Fortunately for us, there was no rain and no upside down flag at the Opening Ceremony for MfE’s Olympic themed 2024 Summer School today. We have once again returned to the picturesque setting of Trent College in Long Eaton, beginning with the traditional tea, coffee and pastries with a welcome from Chair of Trustees John and Summer School coordinator Robin.
Then it was off to rehearsals, we’re delighted to welcome back Hilary Campbell to lead the choir and Keiron Anderson to direct the wind band and saxophone ensemble, with Artistic Director Alex Robinson taking the orchestra and strings.
The first guest artists of Summer School 2024 are folk-jazz fusion duo Katie Foster (violin) and Ben Sayah (guitar) who wowed us with their lunchtime recital, including improvisation, folk and bluegrass (with a bit of audience participation too of course!)
A workshop with Katie and Ben in the afternoon encouraged the string players to get creative with improvisation, amazing how inspired you can be looking at some dots and squiggles on a page!
Elsewhere the saxes have been working hard in their ensemble and in the wind band and the choir have been working in sectionals with Hilary and Rachel.
A wonderful first day all round which seemed to fly by, just remember, it’s a marathon, not the 100m hurdles…