Rebecca visits EOES rehearsal

Music for Everyone’s chamber choir members were delighted to welcome our adopted composer, Rebecca, on her first visit. We all met up in Nottingham on a normal Wednesday rehearsal evening in November. The plan is for Rebecca to include some material specially for this choir in the final piece, but also to try out some preliminary ideas with them when she is ready, going on to rework and develop them for the big choir setting.

But her first visit wasn't just a meeting and greeting occasion. Rebecca had opted to get to know the choir from the inside, taking a seat in the soprano section for an evening working on a Buxtehude Cantata and the Poulenc Christmas Motets. Her decision to ‘embed’ was really appreciated by the choir and everyone felt comfortable with her from the start. Angela Kay, MfE’s Artistic Director, was in action conducting the rehearsal; so Rebecca was able to experience Angela’s lively, skillful and motivating approach at first hand. Although the big choir is not auditioned and includes some less specialist singers, Angela’s ability to inspire everyone to achieve great performances narrows any ability gaps quite amazingly! Pictured at the end of the evening, Rebecca and Angela certainly look happy with the partnership.

We are currently discussing possible themes for the new work and hunting up interesting texts for Rebecca to consider setting to music – we’ll probably need a bit of a joint confab just on this, pretty soon! Meanwhile MfE’s preparations for the next big choir event are well under way and we look forward to welcoming Rebecca to our Verdi Requiem course and concert weekends in late January and early February, when she will really get the measure of the big choir and orchestra, the concert hall where her composition will be premiered and the cast of hundreds she’s going to be writing for!

Rebecca's first blog!

When, in my Adopt A Composer interview, I was asked "in an ideal world, if you could write anything, for any forces, what would that be?", I answered that, given no limitations, I would love to do something exciting for very large forces, involving both choir and orchestra. Never did I imagine that I would actually be offered the opportunity to work with both!

 So being paired with the wonderful Music For Everyone really is a dream come true for me - if the prospect of writing for a choir of 250 is a little daunting! The piece will celebrate the organisation's 30th anniversary, and at our first meeting we had plenty of ideas. We talked about the possibility a suite of short contrasting movements, so there is something for everyone, and keeping it broadly filmic in feel. Other than that I am keeping my mind open until I have got to know the ensembles a little better. Everybody involved has already been incredibly welcoming, and I can't wait for my first visit, which is coming up very soon.

MfE office launches with a musical celebration

MfE members and supporters enjoyed drinks, nibbles and entertainment at the grand opening of our new HQ and charity bookshop (Bookwise) on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 September.

Attendees and passers-by were entertained on Hockley High Street by members of our performance groups and office staff! The East of England Singers performed a variety of pieces, Chris McDouall (Bandwise co-ordinator and conductor) played some delightful recorder music and Su (General Manager) and Isobel Bounford (leader of our concert orchestra) formed a duet to perform string music with Artistic Director, Angela Kay on piano. Morven our new Assistant Artistic Director also joined the line-up and sang musical theatre and pop numbers. Members of the public really seemed to enjoy the music with a number of people commenting on how the groups had brought the street alive and asking when were we going to do it again!

Everyone was really impressed with the excellent office accommodation which MfE now enjoys. The whole refurbishment of the building has been master-minded and project managed by MfE chairman, Andrew James.

The MfE office staff love the new HQ "We are really happy to have a wonderful office in vibrant Hockley, Nottingham's cultural quarter. It is great that people can pop in anytime to enrol for an event and purchase tickets for concerts, it's really nice to meet more of the people that are involved in our many events. If you are ever in town please do pop in and have a look!"

Visitors were surprised about the size of the building too. Bookwise, the MfE second hand bookshop extends over two floors and has stocks of hundreds of books on lots of different subjects and a great range of sheet music. All proceeds from the shop go to provide funds for the continued outreach work of MfE. "It is a great shop and well worth a visit. A really good range of books on just about any subject."

What a wonderful way to launch our 30th Anniversary season - a big thank you to everyone that came along!

Bookwise are having a Sale of Children's Books - special half-term offers - most books only 50p or £1 this week and next week only!

See the photo's of the day by clicking here>>>>

String players of all ages perform in harmony

Last Sunday the East Midlands String Orchestra performed with our Youth String Orchestra in St Peter's Church, Ruddington. Richard Howarth was at the helm as conductor and the guest leader was Jonathan Martindale.

The concert opened with the rhythmic drive of Stravinsky's Concerto in D, keeping the players and audience on the edge of their seats! Following this, the Youth Strings played a lively movement from Divertimento by Peter Martin and later joined with the adults to perform the Montagues and Capulets theme from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.

Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis was the highlight for many, with over 50 string players, youth and adult combining to produce a rich tapestry of sound. One audience member commented "The orchestra(s) performed splendidly. The Fantasia was wonderful, filling the church with radiant sound. And what a wonderful age mixture!"

A retiring collection for the Motor Neurone Disease Association raised over £400. For more information about the charity visit their website: http://www.mndassociation.org/

Our Composer has been announced!

Music for Everyone recently applied to be part of the Adopt a Composer scheme run by Making Music, the national body which represents music organisations - it seemed an ideal opportunity to commission a piece especially for our 30th birthday celebrations at no cost to Music for Everyone. Out of 130 applications only 6 were successful and we were really pleased to be one of them!

On Saturday 6 October, Angela went down to London for the big launch event of the Adopt a Composer scheme. The excitement mounted as each of the six groups were paired with a young composer..... who would our composer be?

We are pleased to announce that her name is Rebecca Dale!

As you can see from her website http://www.rebeccadale.com/ Rebecca studied at New College, Oxford University and went to Bristol University to further her composition studies specialising in music for film and television. She is now an associate composer with the London Symphony Orchestra as part of its Soundhub scheme and is working for the BBC as assistant to the composer for the period drama The Paradise which is currently being shown on BBC 1 on Tuesday evenings.

She is so excited about writing a piece for large choir and full orchestra and is really looking forward to meeting the Nottingham Festival Chorus and Nottingham Concert Orchestra - we will keep you updated on new developments!

Harmony in Hockley

NUMBER Ten Goose Gate is the new home of Music for Everyone (MfE), the independent arts organisation credited with enhancing the lives of thousands of local musicians. It will be celebrating with open days on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 September. Neil Bennison, Music Manager at the Royal Concert Hall, will cut a ribbon at 11am on the Friday.

MfE’s move from shared office space at High Pavement into a newly restored Georgian building, derelict for the past five years, brings the organisation and its Bookwise second hand bookshop together under one roof, in a part of the city enjoying a new lease of life and a vibrant arts culture. The building is also home to the music shop, Classical CD.

At any one time, close on 2000 musicians of all abilities will be singing and playing with MfE, formed in 1983 as the Nottingham Choral Trust by Angela Kay, its committed, energetic and innovative artistic director. Open access workshops, performing groups and high quality concerts are all part of a successful mix that has brought acclaim from the critics and recognition from the East Midlands Arts Council.

Profits from Bookwise, the brainchild of MfE’s chairman, Andrew James, help to sustain MfE’s music-making activities. There’s already a thriving branch in Southwell, staffed, as is the Nottingham shop, by volunteers. Angela Smallwood, a board member of MfE and the Hockley shop’s volunteer manager, is discovering already what a great place it is to be selling books.

“We get students, day trippers exploring all the characterful individual shops round here, film buffs from the Broadway Cinema and booklovers of all ages,” she said. “They’re all on the lookout for something different and enjoying discovering hidden gems on our shelves at bargain prices.”

The building has undergone extensive renovation by Mr James, an architect who has been involved in regeneration projects in the Lace Market since 1975. The bookshop is on two floors, almost doubling the amount of stock previously on sale, and with dedicated office space for the volunteers as well as for MfE’s permanent staff.

“We would never have been able to achieve so much without the army of volunteers who help with all our concerts and courses, both adult and youth, and of course Bookwise is just one example of how people giving up their time can help so much with the generation of funds,” says Angela Kay. “It means that Music for Everyone can plan for the future with confidence.”

Of the organisation she created, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2012/13, she comments, “It only seems like yesterday that I had the idea of running a singing weekend resulting in a concert – and now look at us, 30 years on. So many concerts, so many people of all ages and abilities enjoying making music together, so many friends made by so many people. It’s wonderful. “

And what a celebration we’re going to have – special concerts and courses, and new outreach work in city schools, as part of the Nottingham Music Hub. We’ve got a special feature coming up in the BBC East Midlands magazine programme, Inside Out, and a new piece for choir and orchestra specially commissioned for its first performance at our 30th anniversary concert in June 2013, where it will be recorded and broadcast on Radio 3. Quite a year!”

From 3rd of September the MfE office will be based at the following address: 10 Goose Gate Nottingham NG1 1FF. You can contact MfE on the temporary mobile: 07905787380

Nottingham’s Music for Everyone wins a Composer!

Nottingham based music charity Music for Everyone has won one of six national awards linking amateur music organisations individually with up and coming young composers. The year-long partnership will culminate in a new piece for choir and orchestra to be performed in a celebration concert at Nottingham’s Albert Hall next June and recorded by BBC Radio 3.

Music for Everyone’s composer will be announced in October by the scheme’s sponsors: PRS for Music Foundation, Making Music and Sound and Music. The composer will work with Music for Everyone’s Nottingham Festival Chorus, comprising over 250 local singing enthusiasts.

Angela Kay, Artistic Director of Music for Everyone said “We are absolutely delighted to be a part of this scheme. The timing is perfect. The coming concert season marks 30 years of music making by the Nottingham Festival Chorus and there could be no better way to celebrate our Big Birthday!”

Long standing member of the Nottingham Festival Chorus Morag Cumming from Lady Bay said “Singing with Music for Everyone is always fabulous, but to be part of the first ever performance and recording of a new piece - how great is that? It's even more exciting! I can hardly wait to hear it!"

The Nottingham Festival Chorus is Music for Everyone’s flag-ship choir, a large-scale four-part chorus (200+ voices) performing major classical and twentieth- century works. Membership is open to all (no auditions), there are no weekly rehearsals - singers are provided with scores and rehearsal CDs to help them learn the music at their own pace. If you are interested in singing as part of the Nottingham Festival Chorus in this special season visit the Music for Everyone website for more information www.music-for-everyone.org or contact 0115 959 6484

East Midlands Youth String Orchestra feature in National Festival

The East Midlands Youth String Orchestra presented a class act at Birmingham's Symphony Hall on Wednesday 4th July when they performed at the National Festival of Music for Youth, a six-day showcase for inspirational young musicians from across the UK.

Members of the 30-strong EMYSO come from all over Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, including Wollaton, Southwell and East Leake. They won through to the Birmingham festival from a regional competition at Loughborough in May. MfE violin tutor Isobel Bounford said "We were very excited to be invited to perform at Symphony Hall! We were one of just six groups from as far afield as Penzance, Gwent and London to be chosen, so we felt privileged to be part of such a wonderful National Festival”.
 
Asked what it was like to play at one of the world’s top concert venues, Andrew Sherwin, one of EMYSO's youngest members said "It was a fantastic place. I was quite nervous when we arrived but it was brilliant and I had a great time!"

The judges praised the orchestra's playing as stylish, committed and lyrical. EMYSO conductor Richard Howarth said "I was really impressed with the way the group performed and was proud to be conducting them at Symphony Hall. It’s a huge space but they did not seem fazed by that, and played with great enthusiasm and confidence."

Nottingham-based principal viola, Jamie van der Sanden, remarked "Playing in Symphony Hall was exhilarating, especially since I had a solo passage! The acoustic was brilliant and I could really hear my viola projecting its sound". Thanks to Music for Everyone’s special Instrument Fund, Jamie has had the use of a fine viola whilst in the orchestra. He said "EMYSO has shown me just how exciting it is to join with other musicians and work together towards a top performance. The teaching has been fantastic and helped me to develop real style in my playing”.

A small number of participants in the National Festival will be invited to perform at the Schools' Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in London later in the year. Jamie said "If we were asked to take part it would be the icing on the cake… the Birmingham day was really inspirational and will be something we'll never forget".

If your son or daughter is a string player grade 5 standard or above and would be interested in joining the group you can find out more information on the Music for Everyone websitewww.music-for-everyone.org email admin@music-for-everyone.org or telephone 0115 9596484.