Nottingham Festival Chorus

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#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 musical musings for your Mondays! We are aiming to send out something new each week.

#MfEMonday – 6th February 2023

6th February 2023 Music for Everyone

What a treat from the combined forces of the Nottingham Festival Chorus and Concert Orchestra on Saturday evening. The sound was thrilling and as rich and varied as the programme itself, with works by Parry, Finzi, Tippett, Delius, Gjeilo and Vaughan Williams. Conductors, Angela Kay and Rachel Parkes were delighted by the performance. Congratulations to all those involved!

A message from MfE Director – Donna Fox

We are pleased to announce that Arts Council England is supporting Music for Everyone’s 40^th Anniversary season this year. The theme is “Celebration”.

With a focus on inclusion, we will be celebrating the achievements of female leadership in Classical Music, such as our Founder Angela Kay MBE, female composers, conductors and musicians. We will be holding a special gala weekend on 1^st July (youth) and 2^nd July (adults) so watch this space for more details about how to get involved. We hope to engage new participants as we broaden and diversify our offer to include a new Open Voices session in Mansfield, as well as weekly Steel Pan and World Drumming ensembles. Let’s celebrate!!!
Watch this space for further details!

Places are now available on our next Vocals weekend in April. There will be rounds, part-songs, percussion and dancing, as well as popular songs from Encanto, Aladdin, Matilda and Trolls World Tour! If you know any youngsters who love singing please pass on the details.

A random one this week! We have been contacted by one of our members who sent us a picture of a lace bobbin with an inscription ‘Blow the Dust’ etched into it. This got us thinking about the importance of lacemaking locally as our office is on the edge of the Lace Market, once the heart of the worlds lace industry.

Did you know that lace makers used songs to help them with their work? These were known as Lacemaking Tells.

The Lacemaking Tells are unaccompanied counting songs and rhymes sung/chanted by young lacemakers, particularly used in the lace schools, when they are first being taught to make lace.

These songs tended to be made up of fragments of ballads, nursery rhymes and sometimes even hymns, and re-hashed and appropriated to serve the lacemaking process. The rhythm of the songs helped them to build up speed when making lace and also helped them to stay awake during the night shifts!

Here’s a track from folk singer and viola player Jackie Oates and Jon Spiers called Needle Pin, Needle Pin based on these lacemaking tells: https://youtu.be/rWCWld_XjFA

Do we have any lacemakers out there? We would love to know if you still sing whilst you work!

We still have places available on the next Bandwise and Stringwise courses at the end of February – open to all young musicians! Click the course name to find out more details and sign up!

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

06/02/2023

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/nfc-concert/

#MfEMonday – 30th January 2023

30th January 2023 Music for Everyone

Hello! If you thought January and February were cold and dormant months, then you’ve obviously never been in the office at MfE!

We’ve already had a busy and exciting Blow the Dust day and the youth groups fantastic New Year Concert, whilst our daytime groups have been up and running in full swing for two weeks. This week in particular is a special one for us, as it sees the culmination of the massive hard-work and effort that goes into the Nottingham Festival Chorus weekend. Part of the unique selling point of MfE is that we are able to give people the chance to be part of a large-scale musical event, accompanied by our fabulous full orchestra, without asking for vast time commitment in the run-up. Singers have been busily learning their notes from our carefully curated ‘CD practise tracks’, whilst some came along in person to our friendly sectional rehearsals in deepest darkest January. This past weekend saw the massed chorus meeting at NTU Clifton to look at their notes in detail with Angela Kay and Rachel Parkes, and we can tell you that the results were stunning. Much fun was had, and many different muscles – singing, brain and body (!) were stimulated. There were also many biscuits consumed!

We thought they sounded magnificent, and if you’d like to hear the results for yourself, make sure you book your ticket for Saturday 4^th Feb 7.30pm at the Albert Hall this week. **10% discount available for MfE members and all singers on the course.**

We hope to see you there!

As part of our varied programme of musical delights on Saturday, the choir and orchestra will be performing some of the spirituals from Michael Tippett’s Child of Our Time. These immensely moving works take their origins from African-American songs dating from the slave-trade. As we near Oscar season, we thought we’d leave you with some incredible examples of how these tunes have been used over the decades in movies on the big screen… perhaps you have some more examples for us, we always love hearing them!

O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) — “Down to the River to Pray”
The Apostle (1998) — “I’m a Soldier in the Army of the Lord,” “Nearer My God to Thee,” “There Is a River,” “In the Garden,” “I Love to Tell the Story,” “Victory Is Mine,” “There Is Power in the Blood”, “I’ll Fly Away”
Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) — “Oh Happy Day,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow”.
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Selma (2014) ‘Take my hand precious lord’
Harriet (2019)

Our next VOCALS workshop and concert for young singers is now open for booking! We’ll be celebrating songs from ‘around the world’ – take a look on our website for all the details: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/vocals-apr-2023/

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

30/01/2023

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#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.

#MfEMonday – 16th January 2023

16th January 2023 Music for Everyone

It’s concert week for the MfE youth groups! The Strictly Strings, East Midlands Youth String Orchestra, Nottingham and East Midlands Youth Bands have been working hard over the Autumn term towards their New Year concert at Kingswood Methodist Church, Wollaton on Sunday 22 January, 3.30pm. Tickets are available in advance and on the door: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/new-year-concert/

The next MfE concert will be the Nottingham Festival Chorus performing Vaughan Williams ‘Toward the Unknown Region’ and featuring soloist Richard Cox on piano on Saturday 4 February at the Albert Hall, Nottingham. Definitely not to be missed! Book tickets and select your seats here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/nfc-concert/

The Lullaby Banks (in partnership with Inspire Music Hub) are back this term and looking forward to welcoming new mums and babies. If you, or someone you know, has a little one aged 0 – 9 months, the sessions are completely free and take place in Beeston and West Bridgford libraries. Booking is essential to guarantee a place as space is limited. https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/whats-on/the-lullaby-bank/

The two most popular New Year’s resolutions in the UK are to exercise more and improve fitness or improve their diet with more healthy eating.

Although we’re already halfway through January (who knows how long these resolutions last!) here’s a twist on a January diet for you… a musical diet especially for the first month of the year. Take 5 – 10 minutes each day to be an ‘active listener’ and enjoy this specially crafted playlist by The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jan/01/feed-your-soul-the-31-day-classical-music-diet-for-january-fiona-maddocks

Quick joke: Why couldn’t the string quartet find their composer?
Answer: He was Haydn…

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

16/01/2023

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/blow-the-dust-off-your-instrument-3/

#MfEMonday – 24th October 2022

24th October 2022 Music for Everyone

November is just around the corner, that must mean that MfE Christmas and 2023 events are now open for booking!

Concerts

Nottingham Chamber Singers present A Mystical Christmas at 3.30pm on Sunday 4^th December at St Mary the Virgin Church in Bunny.

Christmas is Coming! On Sunday 11^th December, members of the MfE ‘singing family’ come together for MfE’s annual Christmas concert at the Albert Hall, Nottingham, featuring a special appearance from Father Christmas! Children tickets are just £5 each.

Further details and ticket booking link for concerts can be found here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/whats-on/concerts/

Workshops/Courses

Christmas Vocals – open to all primary aged singers, a singing afternoon on Saturday 10^th December, then join the Christmas is Coming concert to perform on Sunday 11^th December! https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/vocals-christmas-is-coming/

Nottingham Community Voices – Christmas. Members of Daytime Voices and Community Voices are invited to join Vocals on Sunday 11^th December at the Albert Hall, Nottingham for MfE’s annual Christmas concert. Optional rehearsals from 28^th November, https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/christmas-is-coming-daytime-voices/

Blow the Dust off your Instrument Saturday 7^th January 2023

Nottingham Festival Chorus workshop weekend and concert 28/29 January & 4 February 2023

https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/nfc-course-weekend/

The Nottingham Festival Chorus will be celebrating the 150^th anniversary of Ralph Vaughan Williams in their next event, a singing weekend course and concert in January/February 2023, performing the stunning work Toward the Unknown Region.

The anniversary itself is being commemorated and celebrated throughout 2022 (our celebration comes a little later than the actual anniversary!) with October being the anniversary of his birth.

A champion of music-making in the community, he was a central figure to British musical life. His work The Lark Ascending is regularly voted the UK’s favourite classical work, and he was well known for writing for most major forms of genre in music, including film and stage.

Have a listen to brighten a rainy Monday to The Lark Ascending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR2JlDnT2l8

Bake Off fever has hit the office again, we’ve been enjoying some musical puns linked to baking – this one in particular made us giggle!

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

24/10/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – 15th August 2022

15th August 2022 Music for Everyone

We had a great 3 days of music making at Summer School last week. You can find out what we got up and see pictures of the sessions and amazing guests we had on our blog page, there is a post for each day of Summer School: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/about-us/blog/

Announcing 2022/23 dates!

Details of courses, workshops and concerts are now available on our website for the 40^th Anniversary season. Information for regular groups (Daytime groups, etc) will follow soon including advance booking.

Website homepage with upcoming events in the Autumn: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/
Adult workshops & courses for 22/23: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/forms/
Youth workshops & courses for 22/23: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/workshops-and-courses/
Concerts in 22/23: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/whats-on/concerts/

The rain has finally arrived, bringing some much needed freshness to the air after the most recent heatwave. We decided to look at music inspired by rain, hoping a rain-dance would open the heavens sooner than expected!

Chopin’s Prelude Op.28 (‘Raindrop’) with it’s repetitive pulse through the texture is thought to sound like raindrops. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVau-JRGirg

An appropriately named piece The Welcome Arrival of Rain by Judith Weir, inspired by verse from the Hindu text ‘Bhagavata Purana’ – catching the sense of sudden rain and the renewal and growth that follows. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU4PBYjDtkw

And something a little different to finish, here is a choir making the sounds of a rain storm using their hands and feet, impressive! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qaN0M0o0s

We’ve all heard music that has been described as ‘out of this world’… well here is something that was produced from out of this world! NASA have released a soundscape of the Butterfly Nebula, created from data taken from images – sounding strangely dreamlike! https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/nasa-sound-butterfly-nebula/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

15/08/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – 27th June 2022

27th June 202227th June 2022 Music for Everyone

This weekend was another busy one for MFE! Saturday saw the Nottingham Youth Band performing at Proms in the Park in West Bridgford. The weather decided to do battle with the band – sunshine, rain and wind in the space of an hour! – however the band carried on undeterred and played a spectacular set to rapturous applause. Well done to Claire and all the players!!

At the same time, the Nottingham Festival Chorus were rehearsing for their Jubilee Concert, safely indoors away from the blustery weather. All their hard work really paid off, as the concert on Sunday afternoon in the Albert Hall was truly magnificent. Choir and orchestra gave rousing renditions of Handel’s The King Shall Rejoice and Parry’s I was Glad. The Nottingham Concert Orchestra played William Walton’s iconic march Crown Imperial, first performed at George VI’s coronation in 1937 and George Butterworth’s idyll The Banks of Green Willow.

The Nottingham Chamber Singers performed the Choral Dances from Britten’s opera Gloriana and Rachel Parkes solo in Mozarts’ Laudate Dominum was breathtakingly beautiful.

The concert finished with Vaughan Williams splendid arrangement of The Old Hundredth (All People that on Earth do Dwell) with audience participation. All in all, a truly wonderful royal celebration!

Bookwise Southwell are looking for a new manager

Bookwise Southwell was our first shop in the trio of shops that give Music for Everyone substantial financial support every year. Now in its fifteenth year it urgently requires a part time manager in a voluntary or paid situation, able to offer up to 7 hours a week of practical management of the shop premises, with banking and the reporting of sales, assisted by a management team of two, part of the shop’s volunteer staffing. You would need to have a hands-on practical attitude and ability to handle sales reporting using Excel software. If this post interests you please get in touch with Andrew James, chairman of the Bookwise shops at andrewjames.home@btinternet.com or telephone him on 01636 704588.

Did you know the first Glastonbury Festival took place in 1914?

In summer 2004, the Glastonbury Festival raised eyebrows when, alongside headline acts such as Paul McCartney, Muse and Oasis, it also staged English National Opera’s production of Wagner’s The Valkyrie. The unlikely performance went down a treat, though how many of those present realised it was actually echoing another, earlier Glastonbury – one that was just as charismatic?

Forget the tents, mud and rock acts. Over a century ago, the Somerset town of Glastonbury was host to a music festival of a very different kind. The original Glastonbury festival was largely the creation of one remarkable man, now almost forgotten. The composer Rutland Boughton. The son of an Aylesbury grocer with no musical background, he was sent to the Royal College of Music by aristocratic patrons, alongside Holst, Vaughan Williams and others.

With Reginald Buckley, an aspiring poet, he proposed building a festival theatre along Bayreuth lines, which would stage Boughton’s own music-drama cycle about King Arthur, to Buckley’s libretti. The attractive little Somerset town of Glastonbury with its high green Tor and the mystical ambience seemed ideal for Boughton’s dream of a festival based on a communal farm, worked by the artists.

In August 1914 they launched the first festival programme, offering plays, ballets, children’s operas and concerts, but only excerpts from the uncompleted Arthurian operas. Instead, Boughton premiered what would prove his most significant music-drama, The Immortal Hour. Lacking the theatre, they held performances in Glastonbury’s small Assembly Rooms, with a grand piano instead of an orchestra and a chorus and staff drawn mostly from locals. Over the next few years, despite war constraints and eternal fundraising, an even more ambitious programme developed, with Easter festivals, summer schools, celebrity lectures, offshoots in Bristol and London and provincial touring performances. Neither theatre nor commune ever materialised, but the Festival acquired a small orchestra and a resident quartet, and produced a startling range of works, from operas by Gluck and Wagner, dance, by Isadora Duncan disciples Margaret Morris and Penelope Spencer, songs, choral works, and the mystery-play Bethlehem.

However, in 1926 the Glastonbury company staged vital fund-raising London performances of Bethlehem. Without consulting his fellow directors Boughton produced it with Joseph and Mary as striking miners and Herod as a caricature top-hatted capitalist. The concept, endorsed by GK Chesterton and others, was harmless enough – except that Boughton also depicted British bobbies and British troops marching off to massacre the Innocents. So soon after the First World War this caused enormous offence even with liberal London audiences. And so,Bethlehem made a disastrous loss. The other directors duly resigned; the Glastonbury townsfolk withdrew their support. The Festival was abandoned.

Ultimately, it was Glastonbury’s whole fey-folksiness which came to seem impossibly quaint, parochial and old-fashioned in the post-war era. Nevertheless, recent Boughton recordings, including songs, symphonies and Bethlehem, make a striking impression. Above all, The Immortal Hour, static and stylised as it seems, still conjures up something of that original, long-forgotten excitement: the authentic Glastonbury magic.

Free to a good home! A Buffet B12 Bb Clarinet with box. It does need some refurbishing, pictures below. For more details, contact Anna on 07980 308035.

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

27/06/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – 13th June 2022

13th June 2022 Music for Everyone

Our Jubilee Celebration course (Saturday 25^th) and concert (Sunday 26^th) is coming up in just under a couple of weeks’ time. If you haven’t yet signed up, we’d love you to come and sing in the Nottingham Festival Chorus, rehearsing on the Saturday, or to support the Sunday afternoon Jubilee Celebration Concert at Nottingham’s Albert Hall. The sparkling programme will include great pieces from coronations and glittering state occasions, including Parry’s I Was Glad, Handel’s Coronation Anthem ‘The King Shall Rejoice’ and Walton’s Crown Imperial.

SPECIAL REQUEST: PLEASE JOIN US IN OUR JUBILEE RECRUITMENT DRIVE
WE WANT TO RECRUIT AS MANY NEW SINGERS AND NEW CONCERT-GOERS TO COME TO THIS CELEBRATION EVENT AS WE CAN. PLEASE HELP US TO DO THIS. WE ARE OFFERING:-

*Special Jubilee Deals*

FOR SINGERS NEW TO MFE

Do you know anyone who has NEVER sung with us before, who would enjoy singing the great music in our Jubilee programme? Please tell them about our SPECIAL DISCOUNTED ENROLMENTS FOR NEWCOMERS: They are invited to Come and Sing for £15, all music included. Link to book online: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/nfc-summer-workshop/

CONCERT TICKETS

GROUP DISCOUNT OFFER – 6 tickets for the price of 5! This discount is applied automatically when ordering online.

In addition, to encourage as many FIRST-TIME people as possible into our audience we are offering:

HALF PRICE tickets in all areas of the hall for NEW concert-goers. Invite someone along to the concert who has never experienced the variety and quality of an MfE Festival Chorus performance before!

To get as many of our EXISTING loyal supporters along to enjoy the concert as we can, we are offering the usual performers’ discount (can be included with the group discount):

if you are a PERFORMER, ordering tickets for friends/family who have been with us before, get 10% off the cost, just use the code provided in your music pack to take advantage of this offer.

Full details can be found here: Jubilee Celebration Concert (music-for-everyone.org)

LET’S GET MORE PEOPLE enjoying that MFE EXPERIENCE — BOTH PERFORMERS AND CONCERT GOERS! WE KNOW YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!!

Well done to all the instrumentalists who had a fantastic day of music-making at our Blow the Dust off your Instrument event on Saturday with music from Elgar to Burt Bacharach!

Next Sunday 19^th June the MfE Swing Band and Flute Choir will be performing at the Willoughby-on-the-Wolds Open Garden event. If you want to come along and support please see their website for further details: Open Gardens 2022: Sunday 19th June | Willoughby on the Wolds

Many studies have concluded that classical music is great for boosting concentration and firing up your brain cells. Now that the exam season is well underway (and probably over in many cases!) here are a few suggestions of music to listen to that will help you to focus, relax or study:

Bach opens your mind! Go for something like the Goldberg Variations to maximise your brain’s ability to take everything in. Bach’s intricate patterns and gradually unfolding textures are the perfect soundtrack to a little brain expansion. https://youtu.be/tCKQQxxUWBs

Although “the Mozart effect” is debatable, there is no denying that his music can be the perfect accompaniment to focus the mind: Mozart – Violin Sonata K 301 https://youtu.be/x7xPIyePmNk or the Piano Concerto in A major K488 https://youtu.be/DXeBFhqViYg

Or maybe you prefer something to help you relax and take more info in? Try Debussy’s Clair de Lune https://youtu.be/fZrm9h3JRGs or Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2 in E flat Major https://youtu.be/9E6b3swbnWg

Let us know how you get on!

Members of the Nottingham Youth Band had an exciting trip to the Concert Hall last Friday to watch the incredible saxophonist Jess Gillam performing with the Hallé orchestra. The programme included Bernstein’s electrifying Symphonic Dances from West Side Story…. Have you heard about Bradley Cooper starring as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro being released in 2023? Here’s a first look at what’s in store: https://www.classicfm.com/composers/bernstein-l/maestro-first-look-bradley-cooper-netflix/

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

13/06/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – 6th June 2022

6th June 2022 Music for Everyone

We hope that everyone had a wonderful long-weekend (and take our hats off to those who had to work) celebrating the Platinum Jubilee. If the weekend’s festivities got you in the mood for all things royal and musical, there is still time to sign up for our Celebrate the Jubilee – Come and Sing event on 25 and 26 June. You can find more details and a booking link here. If you sign up before this Friday you will be able to take part in an extra zoom rehearsal too!

Mussorgsky, Dvorak, Elgar, Mozart, Bacharach… this Saturday 11th June will see the return of our ever-popular Blow The Dust event, where players of all abilities come together to form a huge symphony orchestra, wind band and string orchestra. It’s set to be a wonderful day! With a few places still available for players of orchestral instruments Grade 2+, it’s not too late to get involved. But hurry! Only a few days left to book! All info is here.

Organ Looking for New Home!

An MfE member is looking for a new home for this vintage Hammond organ… please let us know if you are interested or think you can help, and we’ll put you in touch! Picture is available here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/instruments-for-sale/ (scroll to bottom of page)

June is LGBTQ+ pride month and we are celebrating, even more so than the rest of the year, all of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer composers and musicians who bring joy, richness and diversity to our musical lives. If you’re looking to make your own playlist of LGBTQ+ Classical Music, check out this article for inspiration!

Last Wednesday was 1^st June, which always makes us think of Leslie Uggam’s iconic and hilarious performance of Rogers and Hammerstein’s ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’ from Carousel – it reassures us that even the greatest Broadway divas sometimes forget the words… enjoy it here

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

06/06/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

#MfEMonday – 25th April 2022

25th April 2022 Music for Everyone

Greetings after yet another wonderful weekend of MfE music-making!

Saturday and Sunday saw the massed forces of the Nottingham Community Voices (featuring singers from our various daytime voices groups plus members from the Lunchtime Voices, Nottingham Chamber Singers and various other community choirs around the county), combining in a truly stunning ‘chorus line’ for our West End to Broadway musicals course.

Our singers worked hard on their renditions of the romantic and sumptuous scores of My Fair Lady and The King and I, along with smooth and sensual excerpts by the legendary Irving Berlin, before rounding it all off with their riotous rabble of revolutionaries in Les Miserables! They were accompanied by the stunning Nottingham Concert Orchestra, who serenaded us with a string of Broadway hits, including a heart-rending suite from Bernstein’s West Side Story. It was an absolute treat. Adding a little extra shimmer and sparkle to all of this, were the fantastic talents of Simon Theobald and Kate Taylor, whose performances left us simultaneously rolling in the aisles and weeping into our programmes. It was a triumph – huge congratulations to everyone involved!

Our Vocals weekend is next. With expert tuition from Alison Bennett and Rachel Parkes, this is an absolute steal at only £15.00 for the entire event (two workshop afternoons and a concert afternoon). Please tell all the young people (of primary school age) in your lives that it will be a wonderful chance to learn some new and entertaining music, as well as some well-known Disney tunes from Moana. These massed musical events tend to be formative in our experiences and memories, so help us to spread the word. We know you will want to come and support them in their concert on Saturday 21^st May – tickets are available on our website.

Finally for those instrumentalists amongst you, our Summer Blow the Dust day is fast approaching. Tell your friends, or even bring someone along from out of town … it’s a wonderful day to relax, enjoy and bond with other like-minded orchestral players out there! If you fancy an extended chance to waggle those clarinet keys or refine your ‘ricochet’, then our Summer School is for you. More details available at www.music-for-everyone.org

With the sun shining, our minds at MfE are turning to our Summer School. We are really looking forward to returning to Trent College and hopefully enjoying their lovely grounds in the sunshine. If you haven’t yet decided whether to come along, let us motivate you with a few facts about Vaughan William’s, who’s music we will be exploring to mark the 150^th anniversary of his birth:

He was well connected; His great-uncle was Charles Darwin, and ceramics magnate Josiah Wedgewood was his great-great-grandfather.
During the Second World War, he is rumoured to have done a stint of cleaning at the local public toilets in Dorking.
The composer never took his privileged background for granted and worked all his life for democratic and egalitarian ideals. He viewed music as being part of everyone’s everyday life, rather than being the preserve of an elite. Something we wholeheartedly agree with at MfE!

As the French Presidential Elections closed yesterday, we found it fitting that the French national anthem was composed on this day in 1792, here is Berlioz’s arrangement ‘La Marseillaise’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZWabwLPUXc

Have a good week!

Your friends at MfE.

25/04/2022

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF