Following our AGM on 18 June we’ll be holding the presentation concert of this years’ AYCA winners. Every year one of the big challenges we face, as we know many of you do also, is finding a professional standard piano hire service for an affordable price capable of working with us in a venue that they don’t necessarily know that well. This year that important role is being filled by Markson Pianos who we are also pleased to welcome as corporate members.
BBC Music today launched Get Playing, a project that aims to inspire and bring together amateur musicians across the UK, while helping people discover or rediscover the joys of music making.
The flute, viola and harp trio can now be booked by Making Music members for a subsidised fee. They talk to Rey Trombetta about what promoters and audiences can expect from their performances.
Andy Jackson, the inspirational leader of Cobweb Orchestras, thought the best way for me to get an idea of how they work would be to join in one of their groups, and he organised a cello for me to play. But what Andy didn’t know until I met him in the Sage Gateshead café that day that I have never held a cello before in my life.
Imagine being 16 years old and conducting a choir of experienced singers in front of a full house. Last November, that daunting prospect faced Tasmin Sarkany, winner of the 2015 place in The Ripieno Choir’s Apprentice Conductor programme, as she prepared for her first public outing.
We were sad to hear of the death on 14 March of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (1934-2016), world-renowned composer, conductor and Making Music President for 27 years.
When I’m there working with the group, there’s a particular dynamic and working relationship which from the start has been very positive and enabling – but of course there’s lots going on that I don’t see, so it’s intriguing to read about how they see that relationship themselves, and how they’re experiencing the project.
