Special Christmas offer from the fab four of baroque, Red Priest

The wonderful baroque ensemble Red Priest are running a fantastic offer in the run up to Christmas.

With the purchase of any two of Red Priest's four CD's you will be given a FREE pre-release copy of their much anticipated new all-Bach release, Johann, I'm Only Dancing. P&P is FREE for all UK customers.

The offer is only running until 21st December 2009 so hurry if you would like to take advantage of this red hot offer before Christmas!

Please visit www.redpriest.com for this exclusive offer.

STOP PRESS
Fancy a Night Less Ordinary?
Red Priest's forthcoming concert at The Hawth has a limited number of FREE TICKETS available to those under 26 years old.

To find out more and to apply for free tickets,
Jan 10, THE HAWTH, CRAWLEY, Box Office: 01293 553 636
https://tickets.hawth.co.uk/public/

Brighton Early Music Festival 2009 (BREMF)

23rd Oct to 8th Nov
Click here for the ebrochure

Purcell, Handel & Haydn and
East Meets West at BREMF 09
Music from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, India and China, celebrating some rich encounters across the globe and through the ages.
21 events; 3 BBC Radio 3 broadcasts

THE ORGAN WORKS OF J S BACH

St James’ Church, Chipping Campden
THE ORGAN WORKS OF J S BACH
in 10 sessions
played by
Richard Stephens
Wednesday, 1 July to Saturday, 4 July 2009

Admission is free but donations are invited for the organ restoration fund.
Each complete programme lasts app 2 hours, but these are not formal concerts and listeners are
welcome to come and go at any time.

Wednesday 1 July 7.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in D (BWV 532), Trio Sonata no 1, Toccata, Adagio & Fugue in C, Concerto 1,
Schübler Chorale Preludes, misc Chorale Preludes, Toccata & Fugue in D minor (BWV 565)

Thursday 2 July 1.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in C (BWV 545), Preludes from Das Orgelbüchlein for Advent, Christmas & Epiphany, Fantasia in C, Toccata & Fugue in E (BWV 566), Prelude & Fugue in A minor (BWV 543), Prelude & Fugue in A

Thursday 2 July, 4.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in F minor, Preludes from Das Orgelbüchlein for Lent, Easter & Pentecost, Concerto in G,
Fugue a la Gigue, Prelude & Fugue in D minor, Trio Sonata no 2, Prelude & Fugue in B minor

Thursday 2 July, 7.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in A minor (BWV 551), Trio Sonata no 5, Prelude & Fugue in C minor, Chorale Preludes,
Fantasia in C minor, Concerto in C, Prelude & Fugue in E minor (BWV 533)

Friday 3 July, 1.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in G minor (BWV 535), Chorale Preludes, Trio Sonata no 3, Prelude & Fugue in E minor (BWV 533),
Pièce d’Orgue

Friday 3 July, 4.30 pm
includes Prelude & Fugue in G major (BWV 550), Trio Sonata no 4, Concerto in D minor, Chorale Preludes,
Prelude & Fugue in C (BWV 547)

Friday 3 July, 7.30 pm
includes Toccata and Fugue in D minor (“Dorian”), Trio Sonata no 6, Chorale Preludes, Prelude & Fugue in C (BWV 531),
Concerto in C (BWV 594), “Corelli” and “Legrenzi” fugues, Prelude & Fugue in C minor (BWV 546),

Saturday 4 July, 11.00 am
Clavierübung, Vol III: ‘The German Organ Mass’

Saturday 4 July 4.30 pm
including Fantasia & Fugue in G minor, Trio in D minor, Partita ‘O Gott du frommer Gott’, Pastorale, “Little” Fugue in G minor,
Toccata & Fugue in F

Saturday July 4, 7.30 pm
including Prelude & Fugue in G (BWV 541), Canonic Variations on ‘Vom Himmel hoch’, Prelude & Fugue in E minor (‘The Wedge’),
Fantasia & Fugue in C minor, Partita on ‘Sei gegrüsset’, Passacaglia & Fugue in C minor

2009 Haydn, Mendelssohn Handel & Purcell Anniversary Events

Choirs are invited to register in performing Mendelssohn’s “O for the Wings of a Dove” as part of a nationwide Mendelssohn celebration from Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May. Choirs may schedule their performance in any chosen location during the weekend in question. For more information visit www.choirs.org.uk/mendelssohn.html and for details of BBC Radio 3 Composers of the Year visit www.bbc.co.uk/composers/

BBC Radio 3 Composers of the Year

British Choirs on the Net (www.choirs.org.uk)

British Choirs on the Net is working closely with the BBC Radio 3 Composers of the Year (Radio 3) and The Birth of British Music (BBC 2).

Composer of the Year is a celebration of the lives of four magnificent composers throughout 2009. The year marks the 350th anniversary of Henry Purcell's birth, the 250th anniversary of G F Handel's death, the 200th anniversary of Joseph Haydn's death and the 200th anniversary of Felix Mendelssohn's birth.

As part of the Nationwide Mendelssohn Celebration, choirs are invited to register their interest in performing Mendelssohn's 'O for the Wings of a Dove' from Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May. Choirs may schedule their performances in any chosen location during the course of the weekend in question. Registration is by email to composers@bbc.co.uk Putting 'Wings Choir Registration' in the subject line, email us details of your choir, with the name, postal address, and email address of a primary contact, together with the URL of your choir's website, where applicable. Tell us about your choir and why you're keen to take part. We will acknowledge receipt of your registration; within four weeks we will send you a link to a branded, customisable poster tor you to advertise your performance.

BBC Radio 3 will offer a downloadable poster which you can customise to advertise your performance. If your choir has its own website, we invite you to record your performance and post it on your site - the Radio 3 Composers of the Year website will link to it. In addition, choirs will be invited to send recordings to Radio 3, for possible broadcast, in part, during future editions of The Choir. Choirs are also invited to email digital photographs of the performance to Radio 3 for publication on the Composers of the Year website.

About the music:
Mendelssohn's 'O for the Wings of a Dove' is part of a larger motet, Hear My Prayer; choirs with sufficient resources are encouraged to perform the whole work. Mendelssohn's motet, Hör' mein Bitten (Hear My Prayer) was completed on January 25, 1844, and was first performed for Bartholomew's concerts in Crosby Hall, London, a year later. The piece is arranged for soprano solo with four-part mixed chorus and organ accompaniment. The English words, by W Bartholomew, are a paraphrase of Psalm 55, in which the petitioner calls upon his Lord to protect him from his enemies. The second half of the motet, often performed separately, is 'O for the Wings of a Dove.'

Registering your Concert on http://www.concertfinder.co.uk/
To register your concert on the Online Choral Concert Diary send details including time/date; choir name; venue and ticket cost to British Choirs on the net by email to philliptolley@colcanto.co.uk

For more information on BBC Radio 3 Composers of the Year visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/composers/

Musicians Explore New Frontiers

MUSICIANS will learn more about 'lost' music, African music, pop music and the work of women composers at the ISM Annual Conference 2009, Exploring New Frontiers.

The event will take place from 14-17 April at the Cave Castle Hotel, Brough, East Yorkshire.

Professor Nicola LeFanu will discuss the work of female composers; Malian composer Tunde Jegede will introduce a programme of African classical music; Peter Nickol will explain how pop music came to be taken seriously; and Dr Lewis Foreman will unearth forgotten music in a session called Lost and (Only Sometimes) Found.

Royal Northern College of Music Principal Jonty Stockdale, who took over at the RNCM in September, will discuss his new role in the conference's keynote address. Baz Chapman, director of the government-sponsored National Singing Programme, Sing Up, will report on its progress and answer questions.

Participants will visit Beverley Minster and Hull University Music Department, and listen to performances from the Tippett String Quartet and the satirical comedy piano duo Katzenjammer.

Philosopher AC Grayling will speak at the conference's closing dinner.

ISM President 2008-09, the musicologist and broadcaster Roderick Swanston, will chair the conference. He said:

'The conference may make us ask what constitutes a true history of music and re-evaluate our ideas about popular culture. I hope together we can explore new frontiers with passion, insight and pleasure.'

To download a booking form, visit ism.org/annualconference.

Elgar Day, 28 February 2009

Elgar died on 23 February 1934, so on 28 Feb 2009 there will be a talk followed by two concerts in Worcester to commemorate his death:

- the day starts at 11am with a talk at the Elgar Birthplace on Elgar's Powick Music, given by Andrew Lyle, formerly producer of Radio 3's CD Review programme, speaking in his role of editor of our recently published volume of the Elgar Complete Edition;
- in the afternoon, there is a concert of the Powick Music at King's School, Worcester, starting at 2.30pm and given by the Elgar Camerata conducted by Barry Collett, dedicatee of the Complete Edition volume. The concert will use scores generated from the Complete Edition volume;
- in the evening starting at 7.45pm, Donald Hunt, former organist at the Cathedral, Vice-President of the Elgar Society and the prime mover of the Elgar Day, conducts the English Symphony Orchestra in performances of Elgar's First Symphony and The Music Makers

The day is being run in support of St Richard's Hospice in Worcester. For more details email enquiries@FarncombeEstate.co.uk

PARISH MUSIC

Parish Music concerts resume on 28th February with a recital by the Oriel Singers in Overbury, followed by

Saturday 4th April 2009 8pm St Barbara’s Church, Ashton under Hill

Jessica Thomas, violin, and Ashok Gupta, piano, are two talented young musicians studying at Clare College, Cambridge. Their programme includes Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, the Brahms violin sonata no 2 in A major and JS Bach’s Gavotte en Rondeau from the Partita no 3 in E major.

Jessica is in her fourth year, studying for a B.Mus. She is also a Choral Scholar. She has participated in the University Instrumental Award Scheme, which exists to promote the performance of chamber music.
Ashok is in his second year at Clare, reading Music. He regularly performs with and conducts the college Chapel Choir, and recently composed a Jazz Mass for them. While a pupil at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, he gained his ABRSM Diploma in 2004 and became Young Musician of Gloucestershire in 2005.

Saturday 16th May 2009 8pm St Nicholas’ Church, Teddington

Trio Ébano makes a welcome return to Parish Music. The group last played for us in November 2004 shortly after their leader, flautist Nicola Shorland, had become Gloucestershire Young Musician of the Year. She continues to be a dedicated chamber musician and has acquired an interesting collection of flutes, some of which she will demonstrate at the concert. The programme will also include solos for flute (Debussy’s ‘Syrinx’) and clarinet (‘Tricolour Capers’ by Eric Mandat), duos for flute and clarinet by Rutter, Elgar and Villa-Lobos, and trios by Shostakovich and Mozart.

Nicola is joined in the current ensemble by clarinettist Lucy Tugwell and bassoonist Hannah Wrieden. In 2006 Trio Ébano took their music to Singapore where they performed with the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, and gave recitals and led workshops in various schools. All the members of the trio value teaching as part of their portfolio. Nicola originally learnt by the Suzuki method with Susie Alington and is now herself an accredited Suzuki Flute teacher.

For more details visit www.ashtonunderhill.org.uk/organisations/music