Great Art and Culture for Everyone is the title of Arts Council England’s (ACE) 10 year vision, published in 2013. But since then thinking has started shifting and the formerly prevalent view that excellent arts is made by professional arts organisations and cascaded down to us mere mortals who – dammit! - in some areas simply refuse to engage with it is now increasingly discredited.
News
Post date: Thursday, 20 July 2017 - 5:32pm
Conducting; standing at the front waving your hands trying to control the music, without actually making any noise, is a strange activity. Although the reality of conducting is far more subtle, you are really nothing more than a glorified traffic cop signalling when to ‘go’, ‘stop’, and controlling the speed of the traffic.
Post date: Friday, 30 June 2017 - 5:37pm
As a young musician and member of ensembles and orchestras there are certain things which I enjoy and others which I don’t and can put me off continuing to go to them
Post date: Wednesday, 28 June 2017 - 3:16pm
Choral Festival Voices Now returns to London's Roundhouse this July, bringing with it everything from Beatboxing to Baka Rainforest singing, along with performances from amateur choirs from across the UK.
Post date: Wednesday, 28 June 2017 - 11:27am
Zelkova Quartet won the 2017 St Martin's Chamber Music Competition with a fantastic rendition of string quartets by Haydn and Debussy. They are now available to hire by Making Music member groups for a fixed affordable fee (find out how to book them).
Post date: Wednesday, 28 June 2017 - 1:46am
Chris Swain, Musical Director of the Wycliffe Choral Society in Gloucestershire, has just returned from a summer choir tour to Riga: “Everyone absolutely loved Riga and Latvia,” he said. “It’s hard to think how anything could have been improved on this trip – it was superb in every way! The response to the whole tour has been entirely positive."
Chris went on an Inspection visit ahead of his tour which made all the difference.
Post date: Friday, 23 June 2017 - 2:19pm
Professional music organisations seem more likely to network amongst themselves and to talk to a similar musical ensemble, music education centre or concert venue in a different city, than they are to take note of the musical activity on their own doorstep.
All of them are likely to work for or with under-18s. But non-professional adult musicians are merely seen as audiences, never as a full part of the music ecology.
Post date: Tuesday, 13 June 2017 - 12:03pm
Following the busy weeks and months that led up to the premiere of my work Continuum by the Glasgow School of Art Choir, I can start to gather my thoughts and reflect on my time spent as their adopted composer – an experience that has been incredibly beneficial for me and, I hope, for them too.
Post date: Monday, 12 June 2017 - 11:48am
Since being paired with Croydon Bach Choir in September 2016, I have worked with the choir on numerous occasions, gradually feeding material from my new choral work. Homo Sum was conceived as a celebration of multiculturalism, reflecting both the diversity of Croydon and the Croydon Bach Choir for whom the piece was commissioned, in addition to reflecting the cosmopolitan city of London and the UK in general.
Post date: Monday, 5 June 2017 - 6:19pm
Now that the dust has settled on our Fifth Anniversary Gala Concert – and the world premiere of ‘Continuum’, by Shona Mackay – it is a chance to reflect on the work and our ensemble’s experience with the Adopt a Composer scheme.
