Newsletter - April 2002

Articles

March Meeting (including AGM)

The March meeting was also our AGM. Unfortunately Terry had injured his back that very morning and consequently was unable to attend. However, it was decided to proceed with the AGM and not delay for another month.

Without our Chairman’s report we had a pretty speedy AGM. A quick resume of items discussed:

Richard reported that with the help of the Bournemouth Arts Grant and money received from B.O.A.T and various other contributions, the balance at the end of the year has left us financially sound.

Moving back to Pelhams for our concert venues has proved to be popular and compared to the prices of previous venues, seems to be a good investment.

It has been suggested that we look at charitable status. This is one of the things that we are going to look into in the new year. Basically the principle is that if the society becomes a registered charity it should be possible to get some of the money back from the government.

It has also been suggested that we have membership cards. This could be advantageous when buying music as some music shops will give discount if presented with a guitar society membership card.

The committee was re-elected on block. Terry Robinson as Chairman, Richard Thompson as Treasurer, Chris Gillson as Publicity Officer and Margaret Tredwell as Secretary.

The subscriptions are to remain at £35 per year.

As we have not heard any more news of the hall being demolished we decided that we are still happy with the small hall until such time that we may have to move.

The email newsletters are a bit slow to download but otherwise everyone is happy with their email newsletters.

As our chairman couldn’t be with us I have printed the Chairman’s Report below.

Chairman’s Report

Once again, I’m pleased to report another excellent year. The Society has continued to thrive and the list of events during the year has been nothing short of amazing.

• 3rd May - Performance of Vivaldi Concerto’s in C and D. with John Mills at the Seldown Gallery
• 4th May - Performance by members posing for Poole Arts Society
• 2nd June - Performance by members at Kinson Festival
• 7th July - Summer Concert by members
• 23rd July – 10th August – Performance by members at the production of Twelfth Night on Brownsea Island by the Brownsea Open Air Theatre.
• Aug - Performance by members at Summer Art Exhibition at Weymouth Art Centre
• 1st Sept - Alexander technique workshop by John Edwards
• 19th Sept - Concert by members for the Southbourne Literary Society
• 27th Oct - Workshop & Concert by the Katona Twins
• 17th Nov – Concert by Lintarre Duo (guitar & violin)
• 9th Feb - Gerald Garcia Workshop

The above list speaks for itself – especially the tremendous commitment required by members to support the performance of Twelfth Night. Special thanks, as ever, go to: Margaret for basically organising everything, and still finding time to produce the superb newsletter, Ann for organising all the music and Stephen for all his coaching efforts & his compositions for which we are very grateful. Thanks also to Richard for his acquisition of a grant from Bournemouth Arts Council for the Katonas. And, thanks to the rest of the committee and everybody else who contributed to a successful year.

Thanks also to Nick, for his construction & maintenance of our new website.

All in all, yet another good year

Apologies if I’ve forgotten anybody and I’m sorry that I couldn’t make the AGM.

Terry Robinson

With all the formalities out of the way we still had quite a bit of time for our favoured pastime.

Stephen’s Dances are proving to be quite tricky but well worth the effort. We also worked on two new movements of the Bach Suite and consolidated what we learnt last month.

We even had time for our soloists :

• Howard played Basse Dance by Pierre Attaignant
• Mark played Study No. 2 and 19 by Carcassi
• Margaret played Song for Rhiannon by Stephen Kenyon
• Richard & Sarah played Pavano by J. Jenkins
• Stephen played Reverie by Giuliani Regondi

Next Meeting

The next meeting will take place on 21^st April 2002at 5.45 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. in the Small Hall.
This month we shall be working on Palladio and Irish Folk Medley. Time permitting we could of course also be working on any of the other pieces that we have already started.
I know that the music that we have chosen this year is a little more difficult than usual and if anyone is having any problems with it please don’t suffer in silence or stay away. We really do want to cater for everyone and we are very willing to produce an easier part of anything. Likewise if anyone is finding any of the suggested fingerings a bit too much of a challenge then please play where you are comfortable. Having said that, do have a go because more often than not it is easier to play in say, fifth or seventh position as the notes often fit more easily under the fingers.
A gentle reminder - please remember to bring your cheque books as the subscriptions are now due.

Quote of the Month

"“Don’ta rush!”"
(said with an Italian accent)

14th April 2002

Good advice to us all!

Future Meetings

Emanuele Segre

Concert Judging by the increase in ticket sales of our last few events, I feel that people are realising that they are guaranteed a good quality musical experience when they attend a DGS concert. We had excellent feed back from Saturdays recital with Emanuele Segre. Emanuele played with tremendous passion for the music and his instrument. We were treated to a delightful and varied programme including the World Premiere of Passacaglia dedicated to him by Giovanni Grosskopf. He concluded the first half of his programme with Giuliani’s Rossiniana, a very expressive and demanding piece (almost 20 minutes long).

Other items on the programme were Chaconne by Weiss, Sonatas K.391, K11, & K.380 by Scarlatti and Miller’s Dance by De Falla and Mallorca & Asturias by Albeniz. For the encore Emanuele played a very energetic Prelude No 1 by Villa Lobos - an excellent choice to finish with.

A very enjoyable party afterwards at Katie and Phil’s house.

Workshop

Fourteen of us benefited from a very informative and satisfying workshop on Sunday.

We started off with our five (some very nervous) volunteers for the masterclass. Emanuele was very encouraging and helped with some of the musical and technical difficulties that we were having and thus improving our performance. Some very helpful and useful ideas emerged. Emanuele said afterwards that there had been some very good playing. He was also pleased and a little surprised that we were all playing on such good instruments.

After lunch everyone joined in the playing of our ensemble pieces - Ballet de roy by Praetorius and Planxty Irwin by O’Carolan.

The meticulous treatment Emanuele gave to the ensemble pieces worked to great effect. He started us off by listening to each individual group in turn and then building up by listening to group 1 and 2 together and then group 3 and 4. This is the way that he likes to work and feels that it saves time in the long run. He started us off very slowly and then when he was satisfied that we were playing in time with one another he gradually increased the speed and also worked on the dynamics. Actually, I feel that Emanuele was very gentle with us without letting us get away with too much.

Emanuele said that he had enjoyed his weekend very much and also had enjoyed working with the DGS. Well, I think that it was obvious that all of us enjoyed it too.

Yet another very successful event.

Woman's Hour

I was especially thrilled the other day when I switched on Woman’s Hour on the radio just in time to hear the beginning of an interview with guitarist Amanda Cooke.

Having just read Colin Cooper’s editorial in a recent edition of Classical Guitar Magazine, that the guitar is not served well by the broadcasting media, it did somewhat cheer me up. I can not recall ever (with the exception of John Williams and Julian Bream) having heard a guitarist being interviewed on Radio 4.

The programme promoted Amanda’s debut CD titled Debut. She played a new piece from the CD written by her former teacher Benjamin Verdery.

Amanda explained that her father was a professional blues guitarist for a time and that she had always loved the sound of the classical guitar from the records that her parents used to play. Her career took off when she won the ‘Young Admira Guitar Competition’ at the Bath Festival in 1995.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Valerie Evans on passing her grade 5.

Stéphane Grappelli
A LIFE IN THE JAZZ CENTURY

Stéphane tells his own incredible story. A Paris orphan busking on the streets, goes on to sell out Carnegie Hall enjoying an unprecedented 77 year career. The story contains archive musical performance and contributions from: Django Reinhardt, Martin Taylor, John Etheridge, Duke Ellington, Coleridge Goode, Diz Disley, Art Tatum, Michael Parkinson, Yehudi Menuhin, Nigel Kennedy and many more.

2 disk special edition DVD £28.99

Video £19.99 available from Music on Earth, 42 Barnfield Rd, Ealing, London, W5 1QT. or log on to www.musiconearth.co.uk

Dorset Composers' Concert

Greetings! Just to let you know that the Dorset Composers' Network is making one of its most important concerts yet, as part of the Dorchester Festival.

The concert features settings of the poetry of the Australian writer A.B. (Banjo) Paterson, performed by a noted Autralian mezzo-soprano and a baritone, with accompaniment on the pianoforte.

The Dorset Composers' Network is an association of local composers and we have put on several concerts locally, most recently in the new hall in Poundbury. The mixture of composers assures a varied and stimulating programme, and the songs will be published in time for the concert in case you want to take them home with you!

My contribution features a setting of the prelude to one of his poetry collections, and more colourfully, a setting of "Flying Squirrels".

Hope to see you there if you can make it!

Stephen Kenyon - www.jacaranda-music.com

See Concert Diary for details.

Concert Diary

Saturday 27th April - 7.45 p.m.
ST AGATHA’S CHURCH
Market Way, Portsmouth
Cambridge Guitar Orchestra &
Havant Area Guitar Orchestra
Ticket Information
Tel: 023 9247 9200 email: tickets@hago.org.uk
£6.50 (Concessions £4.50) - discount order form from me or email discount@hago.org.uk (50p off each ticket)
Visit: www.hago.org.uk

Saturday 4th May - Concert 7.45 p.m.
DORCHESTER FESTIVAL
Dorset County Museum
Dorset Composers' Concert
Tel: Stephen Kenyon 01305 257 099 - £5

Saturday 6th July - Concert 7.30 p.m.
DORSET GUITAR SOCIETY
Kinson Community Centre
Dorset Guitar Orchestra
Margaret Tredwell: 01425 613 739
Concert £4 (Concessions £3)

Saturday 13th July - Concert 7.30 p.m.
DORSET GUITAR SOCIETY
St. Stephen's Church, Bournemouth
Quartetto Concertante
Margaret Tredwell: 01425 613 739
Concert £8 (Concessions £6)

Saturday 27th July - Concert
ST. MARY'S CHURCH
Dorchester
Quartetto Concertante
Tel: Stephen Kenyon 01305 257 099

Saturday 12th October - Concert 7.30 p.m.
Sunday 13th October - Workshop
DORSET GUITAR SOCIETY
Kinson Community Centre
Eleftheria Kotzia
Margaret Tredwell: 01425 613 739
Concert £8 (Concessions £6)
Combined Workshop & Concert £25

Saturday 26th October - Concert
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT
St. Mary's Church, Dorchester
Stephen Kenyon
Tel: Stephen Kenyon 01305 257 099