What an outstanding performance at the Big Youth Music Experience yesterday! Over 150 young musicians came together following their rehearsals last weekend and performed for their friends and family at Nottingham’s Albert Hall. The grand finale raised the roof with ‘This is Me’ from the Greatest Showman. Well done to all those who took part!

Another fabulous performance took place last Monday night following a project with Inspire schools from the Spencer Academy Trust with a choir of 255 pupils singing their socks off under the brilliant direction of Sophie Pascall.


 

It won’t be long until it’s time for us to Blow the Dust off our Instruments!

Music for Everyone invites you to a friendly, relaxed playing day at Nottingham’s Albert Hall on Saturday 15th June.

With some fantastic pieces lined up including Copland’s Hoedown for the Orchestra, Bernstein’s Magnificent 7 for the Band and String Quartet in G minor by Florence Price for the Strings. It’s not one to be missed.

To sign-up, click here.


 

Tributes have been pouring in this week following the loss of one of Britain’s greatest conductors Sir Andrew Davis.

Well-known for his kind nature and the ever-present twinkle in his eye, Davis will be widely remembered as the supreme master of ceremonies at the Last Night of the Proms. Throughout his long career Davis held many roles, including for more than a decade those of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) and musical director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In fact he conducted over 130 Prom concerts between 1968 and 2022 (click here to see the full list!)

Follow the link below to read the full obituary:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/22/sir-andrew-davis-obituary#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20beloved,Orchestra%20(1989%2D2000)

Have you heard the exciting news that Nottingham is going to be host to it’s first ever Prom concert this September?

https://trch.co.uk/whats-on/bbc-proms-nottingham/


 

On Monday 6 May (bank holiday), Nottingham Concert Band will be playing two 45 minute sets between 1:00 and 3:30 pm as part of the Ruddington Merry Monday celebration on The Green. We will relocate to St Peter’s Church if the weather is bad. Ruddington Community Choir and Mortimers Morris dancers will also be making appearances through the afternoon. So bring your picnic and enjoy some free entertainment!

Saturday 16 May gives you two choices for wind band concerts!

  • Nottingham Concert Band is at St Swithun’s Church, Woodborough to present a concert called “Here Comes Our Band!”. Tickets are £12.50 (£5.00 for under-18s), to include interval refreshments of wine or fruit juice, and can be obtained from Jean Bush (0115 9652195) or Terry Robinson (0115 9652396). Doors open at 7:00 pm, concert starts at 7:30 pm.
  • Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra will be at St. Martin’s Church in Sherwood, to enjoy the great outdoors and nature at its best through music. Tickets are priced at £5, £10 or £15. Pay what you wish. Follow the link to purchase your tickets: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/nottingham-symphonic-winds/the-great-outdoors/2024-05-18/19:30/t-krlmxrl.Tickets will also be available through the church. Doors open at 7:00 pm, concert starts at 7:30 pm.

 

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE

29/04/2024

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Well March has been a musical marathon at MfE, but PHEW, we made it!!!

West Bridgford felt more like the West End on Saturday after a wonderful day of singing at our musicals workshop. Rachel Parkes put the Nottingham Community Voices through their paces and we welcomed Open Voices who stole the show with a wonderful selection of their favourite hits. We were delighted to welcome Simon Theobald as soloist and compere for the event. Thanks to everyone who came along!

Enrolments have now hit 100 for the Big Youth Music Experience coming up in April! We still have spaces left for all string, woodwind and especially BRASS instruments so please encourage any young musicians to join in.

Bandwise – April 20th & 28th. Sign-Up Here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/byme-bandwise-apr24/

Stringwise – April 21st & 28th. Sign- Up Here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/byme-stringwise-apr24/


 

Thank you to those members who attended our AGM last Wednesday, it was lovely to see you there. We said a fond farewell to a couple of long-standing trustees, Angela Smallwood and Matt Lax – they are not disappearing completely and we will still see them around at events! We are delighted to welcome three new trustees on to the board: Gary Ackrill, Catherine Hocking and Josie Tanvir.

A presentation was made to Andrew James (ex-chairman of MfE) for the enormous contribution he has made to supporting Music for Everyone through the setting up and running of the Bookwise shops. We are extremely grateful for everything you have done Andrew!


 

I’m sure many of you will be looking forward to the giving and receiving of Easter eggs next weekend! But have you heard of “Easter eggs” in music?

For centuries composers have weaved secret messages or cryptograms into their works, from J.S. Bach to Shostakovich and this idea is still used today by songwriters such as Taylor Swift!

Find out more in this fun video: https://youtu.be/1GuJ-mFNauo?si=Tmg_mLDyhNUC06fN

Or why not test your ability to recognise words in musical notation?! Try this quiz:

https://www.classicfm.com/lifestyle/quizzes/answer-only-music-notes/

 

Can you answer these quiz questions using just music notes?

You can read music, but can you READ music…?

www.classicfm.com

 


 

  • Can you spare a minute to nominate us for the chance to win £1000?! Click on the banner below.
 

Nominate now! – Movement for Good awards

We could receive £1,000 in the Movement for Good draw.

movementforgood.com

 

  • An exciting upcoming concert by Melodic Fanfare, a Nottingham based brass ensemble. They will be holding their first live performance : A relaxing lunchtime debut concert featuring a variety of classical music. The concert will be held at University Hall, Nottingham on Friday 5th April with all proceeds going to Mind. Book tickets here.

 

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE

25/03/2024

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We’re gearing up for an exciting and busy March, so much music making coming up!

The Nottingham Chamber Singers concert ‘Angels, Dreams and Flying Machines’ is on Saturday 16 March at St Mary’s Church, Clifton. Join us for an evening of flight, fantasy and winged creatures, featuring poetry and musical works by Whitacre, Panufnik, Mendelssohn and Vaughan-Williams. Tickets available online in advance now: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/ncs-concert/ or you can buy on the door.

On Sunday 17th March, we’ll be ‘Springing into Music’ with our youth groups spring concert at Chilwell School for an afternoon concert of varied repertoire by string orchestras and wind bands. Tickets available online in advance now: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/yth-concert/ or purchased on the door, subject to availability.

Places are still available for West End to Broadway on Saturday 23rd March. Don’t miss out the opportunity to learn from the fantastic Simon Theobald. Click this link to hear from the man himself!: https://youtube.com/shorts/qCPwQ5jhyk4?feature=share


 

Call-out for volunteers! We are looking for some extra help at our friendly Open Voices group in Mansfield. They meet on Friday afternoons from 1.45-3.15pm at Portland College in the wonderful Newstart Theatre. If anyone is able to help our leader Cliff and join in the singing that would be great!  Please email su@music-for-everyone.org


 

It’s not quite officially springtime just yet, but as we have now reached March (and, fingers crossed, some nicer, dryer weather!) it seems apt to welcome the beginning signs of spring with some seasonal music. The most obvious is of course, Spring from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, who was born on this day, 4 March 1678: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LiztfE1X7E

Another is Vaughan-Williams The Lark Ascending, originating from a poem by George Meredith about the song of a skylark. The poem inspired Vaughan Williams to write a musical work of the same name: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbFi85piaEg Vaughan Williams also features in the NCS concert on 16 March.


 

  • If you haven’t already seen on our website, we have now released the choir repertoire for Summer School 2024! We’re thrilled that Hilary Campbell will be with us again and exploring the following pieces:
    • Lily Boulanger – Hymn au soleil
    • James MacMillan – O Radiant Dawn
    • Harold Arlen – Over the Rainbow
    • Roger Emerson – Ain’t no Mountain High Enough
  • The choir will also be doing Handel’s rousing anthem Zadok the Priest with the orchestra and an arrangement of Abide with Me with the string ensemble: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/summer-school-2024/

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

04/03/2024

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Huge congratulations to all our fabulous youth groups for their magnificent performances in Wollaton yesterday. The standard of playing was fantastic from all the bands and string groups.  A particular highlight was the audience participation in The Twelve Days of Christmas which gave everyone a real workout!

You all deserve a rest, and we look forward to seeing you in 2024. New members always welcome – click here for more information.

Next Sunday 17th December over 200 performers will take to the stage for our final concert of the year: Christmas is Coming!  A festive afternoon concert for all the family to enjoy starring our Vocals youth choir, Nottingham Community Voices, Nottingham Chamber Singers and a visit from a special someone!

Tickets available to book online (click here) or call 0115 958 9312.


 

As it’s that time of year when many of us are treated to a school nativity we couldn’t resist sharing this gem. A young choral enthusiast, her school nativity play, and some very enthusiastic singing! 

https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/videos/nativity-girl-singing-loud-village-church/


 

  • Nottingham Symphonic Winds have their family concert “Memorable Moments” at the Albert Hall Nottingham, 11am on Saturday 16 December. It’s a family-friendly concert with a fun quiz for the whole family to enjoy. You will hear classic movie soundtracks from Jurassic Park to Frozen and lots of festive favourites too. Tickets available to book online at: https://nsw.org.uk/nswo_concerts/memorable-moments/

 

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

11/12/2023

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Hello Everyone,

Bandwise and Stringwise were off to a great start this weekend, working on an exciting programme to perform in a Big Youth Experience Concert next weekend at the Albert Hall.


If you’re looking for an uplifting festive concert our chamber choir, the Nottingham Chamber Singers, are performing a joyful selection of Sparkling Baroque music on Saturday 2nd December at St John’s Church, Carrington. Angela Kay is conducting the concert and here she is to tell you a bit more about it!  https://youtu.be/AZo4466aMsQ

To book tickets call the office on 0115 958 9312 or follow this link: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/ncs-sparkling-baroque-booking/

Looking ahead to next year, places are booking up for our next Blow the Dust off your Instrument event (20th Jan) and the ‘Gloria’ Singing Weekend and Concert (27th-28th Jan and 3rd Feb).

There’s time to book if you haven’t already!


Here are a selection of reflective classical works to mark this weekend’s Remembrance Day:

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/reflective-classical-music-remembrance-day/


Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

13/11/2023

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Greetings MfE members!

We hope you’ve all kept safe and dry in the recent storms, and that everyone in our regularly rehearsing groups is looking forward to coming back together after the half-term break.

We’ll be excited to hear the fruits of this term’s labours in a couple of weeks at plenty of informal daytime concerts, and hoping that many of you are signing up for our Christmas is Coming! extravaganza.

You can sign-up here or by ringing the office.


This weekend and next, it’s the turn of brilliant young instrumentalists from beginner to advanced, as they will be busy rehearsing for their Big Youth Music Experience, which will be culminating in a grand showcase on Sunday 19th November.

To sign-up for Bandwise click here, and Stringwise click here.


We are pleased to announce the appointment of Phil Houghton, who will be leading MfE’s two Daytime Orchestras in Loughborough and Nottingham from November.

Phil is a freelance conductor, violist and violinist, and received his initial musical training in Leicestershire. After graduating from Trinity College of Music, London, he has had a varied career of playing, teaching and conducting in many styles and genres. He currently conducts LSU Classical in Loughborough, and the Bedworth Symphony Orchestra, and regularly works with other orchestras including The Stratford upon Avon Symphony Orchestra and The Charnwood Orchestra. He was also previously the conductor of the Leicestershire Schools Concert Orchestra.

Phil had his first conducting lessons as a teenager with Robert Mandell, in return for managing the library of his Melachrino Strings Orchestra! He has also had tuition from Peter Stark, who is Professor of Conducting at The Royal College of Music. Phil lives in South Leicestershire with his wife Rebecca and their 3 children.


You’ve likely seen a lot of fireworks around this weekend. If you’d like to add some musical fireworks to this sunny Monday, follow this link for a firework and bonfire themed playlist: Classical music inspired by fire – Classic FM.

It even features the brilliant Chariots of Fire which Bandwise and Stringwise will be performing in their concert on the 19th of November!


  • If you’re free on Saturday 18th November – Charnwood Voices have a fantastic concert lined up for you. With professional soloists performing, it promises to be an inspiring event. See flyer below for more details, and they hope to see you there.

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

06/11/2023

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Everyone at Music for Everyone is still on a high from this weekend’s magnificent 40th anniversary celebrations!

Nearly 1000 people descended on the Albert Hall to celebrate 40 years of music making, recounting many highs from the last four decades and looking forward to the next four.

On Saturday, we celebrated our youth programme, with hundreds of young people taking part in an impressive concert.

Earlier in the day, celebrated folk violinist and MfE alumnus Sam Sweeney led a workshop with our youth string players, the fruits of which raised the roof in the afternoon concert.

Also featured were our Youth Bands, Vocals choir, Strictly Strings training orchestra, and a wonderful line up of ‘big kids’ — alumni youth participants who returned as adult players to share in the day. 


On Sunday, members of our Daytime Voices choirs, the Nottingham Chamber Singers, Nottingham and Loughborough Daytime Orchestras, Nottingham Concert Orchestra, Big Band and Flute Choir, were amassed to give a triumphant concert featuring excerpts from favoured programmes from the last 40 years.

This included works by Brahms, Handel, Freddie Mercury and, excitingly, the world premiere of a new fanfare by composer Libby Croad.

Sunday’s concert was rounded off with a performance of the Hallelujah Chorus, conducted by our incoming artistic director Alex Robinson.

We proceeded to finish this fantastic weekend with celebratory tea and cake, after a special moment on stage with Angela Kay.


Thank you and well done to everyone who participated and made the weekend so extremely special!


  • Did you see our Exhibition this weekend? Showcasing Music for Everyone’s history over the past four decades, it was great to see so many wonderful memories.
  • Thank you to Minder and everyone who helped make such a special display.

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

04/07/2023

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As you know, Music for Everyone is currently celebrating its 40th Anniversary season. Founded in 1983 by Angela Kay, the Nottingham based music charity has long championed the voices of women within the field of music and performance. When we made the connection that our concert this weekend would fall in the week that we celebrate International Women’s Day, (Wednesday 8th March) we wanted to celebrate some lesser-known female composers, whose works have often been underrepresented in established anthologies in the genre of sacred choral composition.

Come and join us as we celebrate women in music at St Martin’s Church, Sherwood: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/march-ncs/


Today we are musing on the INCREDIBLE Big Youth Music Experience concert yesterday at Nottingham’s Albert Hall, featuring over 160 young musicians and an amazing joint performance of ‘Feeling Good’. Here are some photos!


  • Flutes in Art History:  Major Find by SAM Flutes Member.

Did you know that famous Derby painter Joseph Wright was a flute player? SAM flutes member Carol Craggs discovered that when she acquired a bound set of the flute duets he used to play in the 1770s with his Derby friend, Rev Thomas Gisborne.  When fellow SAM flutes member Martin Gorman mentioned the duets in a blog article it was spotted by author Dr Stephen Leach of Keele University. He has recently written a book on Joseph Wright and acknowledged their help in identifying for the first time the music that Wright and Gisborne played together. Everyone had assumed the music was burned along with old family papers after Wright’s death. Dr Leach lists Carol’s collection of duets and  is looking into the possibility of getting some of the music performed at the Joseph Wright Gallery in Derby.


Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

06/03/2023

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

We’ve had an amazing weekend of music making with over 160 young musicians at South Nottinghamshire Academy in Radcliffe on Trent this weekend with Bandwise (Saturday) and Stringwise (Sunday). Can’t wait for their families and friends to hear the result in next weekend’s concert at Nottingham’s Albert Hall!

As we head into March, MfE is looking forward to a busy month of exciting events:

  • NCS concert – A Multitude of Voices on Saturday 11th March at St Martin’s Church, Sherwood. Tickets available in advance here: https://www.music-for-everyone.org/event/march-ncs/ or on the door.
  • We’re excited to announce 3 of MfE’s youth groups will be ‘day-tripping’ to Birmingham for the Music for Youth Regional Festival on Tuesday 14th March, playing in the CBSO Centre!
  • MfE youth groups Mother’s Day concert on Sunday 19th March at the Grange in Radcliffe on Trent, tickets available in advance or on the door.

Music has been proven to have a positive effect on our health and some new research has shown how long it can take to feel happier, or more relaxed or even to overcome sadness.

It won’t come as a surprise that music with a slow tempo is best for relaxation, although it might be of interest to learn that 13 minutes is the optimum listening time for feeling peaceful and contented compared to 9 minutes of a driving rhythm and fast tempo to help you to feel uplifted.

Find out more here: https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/music-to-release-sadness-and-feel-happier-study/ for the stats and percentages!



Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

27/02/2023

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

Tickets are still available for the Nottingham Chamber Singers’ Multitude of Voices concert at St Martin’s in Sherwood on 11 March. Join them as they dive into the rich, exquisite and relatively under-represented canon of choral works by female composers.

The concert, in the same week as International Women’s Day, will take the opportunity to celebrate 900 years of Passiontide themed motets, both reflective and uplifting from the 11th Century Abbess and Polymath Hildegard von Bingen through to the emerging and talented Kerensa Briggs (b.1991). Throughout the concert, acclaimed Saxophonist John Barker will be weaving transcendent melodies into and around our program, culminating in a second half performance of the beautiful Son of God Mass by James Whitbourn to ease you into Eastertide.

Click here for more information and here to book.

The youth groups are gearing up for a busy month of March, working towards their Mother’s Day concert on Sunday 19th March at The Grange in Radcliffe on Trent, an instrumental treat for all! Click here for more information


We are really looking forward to welcoming 161 young instrumentalists to our Bandwise and Stringwise courses this weekend! After a weekend of being put through their paces by our crack team of experts they will then come together for a showcase concert at the Albert Hall on Sunday 05 March. We can’t wait to hear their joint performance of ‘Feelin’ Good’ arranged by our very own Josh Goodman. Perhaps most famously recorded by Nina Simone, it was first performed by Guyanese-British singer Cy Grant on the opening night of The Roar of the Greasepaint at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham on 3 August 1964!


  • Click here to find out what song was number one on the day you were born. The current range in the office is Fernando by Abba to I Owe You Nothing by Bros – but we’re not going to reveal who came out dancing to Abba!

Have a great week!

Your friends at MfE.

20/02/2023

admin@music-for-everyone.org

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

10 Goose Gate | Hockley | NG1 1FF

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