November 2010
It would be inappropriate to start this newsletter without paying tribute to our Vice-Chairman Jean Hudson, who sadly passed away in early November. Jean was a quiet force for good on the committee, always looking to unobtrusively fill in a gap in the arrangements. She will be remembered as the lady who sold the programmes, but she did so much more. Madeleine Mitchell paid a touching encore of Elgar’s Salut d’amore dedicated to her at the end of our November concert.
The season has started very well with a capacity audience for the Dante String Quartet. Madeleine’s concert presented some slightly unfamiliar music, enthusiastically received. It’s worth recording that she had spent quite some time looking at our website and commented that it was professional, beautifully designed and gave an amazing amount of information on our concerts, while retaining a friendly music club feel. High praise for Tony’s hard work. She particularly liked the ease to book tickets and our logo of the castle designed by our committee member and wonderful flower arranger, Betty Foster. There is evidence that our website and the national and international ones that we use such as Concert Diary, Oclassical and Dilettante are being used. If you Google our next concert artist, Clitheroe Concerts Society usually appears in the first few hits, just after the artist’s own website. We have had tickets and subscriptions paid on-line and this is slowly increasing. The Clitheroe Advertiser continues to support us with publishing in full our reports and photographs, as well as previews of the concert. We have links on our website to all of the local music societies, including the Jazz and Blues Club, who are reciprocating by publicising our concerts. Other Northwest orchestras and radio stations are included. To use the cliché, we are becoming a “one-stop shop” for music in the Northwest.
Looking forward, Hannah Marcinowicz plays saxophone for us on December 1st accompanied by pianist John Reid. Hannah is a Munster Trust and Tillett Trust sponsored artist, which is a strong recommendation in itself. Having studied in Paris, it is no surprise that French music is on the programme. Debussy, Grieg and Dubois are among the composers. February’s concert is a chance to hear one of the Royal Northern College of Music’s highly recommended groups, the Northern Brass Quintet. Members come from as different backgrounds as the BBC Philharmonic and the Black Dyke and the Brighouse Brass Bands. They play a varied programme including Derek Bourgeois’s Sonata for Brass Quintet and John McCabe’s Harbours and Ships. Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein are in a lighter second half. This is a change to the previously advertised programme and still provisional.
On the 2nd March, we hear the Calvert-Turner Duo. Rowena studied cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal College of Music in London and the RNCM, where she scored 100% in her finals. Harpist Eleanor also studied at the Royal College of Music and has won the prestigious Royal Overseas League Award for strings. They play a programme from Bach to Ravi Shankar by way of Bartok and Astor Piazzolla. Highly esteemed musicians – this will be an excellent concert.
The last concert of the 59th season on 6th April will again be something very special. Clélia Iruzun is a pianist greatly admired for her interpretation of the standard classical repertoire, but is also an acknowledged expert on piano music from her native Brazil and beyond. The first half of the programme is all Chopin – with a Polonaise, a Waltz, a Ballade and a Sonata making a neat survey of the master’s output. She then turns to Spain and Latin America after the interval, promising a very lively and entertaining end to the season.
One more concert to mention: next June’s Summer Concert and AGM on the 8th June. We again welcome a group of postgraduates from the Royal Northern College of Music: the Absolution Saxophone Quartet. In 2010 they won the College’s award for the top group in their class and were finalists in the Overall Chamber Music Award. Superb musicians with a programme which includes works by Glazunov, Piazzolla and Gershwin.
The committee has been working very hard to broaden our audience and to bring a wide range of good music to Clitheroe, but we do need some help. The response to our appeal for additional accommodation volunteers has been magnificent. Thanks to all who have helped already and we hope that it was an enjoyable experience. You may have seen Barbara’s recent posters with a photograph of the musicians and some detail of their programme. We have had a very positive feed-back from some people who are on the fringe of our audience and need to know a little more than simply the name of the artists.
We now need one or two extra people on the committee and in particular and urgently, a new treasurer to take over from Margaret. Simple basic computer skills are essential, but a financial programme such as Quicken or Microsoft Money will be supplied, which makes the entry of income and expenditure easy and will produce balances – even spreadsheets – for committee meetings, the AGM and the Charity Commission at a touch of a key. Every help will be given. It would also be helpful for someone to coordinate refreshments for both artists and audience. Many thanks to those who do it now on an ad hoc basis, but we need someone to ensure that everything runs smoothly. There is an immense amount of work on our website and other commercial concert-finding websites and a standby to do some of that work – and to step in if the Chairman or Secretary should be unavailable, is badly needed.
Finally, we are trying to get the Society’s basic documentation established. Job Descriptions for the Officers and Committee have been written and a start has been made to prepare task/timing lists, essential for people filling in or taking over a job. We also need urgently an emergency procedures document, alongside more general Health and Safety guidance. Recently, there have been two instances where an audience member has been taken seriously ill at a local concert. In each case, rapid first aid and efficient procedures, together with a rapid response by the emergency services, ensured that the very best care was given. Again a coordinator and volunteers to administer first aid are needed. Could you help? Hopefully you will never be called upon!
Do come to the concerts even if it’s not your specialised interest. Often a change is as good as a rest and a surprising amount of satisfaction results from being a little adventurous and enjoying the result!
Just a little peep into next season, our 60th. It will start with the brilliant young Piatti String Quartet and finish with Martin Roscoe.
But enjoy the rest of this season!
Best regards
Ken Geddes
Hon. Secretary and Concert Organiser