What. A. Day.

Everyone was still in high spirits despite the rather warm weather as final rehearsals and preparations for the Showcase Concert got underway.

Simon Theobald, our guest artist for today and firm friend of MfE having worked with us at our Musicals concerts in the past, brought us a programme that was ‘unashamedly popular’ (his words!) at the lunchtime concert, even managing to get everyone to join in at the end!

The singers were then treated to a workshop on some Gilbert & Sullivan with Simon, before all came together for the Showcase Concert for family, friends and guests in the Oblensky Building.

The concert was a triumph! A wonderful mix of music from Britten to Vaughan Williams, featuring harpsichords and recorders alongside the choir, orchestra, strings and band and a mega finish with the Agincourt Song. (More photos to follow…)
The traditional Summer School buffet followed after, with enough sausage rolls to feed an army and a chance to cool down after a ‘rather warm’ performance.

THANK YOU – firstly to all who took part on the course, for making this one a sell-out and singing/playing with enthusiasm and a smile, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Also to our superstar volunteer and ‘bumper’ team, helping to serve the endless tea and coffee, moving chairs and things when needed, manning the book stall and supporting all instrumental and vocal sections.
Our brilliant conductors Gill, Hilary and Rob – who once again smashed it (I don’t think we’ve put them off yet), our amazing guests Anthony, Carmen and Simon, and to the wonderful Trent College for hosting us once again, who have THE best site and staff team supporting us.

Phew! Right, where’s the [insert preferred alcoholic drink here]…

See you next year!

3 incredible days, 4 amazing conductors, 5 beautiful and inspiring concerts, 6 bottles of hand sanitiser, 12 pieces of music, 124 singers and instrumentalists, 184 sandwiches, 240 cocktail sausages, 425 photos and 628 cups of tea and coffee and that’s Summer School 2021!


The third and final day began with an unexpected warm up on the field for the singers when the fire alarm went off (false alarm!). After a few vocal exercises and stretches in the sunshine with Hilary, it’s back into the Chapel for performance preparation ahead of the Showcase Concert.

Meanwhile, the orchestra are settling into the Obolensky Building where the evening concert is to take place, to run through and polish their chosen performance items with Rob.
After the morning break with tea, coffee and biscuits in the sunshine, the wind band and strings focus on their pieces with Gill and Rob respectively – with some of the eager (and occasionally over-enthusiastic!) MfE team joining the percussion section for the wind band piece and Assistant Artistic Director Rachel shining on the tambourine!

Our final guest artist in the Lunchtime Recital programme is Summer School accompanist Richard Cox. We managed to coax him out from behind the choir and take us all on a whistle-stop tour of Europe with stunning performances of piano works by Bach, Dvorak, Debussy and Ravel.

The afternoon rehearsals include orchestra and choir coming together to rehearse the big finale joint item, then it’s concert time!

The Concert Programme

  • Brahms – Hungarian Rhapsody No.5 Full Orchestra
  • Trad. arr. Zimmerman – The Wellerman Choir
  • Makor – O Lux Beata Trinitas Choir
  • Mozart – Sinfonietta Strings
  • Holst – 1st Suite in Eb for Military Band Wind band
  • Pergolesi – Magnificat Choir and Strings
  • Faure – Cantique de Jean Racine Choir and Strings
  • Reed – El Camino Real Wind band
  • Hamilton – La Danza Espanol Strings
  • Strauss – Thunder and Lightning Polka Full Orchestra
  • Beethoven – Ode to Joy Combined Orchestra and Choir

An emotional end to the concert, for many, this is their first concert in well over a year, if not longer! MfE are also sad to say goodbye to Windband Animateur, Gill Henshaw, who will be leaving her role at the end of the summer to return to full-time teaching. She will be back at MfE events though, she can’t get rid of us that easy!

The performance over, it’s time to tuck into the buffet (which includes the 240 cocktail sausages!) and relax with a drink and a chat with fellow musicians and reflect on the past three days and celebrate the joyful return to music-making.

And that’s it for Summer 2021! Finally, we would just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all our guests and conductors from this week – Chris, Gill, Hilary, Rachel, Richard, Robert and Sam. This years venue, Trent College – amazing support and staff that have helped out. Also to all the singers, players and helpers that came along – thank you for continuing your support of Music for Everyone, particularly over the past eighteen months and we hope to see you all again very soon!