Over the past three years the Cheltenham Recorder Festival has grown to become one of the highlights of the recorder year. The CRF offers an exciting variety of music to cater for all tastes and abilities, ranging from the established Renaissance and Baroque repertoire through to contemporary pieces which will be premièred at the CRF.
The tutors at the festival are specialists in their
fields, ready to dispense friendly advice, direction and insights.
Tutors for the 2008 CRF include:
Helen Hooker, Grace Barton, Ruth Burbidge, John Hawkes, Ann Lyall, Steve
Marshall, Andrew Melville, Pam Smith and Moira Usher.
Our aim is to pack as much as we possibly can into the weekend! The festival begins on Friday evening, with playing sessions from 8:00 to 10:00. On Saturday, sessions are scheduled from 9:00 to 6:00, and on Sunday from 9:00 to 4:00. We try to give you so much to do that you will be rushed off your feet with pleasurable playing - if you want to be.
As ever, the timetable for the weekend will offer participants the opportunity to try out something new, should they wish, alongside well-known and well-loved recorder repertoire. The 2008 festival will include recorder orchestras for players of all abilities and Ann Lyall's much-enjoyed sessions for Voices and Recorders on the Saturday afternoon.
A particular feature of the CRF is Easy Street – a playing room where the music is always easy, which could give you a relaxing moment if you spend most of the festival trying to stretch yourself a little.
There will be a festival concert on Saturday evening, free to all course participants. The festival concerts have been widely regarded as one of the highlights of previous festivals and the 2008 concert will be no exception. Polyphonica, a recorder trio with breathtaking technique and musicianship, will open the concert.
We will then be treated to the inaugural performance
by the Chamber Recorder Orchestra of the West (CROW) conducted by Pam
Smith and featuring Helen Hooker. CROW is the first permanent Chamber
Recorder Orchestra (one to a part orchestra) in the world and the CRF concert
will be a great opportunity to hear this exciting new type of recorder
ensemble. The concert will conclude with the first performance of Steve
Marshall's Triple Concerto, written specifically for Polyphonica and CROW.
Visitors are welcome to attend the festival concert and tickets are
available from the Secretary.
Dean Close School is a distinguished boarding school, within walking distance of Cheltenham town centre. The original school buildings have been tastefully extended over the years with a large, modern music school of which we will have exclusive use. This year the Festival Concert will take place in the Bacon Theatre, the school's prestigious concert venue. Accommodation will be in two of the school’s residential ‘houses’.
The school has disabled access to all playing rooms. There is ample car parking, and the school is only 10 minutes from the M5 (junction 11A). All accommodation is just a short walk from the playing rooms, dining room and bar.
All of your urges to spend money on instruments, music and accessories can be readily satisfied, as both Recorder MusicMail and the Early Music Shop will be at the festival.