursday 11 – Sunday 21 March.
  • Sura Susso, Gambian Kora player and percussionist, will be streaming Friday 19 – Monday 29 March.

You can read more on each of the concerts at this link: https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/whats-on-search.html?category=music&from=21012021&venue=46

Enjoy the sunshine!

With all best wishes

Angela



Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

15/02/2021

admin@music-for-everyone.org

www.music-for-everyone.org | 0115 9589312

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#MfEMondays are Music for Everyone’s weekly emails designed to keep you up to date with MfE events & to circulate interesting finds, special features, and motivational moments for your Mondays! We are aiming to send out something new each week.

Do you play an instrument and are approximately grade 2+? ‘Brush Up Your Playing’ is MfE’s latest online project for all instrumentalists (youth and adult!) looking to get playing again during lockdown while we are not able to hold rehearsals ‘in person’.

Instrument warm up videos

Over the first 4 weeks we will publish 4 ‘getting back into good working order’ videos, one for each of the instrument sections (as listed below) on our YouTube channel with a new one published each Friday. These will last about 8 – 10 mins.

The videos will remain on YouTube over the coming months so you can look at them at a time to suit you.

Instrument sections and tutors:

1) Violins and Violas with Joy Bower

2) Cellos and Double basses with Jenny Merriman

3) Woodwind with Gill Henshaw

4) Brass with Stuart Bower

What’s next?

We then hope to develop the project with interactive sessions, group playing etc and we hope that the whole project will culminate in a summer Blow the Dust course at the Albert Hall – Covid-19 permitting!

How to sign up

To sign up for this free online project, please fill in the registration form via the green ‘Book Tickets’ button at the bottom of this page.

Simply complete your details and press ‘Submit’. You will then be on the mailing list for each new session, sent out on Fridays.

MfE’s online singing project for January – February 2021!

Brought to you by MfE’s Assistant Artistic Director, Rachel Parkes and Director of Music of St Barnabas Cathedral, Greg Treloar – these online sessions are designed to help refresh your singing voice and get it back into shape with helpful warm up tips as well as rehearsing a piece of music, chosen by our conductors.

Rachel Parkes

Greg Treloar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sessions in this 4-week course are uploaded to our YouTube channel every Wednesday, but you can watch them in your own time when it suits you.

MfE’s online singing sessions are free of charge to access, but if you feel able to make a donation to support MfE through these hard times, you can do so with a card or through PayPal here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/donations-page/

Or if you already have an account with us, through our website here (at the bottom of the page): Make a donation

To be added to the online choir mailing list, please email admin@music-for-everyone.org and further details will be sent to you.

Music Background.

Do you play a musical instrument or recorder? Then join this summer’s Blow the Dust off Your Instrument on Saturday 10 June for a day of ensemble playing – string orchestra, windband, full orchestra, recorder consort. An addition to the programme this year is guidance in the Alexander Technique to ease the aches of practising and performing. We know we’ll all find it beneficial. Music for the day is sent out in advance and we make sure there are parts for players of all abilities between Grades 2 (or equivalent) and 8 and above. Click here for more information and to book your place. An informal concert for family and friends begins at 5.00pm.

If you’re a singer, then  sign up to be part of the Nottingham Festival Chorus (NFC) for a weekend. Perform a range of works accompanied by the Albert Hall’s mighty Binns organ. This is a rare and not to be missed opporunity. Singing Parry’s ‘I was Glad’ will be a spine tingling, exultant experience. Workshops take place on Saturday and Sunday 24/25 June culimating in a splendid concert of music performed by the Festival Chorus, conducted by Angela Kay, the East of England Singers, with guest conductor Jakob Grubbström, and organist Michael Overbury. There will be an informal and unticketed concert at 3.00pm on Sunday 25 June (note the earlier than usual start time).

Our annual, popular and praised Summer School for adult singers and instrumantalists is now open for booking. This rich three-day experience includes workshops, concerts and masterclasses from visiting professionals, and social events. It takes place in the easily accessible and pleasant surroudings of the University of Nottingham and University Park. Each year the School has been greatly enjoyed by participants both local and from as far afield as the US and Australia! Take a look at the programme and book your place. We look forward to seeing you there. Accommodation for delegates from further afield is not part of the package but the luxury Orchard Hotel located at the other end of the campus is currently offering great rates – £189.60 for THREE nights bed and breakfast.

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Adult advanced string players, that is players of Grade 8 standard and above, are welcome to attend. Players come together twice a year for weekend string orchestral courses that create the ensemble known as the East Midlands String Orchestra. There are rehearsal workshops on the Satuday and a public concert on the Sunday. New players are most welcome. This year’s first course is Saturday May 13th at Bluecoat Academy Aspley, and the concert is in St Peter’s Church Ruddington on Sunday 14th.

Richard Howarth BH 1 smallMusic for Everyone is privileged to have on its staff musicians of exceptional quality. The weekend will be led by Richard Howarth, a distinguished violinist and conductor with a wealth of orchestral playing and conducting experience. He has chosen Verdi’s String Symphony and Nordgren’s Portrait of Country Fiddlers Op26 as repertoire for May. Richard also conducts our East Midlands Youth String Orchestra, younsters Grade 5+. They perform in concerts of their own and accompany choral groups including Nottingham Youth Voices and the East of England Singers.

More information about the course can be found here.

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sw3This weekend the youngsters of Stringwise will be polishing up their pieces for a family and friends’ concert on Sunday. Hopefully these musicians will have been inspired by local teenager and former Stringwise play, Sheku Kanneh Mason, winner of this year’s BBC Young Musician of the Year. As well as being quite a week for MfE’s young string players, it’s been quite a week for Sheku. He signed a record deal with Decca on a Nottingham City Transport bus! As you do, when you’re on your way home from your local Nottingham school. Congratulations!

As though Stringwise and Sheku weren’t enough letter Ss, we came over all aliterative and added Strictly Strings. Now there might not be a glitter ball, and there definitely won’t be judges, but there will be lots of fun in making music. Nottingham Strictly Strings is a new and exciting Music for Everyone group for young string players grades 2 to 5. The plan is for this to become a group that meets regularly, just like the East Midlands Youth String Orchestra for grades 5 and above.  To get the group up and running, there are going to be some FREE Taster Sessions run by the talented and lovely Ann-Marie Shaw, MfE’s String animateur.

When? Sunday 20 November, Sunday 18 December 2.00pm-5.00pm, with a break.

Where? Bluecoat Academy, Aspley Lane.

How do I book a place? Phone the MfE office 0115 958 9312 or email admin@music-for-everyone.org

Or for more information email: annmarie@music-for-everyone.org

And if your responsible adult forgets to book, never mind, just come along on either or both dates with your violin, viola, cello or double bass. And your bow, of course. Did we need to say that? Probably not.

 

Feeling the chill of winter coming on? Warm it up by booking for one or both of our opportunities for adults, or tickets for the Festival Chorus Concert.

DSC01424Blow the Dust is for instrumentalists, including recorder players, on Saturday 7 January 2017 at Nottingham’s Albert Hall. We suggest Associated Board Grade 2 and above (or equivalent). You will play in different groupings of instruments to give you a wide and enjoyable experience during this orchestral playing day. If you play the recorder, any size of recorder, the ensemble meets in the afternoon only. For more details, click here.

What will we be playing?

The music has been chosen to give scope to players of all abilities and will include Berlioz’s rousing Hungarian March, Tchaikovsky’s lyrical Waltz from his Serenade for Strings especially arranged for full orchestra, the well known Trumpet Tune by Purcell and Elgar’s stirring Pomp and Circumstance March No 4.

There will also be items for windband (conductor Gill Henshaw) and string orchestra (conductor Ann-Marie Shaw). The recorder ensemble will have a varied diet of music carefully chosen by their conductor, Chris McDouall.

MfE-9839The Nottingham Festival Chorus event is spread over two weekends. The rehearsal course, always fun and a challenge to polish up those notes and your singing ability, will be led by Angela Kay, and takes place on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 January at the Bluecoat Academy, Aspley. The final rehearsal and concert are the following Saturday 4 February in the Albert Hall. For more details, click here.

What will we be singing?

This year, there are two works. One of the favourites of the choral music repertoire, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, which is packed full of memorable themes and classic choruses. And then, from the declamatory opening to the final exultant flourish of chorus and orchestra, Dvorak’s Te Deum is a joyous whirlwind of vitality and excitement! We are delighted to welcome Marcus Farnsworth as guest conductor of the concert. What a privilege and treat.

Concert: To book tickets for the Festival Chorus’s concert, click here.

 

FOR CHILDREN WHO LOVE TO SING:

DSC02171 copyWould your primary aged child or children enjoy burning up some half-term energy with a fun singing day? Then the BIG FRIENDLY SING is for them. The BFS (not to be confused with the BFG!) is a new venture for Music for Everyone, and a variation on our years of running Vocals! for children from the same age group.

It’s going to be from 9.30 – 4.00 on Tuesday 25th October at John Clifford School in Beeston. (Very near to the Middle Street tram stop.) The children will be split into groups of similar ages. There will be nothing to prepare beforehand, just the singing games and songs of the BFS to enjoy on the day. The day will end with a ‘come and share’ informal concert from 3.30pm. The children will need to bring snozzcumbers food for the day, drinks will be provided. For more informtion and to book, click here.


FOR CHILDREN WHO PLAY A STRING INSTRUMENT:

STRINGWISE is for young string players, with groups from beginners to those with Grade 6. It happens over two weekends in November. No doubt you’ll know of Sheku Kanneh-Mason winning Young Musician of the Year 2016, but did you know he used to play in STRINGWISE? His mum kindly sent us some photos, and they are both happy for us to write a bit about Sheku and STRINGWISE:

Sheku6sheku17For Sheku, it all started back in 2005 when he saw his sister perform in our Stringwise concert. He became transfixed with the cello section and decided that was the instrument for him! He then switched from violin to cello and went on to take part in our Stringwise courses, impressing our conductors with his astonishing ability to play everything from memory!

Who knows what ability might be drawn out of a young player who comes to Stringwise?! Rosin that bow!

Hop over to the STRINGWISE page for more information and to book.


Carris applauding Rachel's performance.

Carris applauding Rachel’s performance.

The second MfE Summer School got off to a glorious summery start at the Music Department of the University of Nottingham today.

There are 150 delegates at the School – the furthest travelled coming from the USA. Some delegates are singers, others instrumentalists. The players gathered first as a full orchestra, and then split into windband and string orchestra, the latter accompanying with the choir during the afternoon. In this the 400th year since his death, the repertoire for everyone has been chosen with Shakespeare in mind.

Carris Jones, mezzo-soprano, travelled up from London to give a masterclass followed by a recital.

Carris asking Richard to select an audience member to sing to.

“Choose someone out there to sing to.”

Two masterclass ‘victims’, Rachel Bacon and Richard Flewitt, both members of the East of England Singers, first sang through a song of their choice. Carris then helped them with technique, interpretation and performance – conveying the song, its story, emotion and meaning, to the audience. This was followed by a beautiful recital – the professionals inspiring the singers and players for the rest of the day.

In the early evening, drinks were enjoyed in the Pope Garden, followed by a delegates dinner before everyone headed home. (For more Olympics? Yes, a few tired folk had stayed up to watch Andy Murray’s golden triumph…!)

DSCF0157 (1)

The Nottingham Youth Band of MfE were looking forward to entertaining the crowd last Saturday in Beeston. Sadly rain stopped play of any kind. Another time guys. Thanks for turning out on such a grey day.

emyso0716THIS weekend, however, there is hope of sunshine. Why not hop over to Sudbury Hall on Sunday and hear MfE’s wonderful East Midlands Youth String Orchestra, directed by Richard Howarth? They will be entertaining visitors to this National Trust property in 2 or 3 slots between 2.30pm and 5pm. Their programme includes works by Handel, Tchaikovsky, Ellerby, Vaughan Williams, Meyer and Biber. The last composer’s work, Battalia 9, brought great amusement and enjoyment to the audience at the Summer Celebration a couple of weeks ago. Never mind comb and paper, listen to cello and 80gsm A4 plain!