MfE demystify opera!

On Tuesday 14th May Music for Everyone launched the beginning of a new community arts project that will bring together 150 local young singers, 70 instrumentalists, professional artists and talented amateur dancers for an enormous celebration of music making.

with funding by Arts Council England, the project will involve members of the local community in an unforgettable performance of Benjamin Britten’s opera Noye’s Fludde which brings the well-known story of Noah’s Ark to life.

Participants will work with professional artists and will be provided with the opportunity to sing, act, dance and make set, costume and props.

Noye’s Fludde, written by English composer Benjamin Britten, was originally performed by young members of the community and was specifically written for musicians of all levels of ability. Conductor Alex Patterson explains: “The opera is accessible for children of all ages and experience and a great introduction to opera for performers and audience. Britten was a great champion of community music-making and had a belief in great music for all. His legacy is one that Music for Everyone embodies on a daily basis and what greater way to celebrate the two anniversaries by a performance of this much-loved work.”

This performance will be a celebration of 30 years of music making for Nottingham based music charity, Music for Everyone and also forms part of the international Britten 100 festival taking place across the globe to celebrate Britten’s centenary year.

Noye’s Fludde will mark Music for Everyone’s first foray into opera and will be directed by local theatre-maker Robin Reece-Crawford: “I am delighted to be involved in helping to bring this unique production to life. Britten’s interpretation of the Great Flood story calls for a wonderful variety of instrumentalists and singers and I am confident that the combined forces of all the Music for Everyone Youth groups will ensure a dynamic and exiting performance that no-one should miss!”

The performance isn’t only a great introduction to opera for its participants; it is very accessible for audiences too. “This performance is great fun and we hope that it will inspire participants and audience to enjoy opera in the future” says Artistic Director of Music for Everyone, Angela Kay. “The audience can expect a lot of colourful costumes, set and music; a great night out for all the family!”

Member of Nottingham Youth Voices, Emily Hodkinson (18) from Calverton is delighted to be involved “It is going to be so much fun! This is an amazing opportunity and I absolutely can’t wait. It is so exciting to be taking part in such a big performance.”

American film Director, Wes Anderson’s latest film Moonrise Kingdom draws on the director's own experience of performing in Noye's Fludde - “my older brother and I were actually in a production of Noye’s Fludde when I was ten or eleven, and that music is something I've always remembered, and made a very strong impression on me."

The performance will take place on Saturday 29th June at 7.00pm. For more information about the project or to purchase tickets contact Music for Everyone on 0115 958 9312 email admin@music-for-everyone.org or visit the website www.music-for-everyone.org

East of England Singers form part of the composing process

We were delighted that, after a string of disruptions due to a few snowstorms and one avalanche (!), both ‘our’ composer, Rebecca Dale, and her mentor, widely commissioned orchestral composer Fraser Trainer, made it to Nottingham for their first joint visit on Wednesday evening 26 March. Following a meeting with Angela Kay, where there was lots to discuss about the further development of the new piece and the planning for its completion, Rebecca (supported by Fraser) spent an intensive hour in a developmental workshop with the East of England Singers (including Angela of course), trying out ideas for one movement in particular and drawing the choir members into the creative process.


The whole thing was audio recorded, to capture the reactions of Fraser and members of the choir to the experience of rehearsing Rebecca’s sketched opening for the work. Above all she wanted to collect the actual sounds improvised during the workshop, the effects generated as snatches of words and music were tossed around using different voices, dynamics and spaces. At one stage, four different teams of mixed voices were working on vocalising their own compilations of sound effects and note clusters, all in the same room! It was hard work but fun, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Each of the resulting individual team ‘performances’ was received with bursts of sympathetic and appreciative applause from the rest of the group, and seemed to be of real value to Rebecca, who heard a whole lot of inventive variants on her musical ideas to take home and mull over, before turning her final selection into a fabulous opening movement for the new piece!

This latest taster session means that the Festival Chorus and/or East of England Singers have now heard sample sections of three different movements from the new work. Good progress but still some way to go! Next time round, EOES will try out a draft of the completed choir parts – in mid April – before the vocal scores are made ready to send out to the whole Festival Chorus for test-driving in the sectional rehearsals in May. That celebration concert in June really isn’t very far away – excitement is already mounting!

Click here to see some photos from the rehearsal>>

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!