Here we are again! They say a picture paints 1000 words, so here’s a whole bunch! (and some video clips… yes singers, we caught it all on camera…)
All these years of Summer School have taught us to give the people what they want, and what they want is coffee before they start the day! Fuelled and ready to go, the singers decided to take their warm-up outside, while the instrumentalists enjoyed some specialist sectionals followed by wind band and strings rehearsals with Gill and Rob respectively.
The viola was the star of the show today, with special guest artist Carmen Flores giving us a memorable recital accompanied by Paul Turner – a viola recital being a first for many! We were wowed by her beautiful playing, including the Viola Sonata by Rebecca Clarke (who used a composer pseudonym Anthony Trent back in 1919). After her amazing recital, Carmen worked with the strings on Telemann’s Viola Concerto to be performed to the other participants at the end of the day.
As we can’t fit all this years repertoire into tomorrow’s Showcase Concert, we finished with a ‘sharing performance’. The choir came to listen to the wind band perform the English Dances by Malcolm Arnold and the strings accompanied Carmen in the Telemann Viola Concerto.
Instrumentalists then went to listen to the choir in the chapel, where there was actual dancing in the aisles! Not sure if there was something in the air or perhaps the effects of the hot weather, but it was certainly a fun (and slightly energetic) end to the day!
Another glorious day of summer school comes to a close… hope everyone gets well-rested tonight for the ‘big one’ tomorrow – see you there!