Music Matters 22 January 2019

Jan 202019

Birds and Music

Paul Barritt, a keen amateur ornithologist, invites us to share his violinist’s view

Musicians have long found inspiration for their work in the natural world and in turn music is a means by which humans can express their feelings about nature and the world in general. Join us today as classical violinist Paul Barritt, Permanent Guest Leader of the Hallé Orchestra, explores the use of birds, their image, calls and sounds in classical music in a talk complete with musical examples both electronic and live.

Wines, fruit juice, water and nibbles will be served in the interval; all donations for refreshments help to develop Everyone Matters and our Music Matters lecture-recitals.

Enquiries/advance booking: Margaret Archibald, Artistic Director, Everyone Matters, 21, Stone Road, Bromley, Kent, BR2 9AX Tel: 020 8464 1645; Mob: 07970 123105

E-mail: margaret@everyone-matters.co.uk Website: www.everyone-matters.co.uk Twitter: @EM_Charity

Music Matters Autumn 2016

Lecture-Recitals

Sep 242016

It was lovely to see Whitgift House Chapel filling with lots of familiar friendly faces at the start of our new Music Matters season on 13 September. Nicoline Kraamwinkel and I set feet tapping with a programme of dances that started in medieval Europe and finished in New Orleans, our musical journey taking in Russian Jewish Klezmer and Argentinian Tango.

Richard Suart has chosen to call his presentation on Tuesday 27 September “Generally G&S” or “I should Ko-Ko”, a typically Gilbertian double title. Richard has recently completed a run of performances of “The Mikado” at the London Coliseum in the latest revival of English National Opera’s hugely successful production. If you look carefully at this picture of Richard as Ko-Ko the Lord High Executioner, a role that Richard has made especially his own, I think you may be able to see the “little list” poking out of his pocket! mikado-2012-3-134

The full autumn series of Lecture-Recitals at Whitgift House, 76, Brighton Road, South Croydon, CR2 6AB in The Chapel, 7 for 7.30 – 9.30p.m. costs just £64. It’s not too late to take out a subscription, or you can simply pay £10 on the door on each occasion.

Tuesday 27 September: Richard Suart “Generally G&S” or “I should Ko-Ko” – an evening of reminiscence and song, with baritone favourites from the operettas accompanied by Margaret Archibald at the keyboard.

Tuesday 11 October: Jorge Jimenez “Contrapunctus” – Polyphony for solo violin.

Tuesday 25 October: Alan Shellard and Margaret Archibald “Two of a Kind” – costumed clarinettists in marches and much more.

Tuesday 8 November: Alan George “Beethoven’s last quartets: absolutely contemporary for ever!”

Tuesday 22 November: Stephen Bingham “Lines and Loops” – for violin, electric violin and live-looping.

Tuesday 6 December: Katie Clemmow and Margaret Archibald “Imitation” – exploring a favourite device in the composer’s armoury.

Tuesday 20 December: Gerald Place “Searching for Shakespeare’s Songs” – Gerald sings songs Shakespeare would have known, accompanying himself on the viola da gamba.

There is a second chance to hear Richard Suart, Alan Shellard, Stephen Bingham and Gerald Place who will each appear the next day in our 2.30p.m. Wednesday afternoon series of Musical Offerings at St Mark’s Church Room, Bromley.

Details from Margaret Archibald: 07970 123105; margaret@everyone-matters.co.uk

Rutherford Summer Club 2016

Everyone Matters, Special Needs, Workshops

Aug 062016

Margaret Archibald recalls some highlights of her day at Rutherford School where she and harpist Alexander Thomas were contributing music workshops designed to explore this year’s summer club theme of “Water”.

It really is astonishing how much stuff I manage to take for one day of workshops!

Setting up the gear 20160801_125738.jpg

It was 1st August, there was no school-run traffic, and I arrived at Rutherford School with more than an hour and a half to spare to set up for a full day of workshops with harpist Alexander Thomas. This was already the second week of the school’s Summer Club, and we would spend the day working with five different groups of children all with profound and multiple learning difficulties. Somehow the time flew by as I unpacked lots of small percussion suitable for the school’s holiday project “water”, raided the music therapy percussion trolley, created a watery décor with water-blue silks and colourful umbrellas, and laid out the props and percussion ready in appropriate batches to be used for successive music items.

Alex and Winnie the Pooh 20160801_125624

Alexander Thomas arrived early too, having allowed plenty of time to drive from Dalston with his harp, the very special instrument chosen to be a new experience for the children. We were conscious that summer club should be fun and engaging, and we hoped that the chance to hear a harp and to feel its vibrations would be a thrilling experience for these wheelchair-bound children. We also wanted the support staff to have fun too, and the ratio of staff to children was mostly 1:1 so it was important that everyone was having a good time. Manoeuvring the wheelchairs really close to the harp was rather tricky, and we needed to be very careful not to damage the harp’s pedal box, but nearly every child was able to get close enough to be able to reach out with staff help and touch the pillar of the harp, feeling the strong vibrations flowing through as Alex played. One little girl, whose head we were told is nearly always down on her chest, lifted her head to gaze at Alex and his harp, and at the end of the workshop during our goodbye song she waved us her farewell.

Alex seen through the strings 20160801_130922

A favourite piece at each session was “Mists”, a dreamy and evocative piece for harp and clarinet that we elaborated with the sound of rainsticks, wind chimes and a thunder drum. First we explored the sounds that could be made with the percussion instruments, and then staff helped the children orchestrate the piece with imaginative, atmospheric sound effects. The opportunity to take part by adding additional percussion sounds and visual props to the music was noted by several members of staff as especially enjoyable for everyone, and by the end of each session we had added ‘seaweed’ (green plastic bag strips tied to coat hangers!), a plastic diver, ocean drums, pebble bag scrunchers, sea shells in a bucket, frog guiros, seed pod rattles and castanets to the list of atmospheric additions to enhance a deep ocean-scape, a pirates’ hornpipe, and the song of boatmen heaving on their oars as they pulled a heavy cargo up the river. Finally we invited a free choice of percussion so that everyone could join in our final goodbye song playing their favourite instrument.

As Alex and I were packing up our gear and gradually returning the school room to its former state, we reflected on how lucky we were to be able to play such lovely music, and to share it with these very special children who cannot share their thoughts in words but whose responses mean so much.

Two Favourite ‘Cellists Make a Welcome Return

Lecture-Recitals

Mar 172016

Julia Desbruslais is once again partnered by her son Tim Posner in a new programme of music for two ‘cellos. There are two chances to catch them, so why not come to both!
Tuesday 22 March at 7.30p.m. in Whitgift House Chapel, South Croydon
Wednesday 23 March at 2.30p.m. in St Mark’s Church Room, Bromley
Non-subscription holders: £10 entry
The friendly, informal atmosphere at these events allows everyone to chat to the musicians, especially during the intervals. We run a donations bar on Tuesday evening with wine, soft drinks and nibbles, and we sell afternoon tea with home-made cakes on Wednesday afternoons. All proceeds go towards sustaining these professional lecture-recitals.
Julia Desbruslais is Co-Principal Cello of the London Mozart Players and recently became the orchestra’s Executive Director. Her son Tim Posner began his cello studies with his mum at the age of seven, and he is currently a pupil of Leonid Gorokhov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover.

Information: Margaret Archibald (who will also play the keyboard for Julia and Tim) tel: 020 8464 1645; mob: 07970 123105; email: margaret@everyone-matters.co.uk

Our Spring series of Musical Offerings at St Mark’s Bromley continues:

Wednesday 27 April 2016: Margaret Archibald and John Flinders “Romance and the Romantics” – Passionate Music for Clarinet and Piano

Wednesday 25 May 2016: Jorge Jimenez “Contrapunctus” – Polyphony for Solo Violin

Klezmer Tuesday 15 and Wednesday 16 December

Events, Everyone Matters, Lecture-Recitals

Dec 122015

There are two chances to catch Lesley Schatzberger’s Klezmer presentation, at Whitgift House Chapel, Croydon on Tuesday evening 15 December at 7.30p.m. and at St Mark’s Church Room, Bromley on Wednesday afternoon 16 December at 2.30p.m.

Margaret Archibald will be playing bass clarinet to support Lesley in several performance items. The customary wine and nibbles on Tuesday and afternoon tea on Wednesday will perhaps have a Christmas flavour – well, you would expect it, wouldn’t you!

Lesley Schatzberger DSC_0260b — Lesley Schatzberger

Lesley Schatzberger pioneered historical performance alongside being involved in a broad range of music-making. She has played all over Europe, the USA and Japan, both as an orchestral player and chamber musician – often in Stockhausen’s chamber group. She teaches at the University of York and the Royal Northern College of Music.

Entry to non-subscription holders: £10 0n the door. Donations towards interval refreshments go towards supporting these lecture-recitals and helping to keep them on the road.

Enquiries to Margaret Archibald 020 8464 1645; 07970 123105; margaret@everyone-matters.co.uk

Violin and Harp Mini-Tour in Bromley and Croydon

Care Homes, Events, Everyone Matters, Informal concerts, Lecture-Recitals

Oct 302015

Nicoline Kraamwinkel and Rosanna Rolton, mum and daughter, charmed audiences during seven concerts over three separate days in late October. They performed “Conversation Pieces” in four nursing homes and day centres, entertained the guests at the Sanderstead Decorative and Fine Arts Society Annual Lunch, and gave two full-length lecture-recitals for “Music Matters” in Whitgift House Chapel, South Croydon and for “Musical Offerings” in St Mark’s Church, Bromley.

“We were very impressed with Nicoline and Rosanna playing the harp and violin beautifully this afternoon”, wrote the Administrator of Fairlight and Fallowfield Nursing Home in Chislehurst. “Our residents thought that the music was wonderful and thoroughly enjoyed it. In addition it was lovely how the musicians interacted with the residents in terms of them being provided with a ‘menu’ of music to choose from, and being told a little background to the pieces.”

“The music session this morning was a great success”, echoed the Activity Co-ordinator at Bertha James Day Centre in Bromley, ” and one I hope we can repeat”.

Here are the musicians in action in the Church Room at St Mark’s Church, performing music from Baroque to Tango, and sharing anecdotes with a delighted audience assembled for the second in our new series of “Musical Offerings” in Bromley:

The home-made tea loaf and chocolate cake seemed to go down well at the break, and the apple cake containing old-fashioned garden Bramleys seems to have been a particular success. In fact, a couple of large buckets of this year’s huge Bramley harvest taken to the church enabled quite a few of the audience to take apples home with them too!

Music Matters Spring 2015

Events, Everyone Matters

Dec 262014

The Spring 2015 series of Music Matters lecture-recitals starts on Tuesday 6 January at 7.30p.m. The beautiful setting of the Chapel at Whitgift House is once again the venue for our fortnightly Tuesdays.
A subscription of £56 for the full spring season represents a saving of pretty much 21%. If your Tuesdays are often busy then please do come along whenever you can and simply pay on the door, £10 per lecture-recital.

MUSIC MATTERS 7.30 – 9.30p.m. (doors open 7p.m.)

– a series of Lecture-Recitals in the Chapel at Whitgift House, 76, Brighton Road, South Croydon, CR2 6AB

SPRING SEASON 2014

Tuesday 6 January: Graham Jones, MBE

State Ceremonial Music

Former principal conductor of the Her Majesty the Queen’s Household Division and Lieutenant Colonel, Graham Jones has an extensive career as an inspiring leader, motivator and conductor who is much in demand as a guest conductor, clinician and lecturer across the globe. Recently he has been Inspiring musicians and audiences alike in the USA, Sweden, Germany, Latvia, Norway and Belgium to name but a few.

Through the medium of music and stories of his extensive career this vibrant and inspirational speaker takes you, with his boundless energy and enthusiasm, on an outstanding journey of how to lead and inspire where “failure is not an option”

Graham’s anecdotes will make you laugh but the entire experience will leave the audience with inspiring messages of innovational teamwork and leadership through the art of conducting, training and performing on stage as both an internationally acclaimed conductor and teacher.

3-week gap!

Tuesday 27 January: Caroline Brown

The Hanover Band

Ever since Caroline Brown founded the Hanover Band in 1980 its primary objective has been to enable audiences to gain a better feeling for what earlier music actually sounded like when heard in favourable circumstances. Historical instruments are key to this; as one prominent conductor recently put it, “they have more colour, shape and less weight than modern instruments. They are more tangy, more piquant. We can play full out with the greatest passion, and still sound like Mozart”.

Tuesday 3 February: Martin Smith and Margaret Archibald

Music for violin and clarinet

NB: the venue for this one evening will be back of St. Peter’s Church Hall, Ledbury Road, South Croydon (across the road near Whitgift House)

Martin Smith is a member of the newly self-governing London Mozart Players and has partnered Margaret for many years giving informal concerts in community venues and workshops in schools and kids’ clubs nationwide.

Tuesday 17 February: Gary Ryan

Guitar

Gary Ryan is one of the world’s foremost classical guitarists. He captivates audiences with his exceptional virtuosity and creative genius and has won universal acclaim for his formidable blend of flawless technique, profound musical artistry and highly varied concert programmes. In May 2013 Gary was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music, London, by HRH Prince Charles in recognition of his outstanding achievements in the international musical world.

Tuesday 3 March: David Campbell

Why haven’t you recorded that?…

David Campbell is internationally recognised as one of Britain’s finest musicians and was described by the doyen of British clarinettists, the late Jack Brymer, as ‘the finest player of his generation’.

His recording of Peter Lieuwen’s ‘River of Crystal Light’ was released in May 2007 and the following year ‘Reflections’ – Clarinet Concertos by Carl Davis, Gerald Finzi and Graham Fitkin with the Aurora Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Collon. In 2010 a recording of the Septet by Welsh composer, John Metcalf, was issued to great critical acclaim and Richard Blackford’s Quintet, “Full Moon” will be released on the Nimbus label in June 2012. A recording of Roger Steptoe’s Quintet is planned for 2013.

Tuesday 17 March: Ingrid Pearson

Composer Anniversaries of 2015

Currently Research Fellow in Performance Practice, Ingrid joined the RCM in March 2005 as Deputy Head of Graduate School. Highlights from this time include nurturing the College’s doctoral programme, playing a key role in the submission to RAE 2008 and jointly authoring a new suite of Masters programmes. In July 2011 Ingrid became Research Fellow in Performance Practice and plays a leading role in integrating the College’s research and teaching across both theory and practice. Ingrid performs as a clarinettist in the arenas of historical and contemporary performance. She has appeared with the major UK period ensembles.

Tuesday 31 March: Julia Desbruslais and Tim Posner

Music for two ‘cellos – a mother and son duo

At sixteen Julia Desbruslais won an open scholarship to study the cello with Florence Hooton at the Royal Academy of Music. During this time she won many awards and was a founder member of the all-female Fairfield String Quartet. On leaving the Quartet, she became Co-Principal Cello with the London Mozart Players, where she regularly performs with the Chamber Ensemble and has appeared as a concerto soloist. She is also Principal Cello with the London Jupiter Orchestra, with whom she has performed John Taverner’s Eternal Memory at St John’s, Smith Square. She regularly plays as guest principal with many London orchestras, including the New London Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.

Tim Posner was born in London in 1995 and began playing the cello at the age of seven, studying with his mother, Julia Desbruslais. He studied at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music with Robert Max, and is now a pupil of Leonid Gorokhov at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover.

Tim gave his debut recital at the age of 14 at St Barnabas Church, and his debut concerto performance later that year, playing the Hungarian Rhapsody by Popper at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon. In 2011, Tim gave the world premiere of Via Crucis, which was written for him and his Mother by William McVicker. Later that year he performed Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations at Cadogan Hall, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Whitgift Chamber Orchestra, and was chosen to perform in a London Cello Society event, alongside eminent international soloists. This year he gave a performance of Cpe Bach’s A major concerto, and future engagements include Brahms’ Double Concerto. He has taken part in masterclasses with cellists including Maximillian Hornung, Jo Cole, Sebastian Comberti, Tim Gill and Bernard Gregor-Smith.

£10 per lecture-recital

Advance subscription: £56 for all seven lecture-recitals

Cash, or cheque payable to “Everyone Matters”, in advance or on the door. Bank transfer in advance to Everyone Matters Reg.Charity No.1143445, sort code 30-84-51, account number 34739560

If you would like interval refreshment you are welcome to bring your own tea or coffee; the pews may seem hard after a while so feel free to bring your own cushion!

Finding Whitgift House Chapel

Whitgift House stands in the grounds of Whitgift School, but with its own gate on Brighton Road. Do not go up the hill to the school.

The gate is just north of a bus stop, opposite Choices estate agents with its bright red and yellow sign. The bus stop is more visible than the entrance!

If you are standing on the drive facing the house, you will see to the left of the house a large wrought iron gate leading through into part of the garden. The chapel is accessed by going into the garden through this gate, and then going through the very first door on your left. The Chapel does have toilet facilities.

Free on-site car park facilities are available to our group members as space allows. Buses stopping outside Whitgift House are: 407, 312, 60, 166, 466. Also buses: 119, 468, 405, 403 stop nearby at the Swan and Sugarloaf. The nearest station is South Croydon, and East Croydon station is a brisk walk away.

Everyone Matters: a company limited by guarantee no. 07450130; registered charity no. 1143445