Counting Down to the Festival!

It is now just seven weeks to the 2016 National Festival and Conference of the Society of Recorder Players. This year the event is being hosted by the Lincolnshire Branch of the Society and takes place on 2nd & 3rd April at Christ’s Hospital School, Wragby Road, Lincoln, LN2 4PN.

An event of this size takes a lot of organisation and with only a year to prepare, our little ‘gang of four’ committee have been hard at work.

The first task was to find a suitable (and affordable!) venue. We needed somewhere with a large hall for massed playing, as well as plenty of accessible smaller rooms for ensembles and shops. Space was needed for reception areas, dining and a concert venue! Of course, plenty of parking was essential…

Having found the venue, we set out to invite the best conductors and shops to take part. A fantastic team of dedicated conductors was duly recruited, to lead playing sessions offering a programme of music to suit all tastes. Among the musical goodies on offer, are a Jazz Workshop led by Evelyn Nallen, a Recorder Orchestra led by Helen Hooker and a Masterclass given by Piers Adams.

We also managed to attract some of the leading shops and publishers! These will include Early Music Shop, Hawthorns Music, Recorder Music Mail and Willobie Press, so there will be plenty of opportunity to try and buy new instruments – or to check out the latest sheet music titles.

One feature of the National Festival, is often the first performance of a newly-commissioned work. Here in Lincoln we are lucky enough to have two local composers connected with our branch, so we have TWO new works – by Paul Richards and Nicholas Wynne.

A music gathering of this size sounds like a perfect opportunity for a concert – or two! Local musicians, Lindum Divertissimo, will provide a Saturday lunchtime recital of English Baroque music for recorder, violin, voice and continuo. On Saturday evening, we are excited to welcome Piers Adams & David Wright – the ‘Wild Men of the Baroque’!

With so much in place, we needed to design an application form. We were delighted to have local artist, Sheena Fairclough, design our wonderful ‘Imp’ logo and the Imp takes pride of place on the form. The form needed to be clear enough to make it easy for our visitors to apply for the weekend, and to order the meals and concert tickets they want.

At this point, the forms are pouring in! There is still time to apply but you are strongly advised to book by 11th March – especially if you want to order meals or concert tickets! Application forms can be downloaded from SRP National Festival. Our website shows all the latest festival information – including the timetable for the weekend.

An army of volunteers are already gearing up to assist our visitors, allowing them to have a great weekend. I do hope YOU will be able to join us…