Music Journal July August 2019

July/August 2019 BBC Proms Director David Pickard on programming the world’s largest classical music festival Introducing ISM President-Elect George Vass and his Presteigne Festival in the Welsh borders ISM Members’ Day report

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Welcome It must be summer because it has poured with rain for the past week.

The thought of going to a festival or performing is challenging in such grim weather but it is something many of the ISM staff and ISM members will be doing over the summer months. And in the case of our President-Elect George Vass, he is right in the middle of getting everything finalised for the Presteigne Festival, which you can read about on page 8. Please do let us know where you are performing over the summer – we would love to facebook your events – just send them to jessica.salter@ism.org.

Above: Deborah Annetts Photo: Mark Thompson

Festivals are the main focus of this edition of Music Journal, many of them showcasing musicians from around the world. We understand that the importance of being able to tour is something central to the lives of many musicians, hence our recently launched Brexit Essentials kit.

Our fourth Brexit report, which came out in May (and which you can read about on page 2), is full of troubling statistics about the major adverse impact Brexit is already having. It is clear from the ISM’s research that a huge proportion of musicians work in the EU. This is partly because there are currently no visa restrictions and it is easy to get there. But it is also an economic necessity because there is simply not enough work in the UK, a point we have been making to Whitehall officials. And the nature of a musician’s life means that work often comes in at the last moment – and you then have to get on a train or a plane to get to the concert or the gig. So any visa system has to be highly flexible, which is why we are advocating a two-year, multi-entry visa. To see how you can help with the campaigning go to savemusic.org.uk and write to your MP.

Front Cover Marin Alsop conducts the Last Night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall Photo: Chris Christodoulou See feature on pages 14–17 Inset images: George Vass, PresidentElect of the ISM Photo: Liz Isles See feature on pages 11–12

There have been plenty of developments in the world of music education.

The DCMS Select Committee in its latest report commended the work of the APPG for Music Education and stated that it would welcome sight of the Government’s response to each of the eighteen recommendations in the recent report Music Education: State of the Nation published by the APPG for Music Education and co-authored by the ISM and the University of Sussex.

Also on a positive note, the Russell Group of universities recently announced that they will be moving away from facilitating subjects as a way of making subject choices at A level. This is a very positive move given that it was the concept of facilitating subjects which created the EBacc in the first place. So please do keep up the pressure on the Department for Education since it is beginning to pay off. There has never been a better time to write to your MP about the parlous state of music education; to find out how go to baccforthefuture.com.

And lastly many thanks to all ISM members who took part in the ISM member survey. Over 800 members responded which is a huge number and your input has really helped us with our plans for the future. In particular we have started work on putting together a new-look Members Handbook and you can read more about this from our President Dr Jeremy Huw Williams on page 5.

Contents 2 5 6 7

News & Campaigns Your ISM Handbook 2020 Legal & Business Professional development

8 14 19 22 24

Presteigne Festival Programming the Proms Summer Festival Selection Members’ Day 2019 ISM Annual General Meeting

27 30 31

News from our members Classified advertising News from our corporate members Local events listings Ask me a question

39 40

Volume 85 / Number 2 Published by: The Incorporated Society of Musicians 4–5 Inverness Mews, London W2 3JQ T: 020 7221 3499 E: membership@ism.org W: ism.org Incorporated Society of Musicians is a limited company registered in England No. 36882. Registered Office as address above.

Editor: Deborah Annetts Sub-editors: Clare Stevens/ Francesca Treadaway Proofreader: Christine Gwyther-Scott All ISM publications are copyright

Presteigne

Printed by Optichrome, Woking GU21 5HX

Photo: Alex Ramsay

ISSN 0951 5135

See feature on pages 8–12

Design: cogdesign.com Typography: marcmarazzi.com Advertising: Cabbell Publishing Ltd, T. 020 3603 7940 E. jane@cabbell.co.uk Editorial and advertising copy date: 1 August for September/ October issue Price: £7 per copy Subscription: £35 per year Circulation: 10,000 named recipients Views expressed in MJ are not necessarily those of the ISM. The publication of any advertisement does not imply endorsement of the advertiser or the product advertised.

deborah@ism.org

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

News & campaigns BREXIT Fourth report into the effects of Brexit on the music profession released The ISM published its fourth report into the effects of Brexit on the music profession, entitled Impact of Brexit on Musicians, on Tuesday 7 May. This unique research, conducted in February 2019, builds on previous surveys of musicians and reveals the concerns of more than 2,000 musicians in areas such as future work, mobility and visas, transportation of instruments and equipment, and health and social security.

• more than half of respondents (58%) reported that they were concerned about the transportation of instruments and/or equipment in the EU27 & EEA in the future • amongst other vital recommendations for Government, the report calls for freedom of movement to be protected for musicians, or a two-year working visa to be introduced • read the full report at ism.org/news/reports

The headlines from the report include:

• almost 50% of respondents identified an impact on their professional work since the EU referendum result in 2016 – 95% of whom said it was negative (from 19% in 2016, to 26% in 2017, to 40% in 2018, and to 50% in 2019) • 63% of respondents cited difficulty in securing future work in EU27/EEA countries as the biggest issue they face due to Brexit – and more than one in 10 respondents reported that offers of work have been withdrawn or cancelled with Brexit given as a reason • 85% of survey respondents visit the EU27 for work at least once a year, 22% visit the EU27/EEA more than 11 times per year and more than a third (35%) spend at least a month per year working in EU27/ EEA countries • one in seven musicians have less than a week’s notice between being offered work and having to take it • 64% of survey respondents said a two-year, multientry visa would allay their concerns about their future ability to work in the EU27/EEA if freedom of movement rights were lost • 95% of respondents preferred the two-year visa over an extension of the Permitted Paid Engagement (PPE) visa • 83% of respondents said it would be beneficial for a government department (e.g. BEIS) to provide a dedicated hotline for musicians, offering guidance on mobility issues

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Want to get involved with the campaign? Sign up now at ism.org/savemusic/signup

Debate in House of Lords The House of Lords debated ‘Brexit: movement of people in the cultural sector’ on 15 May. This was a long-awaited follow up to a July 2018 report of the same name from the Home Affairs subcommittee of the House of Lords European Union Committee, chaired by Lord Jay of Ewelme. The ISM’s 4th Brexit report informed our briefing for peers, and we were very pleased that eight of them referenced this work during the proceedings. In this way the concerns of musicians about future work after the UK leaves the EU were heard loud and clear at the heart of government. You can read the transcript of the debate here bit.ly/houseoflordsbrexit

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

ISM at Liverpool Sound City Festival

Russell Group scraps list of ‘preferred’ A-Levels amid concerns about music and the arts The Russell Group, which represents the most selective universities, has announced that it will no longer list ‘facilitating subjects’, saying that it has been ‘misinterpreted’ by people who believe these are the only subjects that top universities will consider.

Instead the group will replace its guidance, first published eight years ago, with a new website that hopes to offer more personalised advice to students in a bid to widen access.

Left: Deborah Annetts speaking at Liverpool Sound City Festival Photo: Elspeth Mary Moore

This is a significant development for the ISM and the The ISM’s CEO Deborah Annetts appeared on the panel Bacc for the Future campaign which has been calling for the EBacc – based on the list of facilitating subjects ‘Brexit: The Realities for the Music Business’ at the Liverpool Sound City Festival on 3 May, discussing the – to be scrapped.

Find out more at baccforthefuture.com implications of Brexit on the music profession and the wider music industry. Find out more about the conference at soundcity.uk.com

ARTS IN SCHOOLS

Ofsted publishes final version of its new inspection framework

DCMS Select Committee ‘deeply concerned’ about downgrading of arts in schools

Ofsted has published the finalised version of its new inspection framework, which will govern all school visits from this September. A number of changes have been made to the framework since the draft was published earlier this year, in response to a A new report released by the DCMS Select Committee consultation to which received more than 15,000 on 14 May has revealed concerns about the downgrading responses, including from the ISM. of arts subjects in schools, with all the consequent Find out more at ism.org/news implications for children’s development, wellbeing, experiences, careers and, ultimately, life chances.

In its recommendations, the committee wrote: ‘it is not enough for the DCMS and DfE to simply expect schools to provide a “broad and balanced curriculum”: they need to take action to ensure that this is actually happening.’ It also commended the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Music Education in pursuing these issues further, stating they would ‘welcome sight of the Government’s response to each of the 18 recommendations in its recent report Music Education: State of the Nation’.

ISM at The Great Escape Left: Francesca Treadaway speaking at The Great Escape Festival Photo: Ally Daubney

Find out more at ism.org/news

The ISM’s Francesca Treadaway spoke at The Great Escape Festival on 8 May, as part of Complete Music Update’s Music Education Conference. Featuring on the panel ‘Reporting on the Reports’, Francesca discussed the APPG for Music Education’s State of the Nation report and what the government can do to reverse the decline of music within schools. Find out more at completemusicupdate.com

Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Right: Francesca Treadaway Photo: Courtesy of CMI Music Conference

Uptake in non-EBacc subjects falls as EBacc subjects rise

THE ISM AT CONFERENCES AND EVENTS ISM at CMI Music Conference

Provisional data published by Ofqual shows entries in EBacc subjects increased by 4% and entries in non-EBacc subjects dropped by 9% this summer compared with 2018. Uptake of GCSE music in particular has provisionally fallen by 2.5%. Ofqual said the figures show that schools are focusing more on EBacc subjects than those that do not count towards the performance measure.

Find out more at ism.org/news

MUSICIANS’ HEALTH Royal Opera House loses appeal over musicians’ hearing The Royal Opera House has lost its appeal against a 2018 ruling to award damages to a viola player who suffered ‘acoustic shock’ from noise levels in the orchestra pit in 2012. ‘Acoustic shock’ is a condition with symptoms including tinnitus, hyperacusis and dizziness – this is the first time ‘acoustic shock’ has been recognised as a condition that can be compensated by a court.

The ISM’s Francesca Treadaway spoke at the CMI Music Conference in Bournemoutho on 28 April, discussing the ISM’s campaigning work including Save Music, Dignity at Work and Bacc for the Future. Find out more about the conference at facebook.com/ ConferencesForTheMusicIndustry External affairs team 020 7313 9312

Find out more at ism.org/news

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Protect your hearing in your work as a musician. Read our specially curated hearing advice pages at ism.org/advice/ hearing-advice-formusicians

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Your ISM Handbook 2020 Right: ISM President, Dr Jeremy Huw Williams Photo: Kris Brown

Our President, Dr Jeremy Huw Williams, explains some forthcoming changes to the annual members’ handbook I am delighted to address the entire ISM membership for the first time as President 2019-20. As I said at ISM Members Day, the eminent Welsh composer William Mathias was President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians during my student days – and as a Welshman myself I am humbled and honoured to follow in his footsteps as the new President of the ISM. I write to you regarding changes to the ISM Handbook.

A firm fixture in the extensive list of ISM membership benefits, it is the mission of the ISM every year to ensure that the handbook is as helpful and beneficial to the membership as possible. As the ISM grows it is vital that this popular handbook reflects the needs of all musicians and adapts accordingly. Therefore, based on your feedback in our recent membership survey, the ISM has decided to refresh the handbook to include not only more detail regarding member benefits, but for the first time, an extensive range of articles and advice covering all the important topics that you need to know about in order to operate as a professional musician. Topics will include legal matters, tax, insurance, contracts, PPL, PRS, marketing your services as a musician, finding work and much more.

There will also be new sections on services offered by the ISM Members Fund and professional development through the ISM Trust. The handbook will still carry all the essential information about procedures that ISM members need to follow under the terms of their membership, including the Code of Conduct, Dignity at Work policy, articles of association, byelaws, safeguarding and other policies and procedures.

In compliance with GDPR regulations, member listings will no longer be printed within the handbook but instead, for the first time, they will be moved to a brand-new online platform within the My ISM area of the ISM website. This new online platform will have a range of features, enabling members to connect with each other more easily.

This exciting period of development will take place over the summer months and your new handbook will be delivered with your January/February 2020 issue of Music Journal.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the ISM staff team on 020 7221 3499 or membership@ism.org.

Dr Jeremy Huw Williams

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Legal & business Holiday pay: know your rights Being a freelance musician does not mean that you have no employment rights, says Mariachiara Valsecchi, the ISM’s Legal Services Manager, so don’t forget to ask for holidays and check that you are paid the correct amount

Above: Mariachiara Valsecchi Photo: Emile Holba

The music profession is generally perceived as a category of freelancers, a world of self-employed artists doing gigs and concerts, carrying out their own business with no protection whatsoever, especially in terms of employment rights. This is not always the case.

There are many types of music profession: yes, there are performers and composers, but within those categories there are also music teachers and church organists, music directors, choral singers, music examiners and orchestral musicians, just to mention a few. With a few exceptions and under certain conditions these musicians may be considered legally as workers. And as such they may benefit from all or some employment rights.

Entitlement to holidays is one of the basic rights granted to all workers. Derived from EU legislation, in the UK the statutory right to holidays is governed by the Working Time Regulations 1998. The regulations provide that workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ annual holiday in each leave year. The entitlement would generally, but not necessarily, include bank and public holidays – this will depend on the employment or engagement contract, which could also grant more than the statutory minimum. For a person working fulltime, 5.6 weeks would mean 28 days of holiday a year.

During their annual leave workers have the right to receive their normal pay at a rate of a week’s pay for each week of leave. The calculation of ‘a week’s pay’ is not a simple exercise. In brief terms, for those working ‘normal working hours’ the week’s pay corresponds to their basic weekly salary. For casual workers, or those working under a zero hours’ contract with no fixed hours, a week’s pay is an average of all remuneration including any overtime payments and commission earned in the previous 12 working

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weeks, which will increase to 52 weeks (or the number of complete weeks for which the worker has been employed, if that period is less than 52 weeks) from 6 April 2020.

But many professional musicians do not have fulltime jobs. A visiting music teacher (VMT), for example, would generally work part-time, a few hours a day and only during school terms. Similarly, a music examiner would work for short-term periods across the year in connection with specific examination periods. While it is possible that contracts provide the VMT or the examiner with actual periods of paid leave, in many cases the worker will receive an amount in lieu of their holidays calculated at the percentage of 12.07% to their standard rate, and rolled up in their fees.

Although this is a widespread system, it has been criticised by the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the Brazel v. Harper Trust case of 2018, because it would not reflect the entitlement to 5.6 weeks granted by the Working Time Regulations. The case, which the ISM supported and backed throughout all the stages of proceedings, is now pending before the Court of Appeal, whose decision should be published shortly.

In conclusion, musicians should not confuse their art with their legal status. Being a musician does not mean that you have no rights. Check your contract, consider the nature of your engagement and think about whether you are actually receiving all the rights you are entitled to, and are being paid the correct amount. If you have any doubt, please contact the ISM legal department. Our trained staff will assist you to protect your rights.

Need advice? Visit the ISM’s advice centre at ism.org/advice-centre

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Professional development Catch up on our finance videos

Brexit Essentials

Over the past few months, our professional development webinars and webcasts have been looking at financial issues for musicians. Our 2019 fees webinar, hosted by ISM Senior Communications Manager Francesca Treadaway, offers an in-depth look at our annual fees survey for teachers and accompanists. ISM council member and accountant Trevor Ford tackles two important topics in ‘Tax for musicians’ and ‘Setting up your business’. ‘Pensionsplanning for your future’, from Andrew Snowball of Lighthouse Financial Advice, includes a detailed look at different pension options, including the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

From visas to car hire, discounted accommodation to advice, we’ve got a range of ISM services that will help you get organised and save money. Take a look at the services that can help you if you’re touring or travelling in the UK, Europe or beyond this summer.

ism.org/webinars Photo: ©iStock

ism.org/brexitservices Training or development opportunities for hubs and schools We can arrange for music education experts to come to you and present your choice of workshops from our series. Paul Harris will delve into the core issues of being a teacher and the teaching process in his workshop based on his popular book The Virtuoso Teacher. In ‘Performance anxiety: a practical workshop for music teachers’, you and your colleagues can learn how to tackle performance anxiety with easy-to-use, practical strategies informed by rigorous psychological research with this workshop from Dr Ally Daubney and Gregory Daubney, CPsychol, MSc. To find out about these workshops and others, go to ism.org/professional-development/seminars or contact our Head of Services, Sarah Osborn, on 020 7221 3499.

You may have missed …

On our blog, MGR music have offered guidance on how to spot depression in students. ‘We are certainly not doctors or experts in this field,’ writes music teacher Leigh Fuge, ‘but I think with a little understanding we can provide a great support network to students who need it. As a private teacher, I think it is worth becoming acquainted with the tell-tale signals of depression.’

Catch up on this, plus advice from ABRSM on how to become an examiner. ism.org/blog

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Presteigne Festival ISM’s President-Elect George Vass is artistic director of a Welsh festival that specialises in new music.

Clare Stevens tells us more about it

Above: Clare Stevens Photo: Alex Ramsay

I have to declare an interest in the Presteigne Festival, because the main evening concerts and many of the afternoon performances take place in the church at the end of my road. The attraction of a festival that sometimes includes more premieres than the BBC Proms was one of the main reasons why my husband and I chose Presteigne as our destination when we moved out of London nine years ago. We are now one of the many households WKDW RÍżHU DFFRPPRGDWLRQ DQG UHKHDUVDO VSDFH every year to the musicians who descend upon this small town in the Welsh Marches over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Presteigne Festival was founded in 1983 when composer Adrian Williams and performers Gareth and Lynden Rees-Roberts decided to bring a SURJUDPPH RI ÀUVW FODVV PXVLFDO HYHQWV WR WKHLU local area, with a focus on Presteigne because of the beautiful acoustic in St Andrew’s Church.

7KH RQO\ SXEOLF IXQGLQJ IRU WKH ÀUVW IHVWLYDO ZDV D £500 guarantee against loss from South East Wales

Arts Association, so much of the preceding year was spent raising money through events as diverse as Viennese waltzing at Presteigne Memorial Hall, a Midsummer Ceilidh, and a sponsored performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations from 7am until midnight in the town’s barber shop, with a handbell rung outside to mark every ten of the 840 variations.

From 1984-89 the festival was run by the MidBorder Community Arts Association (MBCAA), which had organised the fundraising events, in order to allow Williams more time for composition; but in 1989 artistic direction returned to his charge and the summer festival was separated from year-round arts events run at the request of Arts Council Wales by MBCAA – now Mid Border Arts and still thriving. In the same year George Vass was appointed as director of the Presteigne Festival Orchestra and tasked with recruiting student players to come and play in it. Primarily D VWULQJ RUFKHVWUD DXJPHQWHG IRU VSHFLÀF SLHFHV by individual players who are often soloists and

Left: A late-night Bach recital

by Philip Higham at St Michael’s Church, Discoed Right: Pianist Tom Poster will perform at the 2019 Presteigne Festival Photo: Elena Urioste

Continued overleaf Ăˆ

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Right: Presteigne is set in the beautiful valley of the River Lugg in the Wesh borders Photo: Alex Ramsay

chamber ensemble members for several concerts across the course of the weekend, it is now a fully professional group and assembles to rehearse the day before the festival begins. Many of the players are on working holidays from other orchestras, but they relish the chance to play unfamiliar repertoire and spend several days making music with friends while enjoying the atmosphere and hospitality of a quaint town in a beautiful location.

A highlight of the festival’s history was 1992 when twelve composers, one from each of the (then) European Community countries, wrote new works as part of the European Arts Festival, and the Zulu group Shikisha performed in the local leisure centre. From 1993 Adrian Williams handed over artistic direction of the whole festival to George Vass. The focus on contemporary music has continued, and since the mid-1990s the Composer-in-Residence feature has brought top living composers to the town. These have included John Joubert, David Matthews, Hilary Tann, Michael Berkeley, Rhian Samuel, John McCabe, 3DXO 3DWWHUVRQ 1LFKRODV 0DZ 3Ä?WHULV 9DVNV 3HWHU Sculthorpe and Huw Watkins.

One critic wrote in 2002: ‘It feels like Aldeburgh must have felt in the very early days when things were very small scale and very modest but you had people of distinction just rolling around the streets and open for people to come up and say “I really liked your piano trio last night.�’ Administration of the festival has gradually evolved during Vass’s tenure; he does an enormous amount of the planning and fundraising himself, assisted by a small professional team. A versatile group of young people are engaged for the week to stage manage concerts, turn pages for performers, introduce the popular pre-concert discussions in Presteigne Assembly Rooms and run the bar.

in recent years have inevitably taken their toll but have forced Vass and his colleagues to think creatively about working with other festivals and institutions to bring interesting repertoire to Presteigne.

This year’s festival features the work of two female composers-in-residence – Cheryl FrancesHoad, who is a regular visitor to Presteigne, and the virtuoso American harpist Hannah Lash.

Her involvement has inspired an American theme, which includes a tribute to Richard Rodgers and a one-woman show by Sarah Gabriel, Dorothy Parker takes a Trip. As is customary, solo performers are a mix of mid-career and younger artists: pianist Tom Poster, cellist Alice Neary and violinist Sarah-Jane Bradley make return visits while the Albion Quartet and soprano Elizabeth Cragg are newcomers. There is always a resident choir, too – this year formed specially for the festival and directed by Philip Sunderland.

Open studios and art exhibitions – including at The Rodd, the former home of the Australian artist Sir Sidney Nolan, just outside Presteigne, ÀOP VFUHHQLQJV KLVWRULFDO ZDONV SRHWU\ UHDGLQJV and literary talks are also part of the mix. But the big attractions, aside from the music, are the town itself, which is full of independent shops, cafÊs and pubs; the ancient churches in the surrounding villages and hamlets that host some of the chamber performances; and the beautiful Radnorshire landscape.

George Vass is keen to encourage young musicians and especially young composers who haven’t been to Presteigne before to come along and experience the festival. ‘There’s no better place to immerse yourself in new music, meet fellow composers and build useful relationships with performers and publishers.’

2YHU WKH \HDUV 3UHVWHLJQH )HVWLYDO KDV EHQHĂ€WHG Presteigne Festival takes place 22-27 August 2019 from its location on the border between England presteignefestival.com and Wales, which means it has been eligible for funding from county councils, trusts and foundations in both countries. Decreasing budgets

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George Vass, President-Elect of the ISM contemporary than anything I’d heard before, but I just fell in love with that music, and it’s still one of my favourite recordings today.’

The first opportunity to conduct came along when Vass’s A-level music teacher was forced to take extended leave due to illness and the small class was left to fend for themselves. ‘We formed a wind quintet which I used to conduct, tackling quite adventurous repertoire like the Nielsen quintet.

It was pretty good – the oboist, bassoonist and horn player all went into the profession. I also used to conduct the school orchestra occasionally, and when I started composing pieces people actually played them! By the time I got to the Upper Sixth I had started percussion lessons at the Birmingham School of Music and I seemed to be out every night performing somewhere.’

George Vass is President-Elect of the ISM, and will succeed Dr Jeremy Huw Williams as President in April 2020. Best known as a conductor, he is also an experienced festival director, having spent five years running the Hampstead and Highgate Festival and a remarkable 27 years as Artistic Director of the Presteigne Festival. He is a co-author of the ISM’s How to… Play at a Festival advice pack.

Vass went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) with James Blades for percussion and Richard Stoker for composition. ‘It was quite a tough regime; I used to do Krenek and Hindemith exercises every week, but that background gave me the skills that I now regularly use when preparing contemporary works. There wasn’t the same pressure to do well that there is now, we had more freedom to explore music and try things out. Anthony Lewis was Principal in those days and he was marvellous, he encouraged us to just get on with things. After three years I switched to studying composition with Paul Patterson – I was one of his first pupils.’

Vass began his performing career as a percussionist, and was quite a late starter, picking up his first sticks at the age of 13 with the encouragement of the head of music at his comprehensive school in Walsall. ‘In my experience everyone in this profession does what they do because they had a fantastically supportive music teacher,’ he declares. His parents were not performers, but they were great music lovers. ‘My Dad was a massive Wagner fan – he bought the Solti Ring cycle as it came out and every Sunday morning we used to get blasted with Walküre’.

It was at the RAM that Vass began to get involved in administration and representation; by his second year he was serving on the students’ union and bar committee and representing the students on the governing body of the academy. At the suggestion of Patterson, he also arranged contemporary music concerts. ‘I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it gave me an insight into how institutions and the music profession work – that’s extremely important for anyone who wants to establish a career, and it got me noticed.’

‘Listening to recordings really got me interested in music. When I was seven I had tonsillitis and was forced to stay at home; I discovered how the record player worked, put on Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Toscanini, and enjoyed it so much that from that moment I never looked back. I used to buy records the whole time and just enjoyed listening to new repertoire. For example when my school orchestra was playing Walton’s Crown Imperial I saw George Szell’s recording of the Walton Second Symphony coupled with the Hindemith Variations in the record shop and bought it – it was much more

Vass’s first professional orchestral playing was in Belfast with the embryonic Ulster Orchestra. ‘I played in their very first concert and on their first record which included the Hamilton Harty violin concerto with Ralph Holmes as soloist and Bryden Thompson conducting.’ He also founded his own orchestra, the Regent Sinfonia, which gave concerts of popular repertoire in London and toured to the Home Counties including Aylesbury, Watford, St Albans and Cheltenham, and conducted a number of choirs and orchestras, including long tenures with the Dartford Symphony Orchestra and Whitstable Choral Society.

Continued overleaf È

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‘I’d built a nice portfolio of jobs, some with professional ensembles, some amateur, and then in 1999 the Eden-Stell guitar duo needed a band to perform a Stephen Dodgson concerto at the Purcell Room and then record it. That’s when I started Orchestra Nova, and we made our first recording together.’

Over 35 CDs followed, mainly on the Dutton label and featuring music by contemporary composers such as John McCabe, David Matthews and Cecilia McDowall, but also including neglected works by the musicologist and former Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University Donald Tovey for Toccata Classics.

George Vass is currently music director of Bushey Symphony Orchestra and St Albans Choral Society.

As a guest conductor he has worked with ensembles including the Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National and Ulster orchestras, Amsterdam’s Promenade Orkest, Konzertensemble Salzburg, London Mozart Players, Malmö Opera Orchestra, the choirs of Royal Holloway and Merton College Oxford and Schola Cantorum Oxford.

Recently much of his work has focused on contemporary opera. He premiered Thomas Hyde’s That Man Stephen Ward at Hampstead and Highgate Festival in 2008; with his own company Nova Music Opera he premiered Sally Beamish’s Hagar in the Wilderness (2013), Stephen McNeff’s Prometheus Drown’d (2014), Cecilia McDowall’s Airborne (2014), Right: George Vass conducting at St John’s Smith Square Photo: Liz Isles

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Charlotte Bray’s Entanglement (toured with a revival of That Man Stephen Ward in 2015) and Joseph Phibbs’ Juliana (2018).

An Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and a governor of The Royal Society of Musicians, in October 2017 Vass was presented with a BASCA Gold Badge Award marking his support for the UK songwriting and composing community. He was chair of the British Arts Festivals Association from 2014-18. ‘The Presteigne Festival has been a member of BAFA for many years; it’s a great forum for exchanging information and ideas. I learned so much from meeting other festival people.’

Now he is looking forward to being part of the ISM’s presidential trio. ‘It’s a great organisation which is very well run and does so much to support musicians through its legal services and lobbying activities. It’s fabulous that membership is now around 9,000 and we are successfully attracting a younger crowd. I think this is a very good time to be getting more closely involved with ISM and I’m honoured to have been appointed as President-Elect.’ georgevass.co.uk

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Programming the Proms What’s involved in planning the world’s greatest classical music festival? Clare Stevens ďŹ nds out from its director David Pickard

Above: Clare Stevens Photo: Alex Ramsay

With just over two months to go before the opening night of the BBC Proms season, its Director, David Pickard, seems surprisingly relaxed as he welcomes 0- WR WKH 3URPV R΀FH LQ 2OG %URDGFDVWLQJ +RXVH This is partly because the 75 Royal Albert Hall (RAH) concerts, eight ‘Proms at ‌’ chamber FRQFHUWV DW &DGRJDQ +DOO RQH RÍż Âś3URPV DW¡ concerts at Battersea Arts Centre and Holy Sepulchre Church, Holborn Viaduct that make up the season – not forgetting the outdoor Proms in the Park performances in London, Scotland, Wales and 1RUWKHUQ ,UHODQG ² DUH UXQ E\ D ODUJH DQG H΀FLHQW team of people whose work rolls smoothly on while their boss takes time out to do an interview.

Pickard agrees that the ‘novelty’ Proms constitute just a handful of events in a very long season; they also have a precedent in the concerts of popular music regularly programmed by the festival’s founder, Sir Henry Wood, whose birth 150 years ago will be commemorated this season.

‘What always amazes me is that people look at a season like this and predict you’ll never get a ticket for Jules Buckley’s Homage to Nina Simone with the Metropole Orkest or his hip-hop Prom ZLWK WKH +HULWDJH 2UFKHVWUD EXW RI FRXUVH WKH Ă€UVW Prom that sells out is The Planets, the second is the Tchaikovsky piano concerto, the third is Murray Perahia playing Beethoven,’ he says. ‘Core classical music sometimes gets a little bit lost amidst the press brouhaha because another Beethoven piano concerto isn’t as exciting as the cult band Public Service Broadcasting making its Proms debut.

But the reality is that nothing much has changed – we don’t call it the world’s greatest classical music festival for nothing, and classical music is still what people come to the Proms for.’

Age of Enlightenment, Pickard is now well settled in to the job. The long-term planning involved in programming classical music seasons meant WKDW KH LQKHULWHG RI KLV Ă€UVW VHDVRQ IURP KLV predecessors, but even then, he says, it still felt like ‘his’ festival: ‘Once you’re in charge you take responsibility for it all, nobody wants to know who booked what.

‘Having said that,’ he continues, ‘we have to remember that Sir Henry had a very narrow range of music at his disposal, whereas ours is very broad. We have so many exciting things jostling for position, but in a way those more unusual concerts DUH WKH PRVW GL΀FXOW WR FXUDWH EHFDXVH ZH RQO\ have ten or 12 slots, so we want them to be really special, we can’t get away with something that feels A racing start to ticket sales must also contribute lazy. A classical concert with the Vienna Phil can be WR 3LFNDUG¡V EXR\DQW PRRG 7KH ER[ R΀FH KDV EHHQ Ă€[HG LQ WZR PLQXWHV SXWWLQJ RQ 'XNH (OOLQJWRQ¡V open for three days when we meet; eight main Sacred Concerts requires a lot more research and Proms and two Chamber Proms sold out by noon thought.’ RQ WKH Ă€UVW GD\ DQG WLFNHWV ZHUH VROG ZLWKLQ Appointed as Director of the Proms in May 2015 WKH Ă€UVW WZR KRXUV 6WDWLVWLFV OLNH WKDW DUH HQRXJK WR after 14 years as General Director of Glyndebourne make any festival director smile. and a previous role running the Orchestra of the

‘In a sense it’s all mine and none of it is mine, because the Proms director is essentially a producer, rather than an artistic director. Of course I shape things and I want to make certain statements, move a programme in a certain direction or focus on certain areas, but many brilliant thoughts and ideas come to us from outside.

Left: The Last Night of the Proms, with conductors Marin Alsop (centre) and Sir Andrew Davis (below, in 2018 with saxophonist Jess Gillam) Photos: Chris Christodoulou

Continued overleaf Ăˆ

15

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

‘Let’s take the Vienna Philharmonic, for H[DPSOH ² ZKHQ WKH\ RÍżHU WR EULQJ WKHLU %HHWKRYHQ and Bruckner project with Bernard Haitink and Murray Perahia to the Proms, that’s a very easy question to answer – and it’s not one that I would UHVSRQG WR E\ DVNLQJ WKHP WR FRPH ZLWK GLÍżHUHQW UHSHUWRLUH DQG D GLÍżHUHQW FRQGXFWRU ¡ Another example of the stimulating concerts that often come about through partnerships, Pickard continues, is Prom 41, given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. ‘Their conductor Vladimir Jurowski and I worked closely together for many years when he was Music Director at Glyndebourne, and I was very keen to involve him in our Henry Wood season. I gave him a list of relevant pieces and he came back with this perfect jewel of a Russian programme of both familiar and OHVV IDPLOLDU PXVLF LQFOXGLQJ 5DFKPDQLQRY¡V Ă€UVW piano concerto which Wood premiered and three other pieces by Rimsky-Korsakov, Lyadov and Glazunov which were given their UK premieres by Wood. That’s the sort of partnership that gives me great joy.’ How closely does Pickard work with Alan Davey, Controller of Radio 3? The two roles are so closely connected that they have sometimes been merged. ‘The Proms and Radio 3 stand for the same things,’ Pickard declares. ‘The Proms expresses for two months, on the RAH stage and beyond, what Radio 3 does all year round; and Alan and I feel the same way about how the Proms season should go. We respect its traditions and all that it stands for, but we also like to take it in new directions. For instance the Mixtape Prom came out of Radio 3, UHĂ HFWLQJ LQ D OLYH IRUPDW WKH VRUW RI ZD\V SHRSOH now want to listen to music. ‘Alan and his colleagues are amazingly LQGXOJHQW ² HYHQ ZKHQ , VXJJHVWHG WKH Ă€UVW 0XOWL Story Orchestra Prom, broadcast from a car park in Peckham where there’s a train going past every three minutes, he just took a deep breath and said yes.’ An important aspect of the ‘Proms@’ strand, 3LFNDUG VD\V LV Ă€QGLQJ D PDUULDJH RI PXVLF DQG SHUIRUPDQFH VSDFH &DGRJDQ +DOO LV QRZ Ă€UPO\ established as a venue for lunchtime chamber concerts, this year ambitiously exploring the entire history of classical music from medieval times to the present, with a particular emphasis on female composers. Holy Sepulchre Church, where Henry Wood took organ lessons as a boy (often having to seek out his teacher in the nearby Viaduct Tavern) and where his ashes are buried, is an obvious choice; this year Pickard is also using the Grand Hall of Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), recently reopened in a state of partial restoration after a GHYDVWDWLQJ Ă€UH IRU D VKRZFDVH RI H[SHULPHQWDO instrumental, vocal and electronic music by

16

composer-performers. ‘It’s an incredibly beautiful venue and it also has an adventurous ethos that PHDQV LW LV VXLWHG WR D UHDOO\ GLÍżHUHQW W\SH RI FRQFHUW ¡ 5HDFKLQJ /RQGRQ¡V YHU\ GLÍżHUHQW ORFDO audiences and people who might not come to South Kensington is also important. Pickard’s aim is for the Proms to be truly welcoming to everyone and DQ\RQH IURP WKH IDPLOLHV ZKR Ă RFN WR WKH &%HHELHV Proms (this year featuring a world premiere by WKH Ă€OP FRPSRVHU +DQV =LPPHU WR WKH GHYRWHHV of Bach who will relish the intensity of Solomon’s Knot’s late-night programme of cantatas for the )HDVW RI 6W 0LFKDHO RU WKH DĂ€FLRQDGRV ZKR KDYH EHHQ IROORZLQJ 6LU -RKQ (OLRW *DUGLQHU¡V Ă€YH \HDU celebration of Berlioz, this year concluding with his opera Benvenuto Cellini.

This season’s ‘relaxed Prom’, suitable for children and adults with autism, sensory and communication impairments and learning disabilities, as well as individuals who are deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind or partially sighted, is given by the BBC Philharmonic and consists of Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini and excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The concept, introduced two seasons ago, is FRQVWDQWO\ EHLQJ UHĂ€QHG Âś6R PXFK WLPH DQG FDUH goes into making sure we have at least one concert where there are no barriers at all – we think about WKH OLJKWLQJ ZH WXUQ WKH KDQG GULHUV RÍż LQ WKH ORRV because the sound can be distressing for some people.

There is a relaxed attitude to movement and noise in the auditorium, plus “chill-out� spaces outside the auditorium. People can move about, dance, sing or just listen. We want everyone to feel that they are completely part of the concert experience.’ Accessibility also includes multiple opportunities for people to get involved in the Proms as performers, whether by playing or singing alongside professional musicians in family workshops, being part of the Proms Family Orchestra and Chorus, the Proms Youth Choir or Ensemble or the Proms CBeebies Choir. The BBC Proms Inspire competition for composers aged 12-18 has been an important stepping stone in the careers of many students who are now receiving professional commissions. All these activities are co-ordinated by the BBC Proms Learning department, which probably deserves an article to itself.

As our interview draws to a close, we touch on more controversial topics. Much has been done to address the perennial criticism that women composers are underrepresented in Proms programming, and Pickard says that while everyone is on a journey with this issue, he is happy that progress has been made, and he is continuing to do all he can to identify women whose music he should be including in future seasons. ‘It’s not hard, as there are so many of them, and artists are

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Left: David Pickard Photo: Chris Christodoulou

constantly drawing my attention to new names.

For example, I hadn’t heard of Zosha Di Castri, whom we’ve commissioned to open the season with Long is the Journey – Short is the Memory in Prom 1, until the conductor Karina Canellakis told me about her.

Having begun by celebrating this season’s hot tickets, always a sign of successful programming, it seems only fair to end with a reminder that no Prom is ever truly sold out. That opportunity to queue up on the day for a ticket costing just £6 and stand LQ WKH $UHQD RU ² LI \RX ZLVK ² OLH RQ WKH à RRU LQ the Gallery contemplating the ceiling as you listen to some of the greatest performers in the world playing some of the greatest music ever written remains unique, and there are always up to 1,350 tickets available except on the last night, when they are allocated by ballot. If you’ve never Prommed – why not try it this year?

‘With female conductors we still have a long way to go – but Marin Alsop conducted the Last Night in 2013 and 2015, and this year we KDYH .DULQD RQ WKH Ă€UVW QLJKW DQG ODWHU LQ WKH season Dalia Stasevska, the new principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Elim Chan with the BBC National Orchestra RI :DOHV 0LUJD *UDçLQWp 7\OD ZLWK WKH &LW\ RI The BBC Proms season runs 19 July – %LUPLQJKDP 6\PSKRQ\ 2UFKHVWUD DQG 6RĂ€ -HDQQLQ 14 September 2019 with the BBC Singers ‌ the picture is changing. bbc.co.uk/proms The Proms is not going to solve any of these problems, but it can lead by example.’

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Summer Festival Selection The ISM staff team will be jumping from festival to festival this summer – check out their top picks. Where are you performing this summer? Email your stage shots to Jessica Salter, Communications OfďŹ cer at jessica.salter@ism.org and we’ll tweet them.

Love Supreme Jazz Festival

Latitude Festival

Francesca Treadaway, Senior Communications Manager

Deborah Annetts, Chief Executive

Love Supreme, inspired by the European Jazz Scene (and crossed with Latitude Festival), is the UK’s only camping jazz festival. This year the line-up includes Snarky Puppy, Gladys Knight, -LPP\ &OLͿ 0V /DXU\Q +LOO &DUDYDQ 3DODFH The Cinematic Orchestra and more. The festival also covers soul and funk amongst a diverse line-up of DJs and club nights, talks and lectures, panels, FODVVLF DOEXP SOD\EDFNV ÀOPV DQG GDQFH FODVVLFV

George Ezra, Snow Patrol and Lana De Rey are the headliners in the Obelisk Arena for this year’s Latitude Festival, with Neneh Cherry, Chvrches, The Kingdom Choir, Grace Carter and Ben Folds A Piano among the other acts to appear on the seven music stages. In addition to comedy, theatre, dance and literature you can enjoy lake swimming, paddle boarding and wellness treatments.

18-21 July 2019, Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk latitudefestival.com

5-7 July 2019, Lewes lovesupremefestival.com

British Summer Time Festival Maria Vizitiu, OfďŹ ce and Events Administrator A summery series of major open-air concerts in Hyde Park, the programmers here tend to play it extremely grownup-friendly, line up includes Celine Dion, Josh Groban, Florence + The Machine, 7KH 1DWLRQDO DQG 5REELH :LOOLDPV 2Q RÍżHU ZLOO be free outdoor movie nights, tennis screenings live from Wimbledon, street food stalls from all over the world, pop-up bars, circus and cabaret performances, arts workshops and much more.

5-14 July bst-hydepark.com

Continued overleaf Ăˆ

19

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Brainchild Festival

KALLIDA Festival

Jessica Salter, Communications OfďŹ cer

Jeremy Dunn, Legal Adviser

%UDLQFKLOG LV D QRW IRU SURĂ&#x20AC;W ',< IHVWLYDO EDVHG LQ East Sussex. Built up by a group of friends over the years, the atmosphere is warm, open and relaxed.

It has a creative programme of live music, jam sessions, spoken word, DJ sets, talks, workshops, Ă&#x20AC;OP WKHDWUH DQG LQVWDOODWLRQ DUW , DWWHQGHG ODVW \HDU and it was a beautiful weekend with some fantastic performances and workshops. My highlight of the weekend was seeing the incredible jazz group, Sons of Kemet close the festival with their headline slot on the Sunday night.

KALLIDA is a three-day music and arts festival, with a focus on immersive production and sound system culture. After two fantastic years at Baskerville Hall, they are moving to a new location â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sparkford Hall in Somerset â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with the option of either camping or staying in a hotel room in the Hall. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the same mad house party just in D GLÍżHUHQW PDG KRXVH ZLWK WKH OLQH XS LQFOXGLQJ the likes of Joy Orbison, Teki Latex, Otim Alpha and Kampire. KALLIDA is an extremely limited capacity event, and this year tickets are capped at just 400 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but that doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean they skimp on the production. Every inch of the beautiful country house is decked out with heavyweight sound V\VWHPV VFXOSWXUH OLJKW VKRZV DQG Ă&#x20AC;OPV

12-14 July 2019, East Sussex brainchildfestival.co.uk

19 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 21 July 2019, Sparkford Hall, Somerset kallida.co.uk

Snape Proms Sarah Osborn, Head of Services and Operations

Y Not? Festival Sam Flower, Membership OfďŹ cer Previously voted the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Medium-Sized Festival, Y Not? is an annual gathering of some of the indie rock and pop worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest bands.

This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s line-up includes headliners Elbow, Two Door Cinema Club and Foals. Festival-goers can also enjoy some of the hottest up and coming bands. My ones to watch are Indoor Pets, The Murder Capital and Ten Tonnes. As well as the live music, the festival also features some of the biggest names in comedy including Phil Jupitus and loads more spread across four days.

Throughout August the idyllic setting of the Snape 0DOWLQJV &RQFHUW +DOO QHDU WKH 6XÍżRON VHDVLGH town of Aldeburgh sees an array of music from Ă DPHQFR WR EUDVV EDQGV MD]] WR FODVVLFDO 7KLV \HDU rising star Jess Gillam, Fodenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brass Band, the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, Juan Martin and Ian Bostridge are all on the programme.

1-31 August 2019, Aldeburgh snapemaltings.co.uk/season/snape-proms/

25-28 July 2019, Pikehall ynotfestival.com

Green Man Festival Sabrina Taylor, Head of Finance Taking place in the beautiful Brecon Beacons National Park, Green Man is all about opportunities ² IURP VXSSRUWLQJ HPHUJLQJ DUWLVWV WR RÍżHULQJ UHDO world training and getting people engaged with VFLHQFH ZLWK OLWHUDWXUH DQG Ă&#x20AC;OPV DV ZHOO DV PXVLF This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s line-up includes Four Tet, Sharon Van Etten, Maribou, Richard Thompson, The Comet is Coming, Gwenno and Spiritcake.

15-18 August 2019, Crickhowell, Wales greenman.net

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Shambala

Wilderness Festival

Rebecca Gleave, Head of Marketing

Naomi Bath, Senior Research and Policy OfďŹ cer

Shambala is an award-winning ethical family festival which takes place across four days on the August Bank Holiday Weekend. The festival celebrates the global music scene, green ethics, innovation and creativity. This year, over 200 musical acts will perform at Shambala including Idles, Amy True, Don Kipper, Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, Iglooghost, Urban Folk Quartet, Otis Mensah, Kadija Kamara and Muntu Valdo. You can also catch worldclass cabaret, fascinating workshops, stand-up comedy, inspirational talks and debates, circus and acrobatics, interactive theatre and nationally acclaimed poetry.

Wilderness Festival, a boutique music festival in a lakeside woodland setting in Oxfordshire, is the type of place where you can watch international artists on the stage, while also enjoying immersive games, eccentric theatre, paddle yoga, workshops, talks, debates and a lakeside spa. This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s line-up includes Robyn, Bombay Bicycle Club, Groove Armada, Tom Odell, Caravan Palace, Tom Grennan, Eats Everything, Honey Dijon.

22-25 August 2019, Northamptonshire shambalafestival.org

1-4 August 2019, Charlbury wildernessfestival.com

WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival Mariachiara Valsecchi, Legal Services Manager WOMAD is a creative arts and world music festival, which embraces all styles of music from around the globe, focusing on originality and high-quality free expression. This year the line-up includes Ziggy Marley, Macy Gray, Orbital, Salif Keita, Anna Calvi, Saving Grace with Suzie Dian and Robert Plant, and Afro-Cuban All Stars, alongside a jam-packed line-up of incredible musicians from across the world.

25 - 28 July, Charlton Park, Malmesbury, Wiltshire womad.co.uk

Loopallu Festival Ruth McPherson, Senior Partnerships & Marketing Manager A festival in late September in a remote village on the West Coast of Scotland might not work on paper, but after 15 years Loopallu is still going VWURQJ 7KLV IULHQGO\ ORFDO PXVLF IHVWLYDO LQ 8OODSRRO brings together big-name rock/indie acts like Paolo Nutini, Mumford and Sons, Twin Atlantic, The Stranglers, Jake Bugg and Franz Ferdinand as well as home-grown and international folk talent such as Shooglenifty, Levellers, The Peatbog Faeries, Elephant Sessions and Red Hot Chilli Pipers. Just UHPHPEHU WR SDFN \RXU UDLQFRDW 27-28 September 2019, Ullapool loopallu.co.uk

21

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Day 2019 With thanks to our former President Professor David Saint, our annual ISM Membersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Day took place in the vibrant setting of the brand new Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham on 16 April 2019. We welcomed more than 80 musicians from across the UK to Birmingham for a diverse, exciting and busy day of sessions, networking and catching up with colleagues and friends After a sociable lunch-time break (and an added spot of networking) it was time to listen to Dr Katy Hamilton in Conversation with the FRPSRVHU 3DUDP 9LU DÍżHFWLRQDWHO\ NQRZQ E\ KLV peers as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;PVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. PVâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s output encompasses works in several genres that include chamber music, symphonic works and opera / music-theatre.

He took us through his life and career, including his early childhood in a musical family in India, to his move to London to work with the inspirational composers Oliver Knussen at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington International Summer School.

Above: Xhosa Cole Quartet Photo: Kris Brown

Right: Musicians from BCMG Below: Kris Brown

We were delighted to welcome the fantastic pianist and BBC Young Musician of the Year 2018 Lauren =KDQJ WR ,60 0HPEHUV 'D\ %HIRUH KHDGLQJ RÍż to Poland, she treated the audience to a rousing performance of Brahmsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35.

Dr Alison Daubney and Professor Martin Fautley WKHQ NLFNHG RÍż ZLWK WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW FRQIHUHQFH VHVVLRQ RI the day: Aspects of Music Education. They took the audience on a journey through the current state of play within music education, which included Ă&#x20AC;QGLQJV RI WKH State of the Nation report, focus on the national curriculum, Ofsted and other areas.

For the full video of their presentation visit ism.org/features This was followed by the AGM where members heard about the ISMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s activities over the course of WKH Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU VHH SDJHV IRU GHWDLOV

22

We were also fortunate to welcome two musicians from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group: soprano Patricia Auchterlonie and cellist Uli Heinen.

PV took the musicians through an open rehearsal of his new work Wheeling past the Stars. The audience were handed scores of this piece as they walked into the Recital Hall and were able to follow the rehearsal, and then later the performance.

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Left: Lauren Zhang Bottom left: Professor David Saint and Dr Jeremy Huw Williams Below: Dr Katy Hamilton interviews composer Param Vir Photos: Kris Brown

After the session with PV it was time to introduce the fantastic Xhosa Cole Quartet onto the stage.

Xhosa Cole is a saxophonist, a former Royal Birmingham Conservatoire student and the winner of BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2018. He and his quartet performed Summertime by Gershwin (arranged by Xhosa), Moving Ladywood (Xhosa’s original composition which won the competition) and Played Twice by Thelonious Monk (arranged by Xhosa).

After the masterclass, it was time for Professor David Saint, our wonderful President for 2018/19, to pass the presidential medal to baritone Dr Jeremy Huw Williams, our new ISM President for 2019/20.

‘I am delighted to be handing the presidential medal to Dr Jeremy Huw Williams,’ he said. ‘As an internationally-renowned performer and a longstanding ISM member, Jeremy with his wealth of knowledge and insight will help the ISM to achieve ever greater heights. I wish him every success over the coming year.’

Acknowledging his appointment, Dr Jeremy Huw Williams said:

‘The eminent Welsh composer William Mathias was President of the Incorporated Society of Musicians during my student days. As a Welshman I am humbled and honoured to follow in his footsteps as the new President of the ISM.’ To see a photo gallery of the day, and videos of Aspects of Music Education, Param Vir in conversation, his open rehearsal and performance and performances by Lauren Zhang and the Xhosa Cole Quartet, visit ism.org/features Francesca Treadaway, Senior Communications Manager, ISM

23

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

ISM Annual General Meeting The ISM Annual General Meeting took place at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Tuesday 16 April 2019

Introduction Professor David Saint (President) opened the AGM and introduced the AGM panel Dr Jeremy Huw Williams (President Elect) Susan Sturrock (Past President) Ivor Flint (Treasurer) Deborah Annetts (Chief Executive) Sarah Osborn (Head of Services & Operations) Sabrina Taylor (Head of Finance) Apologies for absence had been received from Steve Kohut, Charlotte Treadaway, Marian Remfry, Gabrielle Burgin Lister, Linda Hardwick, Christopher Brook, Julie Cooper, Beryl Foster, +LODU\ %UDFHĂ&#x20AC;HOG 1LQD 6SDUNV -HDQQH -RQHV DQG Michael Jones.

Members stood while the Chief Executive read out the names of colleagues who had died during the past year.

1. Minutes of the AGM held on 26 April, Jerwood Hall The President asked if there were any amendments to the minutes of the AGM held on 26 April 2019 at the Jerwood Hall, LSO, St Lukeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, London. There were none. The resolution to approve the minutes was proposed by Doug Hewitt, seconded by George Vass and approved unanimously.

ISM Members Fund to make sure that the services and professional development were aligned across the Group.

The ISM continued to lobby extensively in support of music education both in the classroom and across music education hubs, speaking on a regular basis to the Department for Education and beyond. The Bacc for the Future campaign continued to play a key role, bringing together evidence as to the state of music education in the maintained sector and sharing this with key advocates in Parliament.

7KH ([WHUQDO $ÍżDLUV WHDP HQJDJHG ZLWK FLYLO servants/ government ministers at the Department for Exiting the European Union, the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and lobbied extensively for the right of musicians to travel freely across the EU post Brexit. In particular the ISM advocated a multi-entry two-year visa.

7KH ,60 FRQWLQXHG WR RÍżHU D IXOO UDQJH RI VXSSRUW and services to its members over the course of the year. These services included legal support and representation, professional insurances, a wide range of resources linked to key issues facing musicians, opportunities for networking and promotion and a variety of events.

The popularity of the ISM Music Directory continued, with 1,000 members of the public YLHZLQJ SURĂ&#x20AC;OHV HDFK PRQWK 7KLV PHPEHU EHQHĂ&#x20AC;W FRQWLQXHV WR EH D XVHIXO WRRO IRU PHPEHUV 2. To receive the Annual Report of to promote themselves to members of the public the Council of the ISM ORRNLQJ WR KLUH PXVLFLDQV DQG Ă&#x20AC;QG PXVLF WHDFKHUV 7KH &(2 JDYH WKH DQQXDO UHSRUW IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO The ISM was invited to give talks and presentations year ending 21 August 2018. The ISM continued to at a number of universities, conservatoires and grow and develop in all areas â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from the range and events throughout the year. The ISM also launched GHSWK RI LWV VHUYLFHV IRU LWV PHPEHUV WR LWV LQĂ XHQFH the ISM Podcast in February 2018, covering topics DQG SURĂ&#x20AC;OH DQG WKH VL]H RI LWV PHPEHUVKLS ,W ZDV such as music education, Brexit and mental health also working closely with the ISM Trust and the for musicians.

24

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

The ISM held its Members Day on Thursday 26 April 2018 at LSO St Lukeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in London. Over 100 people attended the day which showcased high SURÃ&#x20AC;OH PXVLFLDQV IURP DFURVV WKH SURIHVVLRQ Following the AGM and Open Forum, Professor David Saint took over as President for 2018-2019.

Kathryn McDowell was awarded the Distinguished Musician Award 2017 which was presented on Members Day. Across the country ISM members volunteered their time to run the ISM Local Group network.

During the 2017-18 year a total of 19 events were held by 20 ISM Local Groups. These events were a PL[ RI VRFLDO HYHQWV DQG RÍ¿HUHG RSSRUWXQLWLHV IRU members to hold concerts as well as share learning and best practice. ISM membership continued on a path of extraordinary growth during 2017-2018 and by 31 August 2018 membership had risen to over 8,700 members.

There were three vacancies for Elected Council members (Midland, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Wales). Kirsty Devaney for the Midlands, David Smith for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Chris Collins for Wales were elected unopposed. A number of ISM members applied to be considered as Appointed Council Members and after careful consideration, Bushra El-Turk was appointed by Council to this role. Council appointed Dr Jeremy Huw Williams to become President Elect for 2017-2018. Council thanked Meinir Heulyn for her contribution over the past three years as the Welsh Elected Member, and Tim Daniell as an Appointed Council Member.

Council thanked the outgoing of the Past President Nicolas Chisholm who ended his presidential term at the AGM on Thursday 26 April 2018, as well as Professor Sir Barry Ife, a former President of the ISM who led the creation of the ISM Trust.

3. To receive an approve the accounts of the ISM for the year ending 21 August 2018 7KH 7UHDVXUHU VWDWHG WKDW WKH ,60·V Ã&#x20AC;QDQFHV ZHUH in a very healthy state. He noted the growth in PHPEHUVKLS RI GXULQJ WKH ODVW Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU ,QFRPH Ã&#x20AC;QLVKHG WKH \HDU ORZHU DW Â&#x2026; P D small decrease on the previous year. Membership subscription income increased by 11.9% during the ODVW Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU ZKLFK ZDV GXH WR WKH FRQWLQXHG growth in members and a small increase in the subscription fees for the year. The main drop in LQFRPH GXULQJ WKH ODVW Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU FDPH IURP the investments which fell by 49.2% due to market volatility. There were a number of areas where costs moderately increased because of the growth in the organisation. As at 31 August 2018 the ISMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reserves stood at a healthy £4.2m, an increase on last year. The ISM had a highly successful year

Ã&#x20AC;QLVKLQJ ZLWK D VXUSOXV RI Â&#x2026; N YHUVXV D GHÃ&#x20AC;FLW in the prior year of £70.1k. The Treasurer thanked GHGLFDWHG VWDÍ¿ WHDP DW WKH ,60 WKH DXGLWRUV Lindeyer Francis Ferguson and the investment brokers Investec. The Treasurer asked the AGM to accept the accounts. The resolution was proposed

by Kirsty Devaney, seconded by John Perry and was passed unanimously.

4. To receive the report on the ISM Trust and the ISM Members Fund The CEO gave a brief report in respect of the ISM Trust a charity which was set up by the ISM in late 2014 and had its third full year of operation in the Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU 7KH REMHFWV RI WKH ,60 Trust are to: advance education; advance health; and promote the arts, particularly music.

Currently the Trust is concentrating on delivering professional development work by members RI WKH ,60 VWDÍ¿ RU LQ SDUWQHUVKLS ZLWK RWKHU organisations or respected practitioners in their Ã&#x20AC;HOG $SSUR[LPDWHO\ PXVLFLDQV HQJDJHG with the professional development webinars and events delivered by the ISM Trust in 2017-2018. The recorded webinars have also received 5000 views online since the live broadcasts. In order to support the work of the ISM Trust going forward, the ISM has provided £110,000 (2017: £110,000) by way RI GRQDWLRQV 7KH VLJQLÃ&#x20AC;FDQW UHVHUYHV EHLQJ KHOG E\ WKH 7UXVW DW WKH HQG RI WKH Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO \HDU ZHUH to support plans for The Empowered Musician conference and the expansion of the educational work of the Trust in 2018-2019.

The ISM Members Fund The Fund was established on 5 January 1917. The original objects of helping needy members of the Incorporated Society of Musicians (â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;ISMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;), former members and widows or other dependants of deceased members have been revised with the addition of the prevention of poverty and the advancement of health.

The Trust has continued its review of the activities of the ISM Benevolent Fund to increase the HÍ¿HFWLYHQHVV RI LWV DFWLYLWLHV $ ZRUNLQJ SDUW\ XS was set up in early 2018 comprising members of the Trust to work on the future activities of the Fund given its revised objects. Out of this work came a strategy for the Fund which places greater emphasis on resources and services together with a IRFXV RQ SUHYHQWLRQ 7KH WKUHH DUHDV LGHQWLÃ&#x20AC;HG IRU VXSSRUW DUH SK\VLFDO PHQWDO DQG Ã&#x20AC;QDQFLDO KHDOWK The strategy was approved by the Trustee in June 'XULQJ WKH \HDU WKH )XQG RÍ¿HUHG DVVLVWDQFH to relieve a wide range of issues relating to poverty.

The Fund spent £58,545 on grants to individuals.

Continued overleaf Ã&#x2C6;

25

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

The Fund continued to provide an outsourced telephone counselling service available to all ISM members and their families. The number of people accessing the service increased by 5% compared to the previous year. The Trustee thanked everyone who helped to further the work of the Fund, especially members of the Fund’s working party.

The Trustee is most grateful to all the individuals who made donations or organised fundraising initiatives. During the year, the value of the Fund’s investments rose by 2.3% to £4.0 million and these investments generated income, after deducting investment management fees, of £138,293. Overall the income for the Fund in 2017/2018 was £152,532 and the expenditure was £121,850. The Fund’s Reserves Policy was met.

7. To note the election of the elected Members of Council and the appointment of appointed Members of Council

The Head of Services and Operations outlined the results of the Members Fund survey and announced the re-launch of the ISM Members Fund including face-to-face counselling and physiotherapy which will be launched as pilots in May. A hearing health scheme will be launched in September.

8. To confirm the time and place of the next AGM

5. To reappoint Lindeyer Francis Ferguson Limited The resolution to reappoint Lindeyer Francis Ferguson Limited as auditors was proposed by Doug Hewitt, seconded by Nancy Litten and approved unanimously.

6. To note the retirement of members of the Council There was just one retirement from Council, Beverley Downs. and the President thanked her for her contribution to the ISM as a Board member serving the East area.

All Council vacancies were advertised in the January/February issue of Music Journal. Only one member came forward as an Elected Council member, Dr Marius Carboni who was elected unopposed for the South. There were four vacancies for Appointed Council members. Three members came forward – Stephen Goss, Trevor Ford and Dr Michelle Castelletti – and all three were re-appointed. Susan Sturrock was appointed to the XQÀOOHG DSSRLQWHG &RXQFLO YDFDQF\ IRU RQH \HDU Council also elected George Vass as President-Elect.

The next AGM will be held in April 2020 at a ORFDWLRQ WR EH FRQÀUPHG

Open Forum The President opened the discussion. A member stated that she had found the GDPR advice very helpful and thanked the ISM. On the subject of music education there was a strong feeling that children are not getting the music education they GHVHUYH 7KLV DV D FRQVHTXHQFH ZDV DͿHFWLQJ church music. In response to this the CEO urged all members to lobby their MPs. There was much praise for Lauren Zhang and for the day being held outside London.

The President closed the Open Forum at 1.00pm.

Budding bloggers – we want to hear from you!

Have you got a burning issue you wish to share with the music industry? Are you fundraising for a special cause? Or do you simply want to share your experiences? If any of these sound like you, we invite you to contribute to the ISM blog series.

To contribute a blog post, simply email jessica.salter@ism.org for our guidelines.

We look forward to reading your posts. ism.org/blog

Get £10 off your membership fee Take the hassle out of renewing your membership by setting up an annual Direct Debit. Your membership will automatically renew every year and you won’t have to contact us unless you wish to cancel or change your payment method. If you are a full member, you will get £10 off your membership fee if you pay by annual Direct Debit.

It’s quick and easy to set up Direct Debit payments with us. Simply login at ism.org/my-ism and click on ‘set up Direct Debit’, call us on 020 72213499 or email membership@ism.org

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

NEWS FROM OUR MEMBERS We welcome your brief news (max. 150 words) and high res images. Please email mj@ism.org.

The next deadline for copy is 1 August for the September/October issue.

Vinzenz Stergin In 2017 ISM member, musician and producer Vincenz Stergin sent a Polaroid camera on a two-year, global journey to 12 people in 12 countries spanning all the continents. Each person who received the camera took a photo of a place important to them before sending the camera onwards to the next person. Supported by Help Musicians UK, Stergin and his band Ode To Lucius wrote a 12-track volume of work as a direct reaction to the photos and their stories. This has been further developed into an hour-long multimedia spectacle using the 12 photos, 12 tracks and the talents of live visual artist Artemis Evlogimenou.

Its premiere will take place at the Multi-Story Car Park in Peckham, hosted by Bold Tendencies, on 12 July 2019. Find out more about the project at 12photos12tracks.com.

Julian Perkins

Harpsichordist and director Julian Perkins has just released a third disc with his group Sounds Baroque.

Entitled Sweeter than Roses, their programme comprises an assortment of celebrated songs and lesser-known gems by Henry Purcell, together with instrumental works by his close Italian contemporaries Giovanni Battista Draghi and Francesco Corbetta, and two songs by the earlier Stuart court composer Henry Lawes. Featuring the international soprano Anna Dennis,

the disc is released by Resonus Classics and has been praised by BBC Music magazine for Dennis’s ‘chaste beauty, dignified and cool as marble’, while the instrumentalists have been acclaimed by Gramophone for their ‘sparkling commentary’.

Later this year, Julian Perkins will record music by Purcell’s younger English contemporary John Eccles. He will direct the Academy of Ancient Music and Cambridge Handel Opera in Eccles’s Semele, in which Anna Dennis will take on the title role. AAM Records will release the disc. julianperkins.com

Canon Peter Gould Canon Peter Gould thought that he had retired from being Master of the Music at Derby Cathedral in January 2015 but a recent rapid departure from Romsey Abbey by the director of music created an immediate vacancy in the music direction and Peter was headhunted to keep the show going until Easter Day. This was an enjoyable yet demanding job which Peter has relished. A new director has now been appointed but there will be another short interregnum until he starts work.

Peter could continue at Romsey after Easter Day as he is planning an organ pilgrimage around the Diocese of Portsmouth where he now lives. It will be a carbon copy of his 2013/14 project in Derbyshire. He plans to play the organ in every Anglican Church within six months, starting in Gosport in May and finishing in Portsmouth Cathedral on 28 November. There are about 120 churches to visit including almost 40 on the Isle of Wight.

Graham Lyons A common problem for piano beginners is summarised by: ‘I can play the left hand and the right hand, but it all goes wrong when I play them together’. Graham Lyons has published a book, Under The Fingers, for beginners and their teachers to help reduce the frequency of this anguished cry.

Under The Fingers is not a teaching method but a useful extra from which teachers can select ‘hands together’ pieces playable in the earliest stages.

The music has been composed to encourage beginners to use both hands almost from the start.

To eliminate any distraction from the book’s main purpose, fingers of both hands rest on the first five notes of the scale of C, an octave apart – and stay there. Each finger has just one given note to play. There are 42 short compositions, none more than eight bars long.

In the first section, both hands play the same notes working in parallel.

Next, hands play different notes but use identical fingers (contrary motion); for example, when the left hand thumb plays G, the right hand thumb plays C. In the final section, real hand independence is introduced, extremely slowly, and always with fingers resting on the same five notes.

The pieces are tuneful and all are numbered with titles (some a bit wacky).

Under The Fingers, catalogue number U155, is published by Useful Music at £5. It is available on order from music shops or from Spartan Press mail@spartanpress.co.uk Tel: 01528 544770

Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Emily Bollon

Founder of Motivation by Music Emily Bollon is on a mission to raise over £5000 for Parkinson’s UK through her original charity single, ‘Spring of Life’.

The single was released on World Parkinson’s Day 2019, in the same year that Parkinson’s UK celebrates its 50th anniversary. It features over 60 singers from across the MbM community and health choirs network, including members of Emily’s Parkinson’s singing group, Parkinsong Voices.

To download this inspiring and uplifting single, please head to justgiving.com/mbmcharitysingle forparkinsons, where you can also watch the music video, and donate if you would like to. Every penny raised will help fund activities, support and complementary therapies for people living with Parkinson’s in Guildford and South Surrey.

The concerts start at 7.30pm: tickets for Leon McCawley each concert cost £10 and are available Pianist Leon McCawley will be at the door or by reservation on performing John Ireland’s Piano 01903 882297 Concerto with the BBC Concert arundelcathedral.org Orchestra and conductor Bramwell Tovey at this year’s BBC Proms at the James Welburn Royal Albert Hall on 31 August (7.30pm), as part of a concert to celebrate the Composer James Welburn has 150th Anniversary of Sir Henry Wood’s recently launched his first publication birth. The concert will also be televised for solo piano, Musical Escapades, on BBC4 on 1 September. a fun collection of compositions for the intermediate pianist. Hailed as ‘outstanding’ by Andrew Eales of leading piano blog Pianodao, Musical Escapades ‘really does stand out from the crowd with its highly enjoyable mix of musical styles, all with catchy tunes and rhythms’. The sheet music is published by Editions Musica Ferrum and is available via their website (musica-ferrum.com). Recordings are available with each book, or separately via all major online stores.

Visit jameswelburn.com for more information.

bbcproms.co.uk/events/en3v9r leonmccawley.com

This is just one of many incredible ventures led by Motivation by Music, an organisation Emily founded to help connect people through group singing.

To contact Emily directly, please email emily@motivationbymusic.com.

D’Arcy Trinkwon D’Arcy Trinkwon’s four-concert series on the beautiful 1873 Hill organ at Arundel Cathedral concludes in July with the complete Sonatas and Preludes & Fugues of Mendelssohn on 12 July and the great organ works of Liszt on 26 July. It was Liszt’s music that illuminated and awoke D’Arcy’s musical path from the beginning.

Previous concerts in June featured the complete organ works of Brahms and the complete works for organ/pedalpiano of Schumann.

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Play: A psychological toolkit for optimal music performance ISM members receive 20% off when they purchase pioneering toolkit Play from the ISM Trust website.

The toolkit is available as an eBook priced at just £4 for members (usually £5) or a limited edition printed book priced at £8 (usually £10).

A sample chapter is also available from the website. ismtrust.org/play Play: A psychological toolkit for optimal music performance is a ground-breaking guide by Gregory Daubney, CPsychol, MSc and Dr Alison Daubney. Play is packed with approachable practical strategies to help musicians of all ages manage performance anxiety and overcome common psychological obstacles.

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Our new members We offer a warm welcome to the following members who joined before 31 May.

Full members Birmingham

Hereford & Worcester London – South East

North Yorkshire

South Wales

Nicholas Freestone BAMusic

Callum Fisher BMusSotonSolent Catherine Muncey Catherine Thomas BMusHonsBCU Gillian Willshire BMusHonsRSAMD

Kent

Melanie Dvorak Joseph O’Neill BAHons

Sarah Lianne Lewis BAHonsCardiff Charlotte Macclure BMusHonsRWCMD Sian Wynn BMusHons

Olutosin Akinremi Samuel Carter BAHonsCantChrist James Drake

Lancaster

Brighton

Ian Penwarden-Allan

Sam Barton BAYork Sally Beamish DMus GRNCM James Cox BAHonsChichester Joanna Keating BABrunel Matthew Stewart LRAM Bethan Thurgood

Lea Valley

Bristol Ella Cliffe BAHonsMusic Matthew Finch MABristol Paul Kenward BAHonsOU Nicola King GRNCM

Oliver Farrant BMusHonsRNCM Chris Hatton Robert Treves Carolyn Wilson BAMusic Nicola Martin BEdHonsWales Julie Tunks BEd LRSM CTABRSM Dan Watson BMusHonsBCU

Liverpool

London – West

Tom Dickinson BMusHonsLancaster Katherine Shuttleworth BMusLond

Stephanie Antoine Robert Carlin BAHonsLeeds Mariana Dangerfield BMusRoyalHolloway Rose Hilder LGSM GradDipMusCCAT Dina Rizvic BMusBerkleeColl Svetlana Vassilieva Marie Vassiliou BMusHonsRCM

Leicester

London – North

Ross Kevin Hammond

Andri Antoniou Jacob Brown BMusHonsRAM Rob Cates BAHons MAYork PGCE Larry Catungal MMusSoas Ya-Heng Chen MARAM Steven Daverson DMusRCM Owen Dawson BMusRCM William Fong GMusRNCM PPRNCM Cliona Ni Choileain BMusHonsRNCM Samuel Pierce BMusHonsRAM

Christina Louise Barow BAOU Adrian Bindley Alison Smith GTCL

Eastbourne & Hastings Timothy Ellis Clementine Westwood BMusHonsTrinityLaban

Guildford Margaret Harris LLCM LLCM Kathryn Hooper BAHonsACM Susan Milan ARCM FRCM Helena Moore BMusHonsRWCMD Michelle Nash BACanterburyChristChurch Louisa Roberts BALeeds

London – South West Lukas Kargl MMusGSMD Valeria Kucharsky ArtDipMSU MALisztFerencAcademy Alasdair Macaskill Colleen Muriel BMusLondon Stephanie Pavia MMus Rachel Selkirk MARAM Ewan Zuckert

Cheltenham Devon & Cornwall

Omer Ahmet Robert Hervais-Adelman BMusHonsTrinityLaban Alex Hitchcock MARAM Elizabeth Parker ARCM DipRAM LRAM Eleanor Ross MMus Eleanor Wood BMusHonsSydney

Manchester Daniel Brotherton Nick Jolly BAHonsLeeds Florence King BAHonsSalford Sarah Murphy PhDCardiff Jeremy Parr Ian Seddon FLCM ATCL ARCO

Norfolk

Northern Ireland Lesley Henry (Voiceworks) LTCL Lyndsey McDowell BMusHonsQUB

Nottingham Emma Bradbury BAHonsMusic Isla Keys MAStAndrews

Oxford Alexander Pott BAOxford Ruth Sellar BMusHonsKCL DipABRSMPiano DipABRSMTeaching

Portsmouth

St Albans Julie Clarke CertEd LTCL GTCL Edmund Morgan MMusRCM Stuart Quinlan BAHonsKingston

Staffordshire Anna Bradburn BMusHonsHuddersfield Anna Smith BAHonsLCOM

Warwickshire & Northamptonshire

Brian Moles MMusRoyalHolloway

Stephen George Catherine Scott-Burt DipTCL

Reading

West Yorkshire

Alison Bates-Hawkesworth ALCM Elizabeth Jane Douglas ARCM Tim Hawes Robert Tollow BMus

Sarah Dunn BAHonsLeeds Alexander Kyle BMusHonsHuddersfield Michael Sluman Richard Stewart BAHonsLeedsBeckett

Scotland – North East

Wiltshire

Kenneth Cormack BMusHonsRCS Fiona Ritchie DipLCM

Glenn Dutfield Megan Jennings BAEssex MAGSOA Deborah Lovell Victoria Medcalf BAYork Richard Darren Saunders FLCM GLCM

Scotland – South East Ryan Cairney BMusEdin

Scotland – South West Matthew Edwards BAHonsOU DipMusOU Michael McHugh BAStrathclyde Patrick Shand BMusHonsRCS

Overseas Emma Marnoch BMusHonsRWCMD

Sheffield David Hope BAHonsLeeds

Matthew Preston BAHonsLCOM

North of England Ian Teoh BAHonsNewcastle

Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Student members Birmingham Lewis Jones Armand Malik Bin Abdul Malik Eleanor Tomlinson

Brighton

Anja Jamsek Tereza Privratska BMusHonsRAM Andrew Trewren

London – South West Alina Mihailescu

London – West

Liverpool

Rhiannon Ashley Richard Craggs Jack Dolan Francesca Letch Tom Loughlin Robyn Martin Nina Pryce Zara Wardrop

Liam Carey

North Yorkshire

Natalia Wierzbicka

Lancaster Kathryn Burns

Lea Valley Bethany Greenyer Alex Wood

London – North

Nottingham Philip O’Connor

Portsmouth

London – South East Lars Fischer Maya Giulivi

Harriet Bill Johanna Opermann Emily Wild

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FRENCH HORNS, several from £150. 01747 828552

With regret, we report the deaths of: Miss June A L Nunn of Camberley Mr Noel F Skinner of Harrow Miss Molly Townson of Hastings

Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Emily Ashby Harriet Brown

Letters after your name

Hansol Kim Sara Norouzi Iranzad

Edward Holmes Dylan Kirk Alex Nguyen Dang Madeleine Pickering Moumen Rais

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Westminster C of E Primary Academy office@westminsterschool. co.uk 01274648490 westminsterschool.co.uk

Hollie Arnold Rebecca Morgan

Manchester

Croydon

Corporate members

Matthew Thompson

West Yorkshire

Antoine Pichon Colette Spaul

Antoine Canon Sophie Frost

Sheffield

As a member of ISM you are automatically entitled to use letters after your name: MISM (Member of the ISM) or SMISM (Student Member of the ISM). If you have been in continuous membership for 15 years or more, you gain FISM (Fellow of the ISM) status.

Download the appropriate logo from the members’ area of our website to add to your website, personal stationery and marketing materials. We also have a corporate member logo.

If you are a platinum, gold, silver or bronze corporate member and would like to display the logo on your website or in your publications, please contact us on 020 7221 3499 or membership@ism.org.

How to book: please send advertisement copy with payment (cheques payable to the ‘Incorporated Society of Musicians’ or T: 020 7221 3499 with credit card details) to the ISM, 4–5 Inverness Mews, London W2 3JQ or email mj@ism.org by 1 August for September/October issue.

DUETSFORALL INSTRUMENTS.COM Publishes four DOUBLE BASS PAESOLD instrumental duet concert model 590. books in many different Excellent condition cost editions providing pieces £3k plus in 1997, £895 for orchestral and other ONO 01747 828552 instruments. These books include many mixed HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION 2 miles instrument editions for adjacent, same family from Penzance: large comfortable 1950s house instruments, in total 127 in rural setting. Sleeps 8. books. Pieces from these Big garden · grand piano · books have been used internet · ample parking. many times for exam assessments including All linen included.

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Private and Trade 50p per word, minimum £5.

Advertisements from ISM members are half-price (i.e. 25p per word, minimum £2.50). Name, address and contact details must be paid for if included. Box numbers £2 extra. Prices include VAT. A series of six or more identical insertions qualifies for 10% discount.

ONLINE MUSIC THEORY COURSES FOR BEGINNERS: CONTACT Stephanie on 07443 650708 for further information.

and will finish by 17.00, includes presentations and performances

by Huddersfield staff performers and researchers, and will give opportunities for INAUGURAL UNIVERSITY attendees to perform OF HUDDERSFIELD together, as well as ‘STRINGS DAY’. receive consultation SATURDAY 5 OCTOBER lessons. Tea and coffee 2019. Richard Steinitz will be provided, but Building and St Paul’s Hall. please bring a sandwich Hosted by performerlunch. Under 18s should STUDENT CELLOS, mostly scholar and violinist be accompanied by German, various sizes, Dr David Milsom, a responsible adult/ from £100. Tel. 07974 this interactive day carer. The day is FREE 412269 will introduce you to OF CHARGE but please opportunities for (bowed) contact Dr David Milsom if BASSOONS several. 07974 strings (violin, viola, interested to register, and 412269 cello, double bass) at discuss practical matters. the university. The day, d.milsom@hud.ac.uk which begins at 09.30

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

NEWS FROM OUR CORPORATE MEMBERS We welcome your brief news (max. 200 words for Platinum and Gold members, max. 150 words for Silver members) and good photographs. Please email mj@ism.org. The next deadline for copy is xx xx for May/June issue.

Brad Cohen, founder of Tido, said: ‘Using technology to enhance music education is at the heart of what we believe in at Tido. We’re thrilled to be partnering with such an illustrious institution as we continue to develop our product and further tailor it to the needs of music students.’ tido-music.com

Tido Music Tido Music offers free app subscriptions to Royal College of Music students Committed to supporting music education, Tido Music is thrilled to be partnering with the Royal College of Music (RCM), funding student subscriptions to its Tido Music app until 31 March 2020.

Available as an iPad app or via desktop browser, Tido Music provides almost 10,000 piano and vocal scores from world-leading publishers.

Piano accompaniment recordings are included with the vocal repertoire, enabling singers to practise with the piano part at any time. Innovative tools such as pitch-shift, speed-shift and automatic page turning will further enhance practice sessions.

•

are used to working with children

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are open to training

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are competent but not necessarily performing pianists

•

are able to make at least one week of their time available each session (three times a year)

Where will I travel?

An enjoyable aspect of the role is travel: we keep examiners away from ABRSM candidates they might know from ABRSM is recruiting new examiners their local area, so there is normally a reasonable amount of UK travel. But Are you looking for a freelance there is also international work. We role that … operate in over 90 countries but our • allows you to travel? biggest international tours take place • supports developing musicians? in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China and • complements your portfolio career? Singapore, often in groups with others.

Music examining could be for you!

ABRSM is one of the largest employers of freelance musicians in the UK and we are always interested in hearing from people who are considering examining as part of their career.

Find out more: 020 7467 8845 abrsm.org/examine

Be part of a 700-strong community of musicians!

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Students will be able to find and access What we are looking for: repertoire instantly and listen to professional audio recordings synced UK-based musicians who to the notation. They will also discover rich educational materials such as video • have a strong educational background masterclasses from concert pianists.

• Throughout the course of their subscriptions, students will use Tido Music to assist their studies and will be asked to give feedback on the app, contributing to its future development.

have the personal experience, qualities and attributes to cope positively with the range of situations and people they will meet

Music Education Solutions is offering ISM members a 20% discount on any of their online CPD courses with the code ISM20. These online courses can be studied at any time, from any place, at your own pace. There is a full range of topics available, suitable for instrumental, primary and secondary music teachers. Each course registration includes six months’ access from date of purchase, and a completion certificate on submission of a final optional assignment. musiceducationcourses.com Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Rocksteady Foundation Over 3000 children have free rock band experiences with Rocksteady Foundation

survey the landscape, and look at the ways in which we, as an assessment board, can reflect and shape a changing musical environment.

Repertoire selection is a key element, and our new lists now showcase more female composers and contemporary works, as well as a wider range of genres such as films and musicals.

We know that teachers frequently work with groups of mixed-string players, so we’ve included pieces from Trinity’s Take Your Bow books for bowed strings. This open approach to students’ learning across a number The Rocksteady Foundation has given of settings is also reflected in the more than 3,000 children across the inclusion of fun pieces from books UK the chance to have a free rock band and pedagogies such as Vamoosh, experience so far this academic year.

Stringsongs and Suzuki.

Right: RBC conservatoire principal Julian Lloyd Webber (centre) celebrates new recording opportunities for student performers and composers Photo: Canadian Li

By August 2019, the foundation will have held 64 different events at SEN schools, charities, children’s hospices and hospitals. In addition, over 1,000 children joined in the Foo Fighters: Just Play day, and the foundation supported Radio 1 at the ‘Ultimate Christmas Party’ for Young Carers in Oxford, as well as taking part in Music For All’s Learn to Play Day in March.

Michelle Baker, teacher at Lonsdale School for children with special educational needs in Stevenage said: ‘The pupils really had an amazing time when the Rocksteady team came, they were very patient and helped every individual to learn the chords or words as well as getting them to play as a band in a short space of time.’

Exams can sometimes seem daunting, and we’ve worked hard to create a range of resources that provide inspiration and help to dispel some of the myths. Available at trinitycollege. com/strings-resources, these include interviews with young professional players about where our exams can Rachel Hawker who runs the lead, and candidates and parents can foundation days, said: ‘Children really experience the exam online through benefit from these music experiences, the eyes of a grade 4 cellist, from so it’s important to us to reach as many arrival at a centre and warming up, children as possible and teach them through to the exam itself. the life skills that come with playing in a band, including confidence, team Download the syllabus at work and wellbeing.’ trinitycollege.com/strings Foundation@ rocksteadymusicschool.com

Trinity College London Choosing repertoire for the new strings syllabus Working on a new syllabus gives us a great opportunity to explore what string teachers and players need,

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For violin, we have published new repertoire books for Initial to grade 8, with recordings of the pieces available to download or stream.

Alternative pieces can be found in Trinity’s Raise the Bar series, three volumes of favourite pieces from previous syllabuses, and Performance Edition: Violin, four new books showcasing previously unpublished pieces by contemporary, international composers.

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire New recording opportunities for RBC students as well as staff This term we have announced an unprecedented partnership with Naxos Records, whereby six outstanding students from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire will each have the chance to make their all-important debut recording. The recordings in the series will take place in the RBC’s own acousticallyacclaimed Bradshaw Hall, for future international release on Naxos Records. This initiative ties in with our Principal Professor Julian Lloyd Webber’s own philosophy that music students should have the chance to experience as many aspects of the music industry as possible as an integral part of their music education.

Also this term, Birmingham Record Company (BRC) – established by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2013 to promote the bold and exciting new music being created by our Composition Department – has signed a distribution deal with the renowned NMC Recordings, meaning that NMC will re-release the BRC back-catalogue through their own distribution networks. While the label has initially focused on the music of Conservatoire staff members, the goal is to open the label to both graduates and students who have the ambition to release challenging and high-quality creative material. By doing so, Birmingham Record Company will shine a light on one of the most dynamic and original music scenes in the UK today. bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Right: Samantha Clarke and Jonathan Vaughan at Guildhall’s Gold Medal Competition 2019 Photo: Clive Totman

NMC Recordings

NMC marks its 30th anniversary with New arrangements for church projects developing young audiences services and weddings Continuing its 30th birthday celebrations in March, NMC was thrilled to launch two new projects for young musicians and composers in partnership with Chineke! Foundation and London Music Masters.

Linked to NMC’s forthcoming album of works by Black and Minority Ethnic composers performed by Chineke!

Orchestra, we worked with Chineke! and THAMES to deliver three inspiring days of creative music-making workshops with Swanlea School in Whitechapel.

Led by composer Errollyn Wallen, Chineke!’s Ishani O’Connor and musicians from the orchestra, 40 participants aged 11-14 found out about life as a composer and were encouraged to explore their instruments in new ways. In groups they composed five exciting new pieces based on the theme of belonging, which they performed to a rapturous audience of fellow students and family members.

Below: Pupils from Swamlea School performing Photo: NMC Recordings

Len Rhodes Music

NMC and London Music Masters launched Many Voices at the V&A Museum of Childhood a few days later. A sheet music book and album of ten specially commissioned violin pieces for grades 2-5, it includes works

by Tansy Davies, Colin Matthews, Daniel Kidane, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Hannah Kendall and more.

LMM’s primary school violinists gave incredible performances at the launch and Many Voices will continue to be used by LMM teachers this year. nmcrec.co.uk/education

Latest music from lenrhodesmusic.com includes ‘When In Our Music God Is Glorified’ through a special licensing agreement with Hope Publishing Company. These settings of the Fred Pratt Green text, and Charles Villiers Stanford tune have been arranged for SAB choir and piano, and SATB choir and piano, and are now available for download. The wonderful Stanford tune is respectfully maintained but the harmonic structure is of a more contemporary style.

Guildhall School of Music & Drama Soprano Samantha Clarke wins Gold Medal Competition May saw the return of the Gold Medal – Guildhall’s most prestigious prize for outstanding soloists. The final took place at Barbican Hall and after a series of competitive performances, soprano Samantha Clarke was announced as this year’s winner. The distinguished panel of judges included Sir Bryn Terfel, Guildhall alumnus and winner of the 1989 Gold Medal.

Len’s arrangements of the Tomaso Albinoni Adagio in G minor, particularly for cello and piano, have become a best seller on lenrhodesmusic.com, and the piece is a wedding favourite.

Len Rhodes continues to create beautifully crafted arrangements for weddings in a variety of settings. Best sellers include Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’; Mendelssohn’s It has been a successful month of awards for Guildhall School musicians.

Wedding March; Albinoni’s Adagio in G minor for french horn and piano; Benson Wilson was awarded First Schubert’s Ave Maria; and Fauré’s Pavane.

Prize at the prestigious Kathleen Len Rhodes Music publishes reference Ferrier Awards, with Ema Nikolovska winning the Ferrier Loveday Song books including Perfect Pitch for You, Prize. Ema has also been selected as Teaching Composition in the Private one of two Guildhall artists among Music Studio, and A New Dictionary seven musicians and ensembles from of Composers, a listing of over 3,700 around the world to join the BBC Radio composers in chronological, and 3 New Generation Artists Scheme from alphabetical order – a vital reference 2019-2021. At the annual Cavatina and resource for ‘trivia night!’ To Intercollegiate Chamber Music receive your 20% ISM discount type Competition, Guildhall ensemble, ‘ISM2019’ at check out. the Mithras Trio, were selected as the lenrhodesmusic.com competition winners.

Guildhall School has also been recognised in the field of teaching excellence. This month the School was announced as the top conservatoire in the Complete University Guide Music League Table 2020, and third overall in the Arts, Drama & Music League Table 2020 which ranks specialist colleges and conservatoires. gsmd.ac.uk

Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Kawai

Leeds College of Music

New models ensure the future of the piano

Opera North and Leeds College of Music announce new partnership

Have you experienced the very latest in acoustic piano action technology?

Replacing the conventional wooden action, and then the ground-breaking Kawai ABS Action from the 1980s, the revolutionary Millennium III Action with Carbon Fibre offers a superior response.

Kawai’s Millennium III Action features components made of ABS-Carbon, a new composite material created by the infusion of carbon fibre into their existing ABS Styran. ABS-Carbon is incredibly sturdy and rigid, which allows Kawai to make the action parts lighter without sacrificing strength. The lighter design makes the Millennium III Action tremendously fast and effortless for the player.

Key benefits include: Strength: Adding carbon fibre to Kawai’s renowned ABS-Styran parts increased strength by 90%. This enabled ABS-Carbon parts to be stronger, as well as lighter in weight.

Speed: With lighter ABS-Carbon parts, the Millennium III Action is approximately 25% faster than a conventional wooden action.

Power: ABS-Carbon is more rigid and sends more energy to the hammer with every keystroke, providing more power with less effort.

Control: The jack is redesigned with a microscopic surface texture to provide unparalleled control for pianissimo playing.

Visit your nearest Kawai Piano dealer and try this revolutionary action for yourself. kawai.co.uk

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Leeds College of Music (LCoM) and Opera North have formed a new partnership, providing valuable learning opportunities for musicians studying classical music. The partnership is set to build on the long history of collaboration between two of the city’s leading musical institutions, giving LCoM students a direct link to the industry via the largest producing opera company in the North of England.

Opportunities for students will include playing side by side with the Orchestra of Opera North; observing the orchestra and opera production and rehearsal process; working with conductors and chorus masters on repertoire; and having access to workshops and masterclasses with visiting artists.

The partnership will have additional employability-focused activity, including student-in-residence placements and experience in project management and session delivery.

Students will also have the opportunity to gain experience in music education through Opera North’s In Harmony community residency programme, which brings instrumental and vocal learning to over 1,700 children in four schools in south Leeds. Opera North will also input into Leeds College of Music’s opera scenes project which takes place during its annual flagship festival, Sounds like THIS.

repertoire, community choir leading, European and British choral music and academic research. Set in the brand new buildings of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, there are concerts by top choirs including the National Youth Choir of Hungary, mini-performances, workshops and lectures by presenters from the UK, Canada, Denmark and Hungary, a large exhibition and much more. There are three conducting courses to choose from, including our young conductors’ course for anyone aged 18-25, plus lots of networking opportunities.

ISM members can participate at abcd member rates – choose one of the ‘Choral Orgs’ options in the online booking system to get the reduced rate. abcd.org.uk

City Music Foundation City Music Foundation returns to The Wallace Collection for fourth summer of performances

City Music Foundation (CMF) is delighted to announce that it will be returning to The Wallace Collection gallery for a fourth annual Summer Residency (22-26 July 2019). Featuring six CMF Artists, 2019 sees the residency expanded beyond the popular free lunchtime recitals to include lcm.ac.uk a children’s concert with A4 Brass Quartet; a performance for dementia operanorth.co.uk sufferers with jazz pianist Tom Millar; and an evening concert centred on abcd Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet performed abcd Choral Leader’s Festival by guest artist pianist Sholto Kynoch in collaboration with the Eblana Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, String Trio and Toby Hughes (double 22-25 August 2019 bass). For this, CMF’s first evening The Association of British Choral Directors’ concert at the Collection, Schubert’s 34th Annual Convention has so much ever-popular quintet is paired with more to offer that it needs not just a selection of fish-inspired songs – an extra day but a new name too! including Schubert’s Die Forelle (‘The Offering inspiration for all choral Trout’) – sung by mezzo-soprano Helen leaders, there are strands including Charlston. Tickets for ‘Schubert’s Trout’

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

start at £25 and are available from the Wallace Collection’s website. All other recitals and events are free to attend.

always good to connect with other teachers and colleagues. aotos.org.uk

City Music Foundation is at The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN Monday 22 – Friday 26 July 2019 Full residency schedule and programmes at citymusicfoundation.org

Association of Teachers of Singing (AOTOS)

British Voice Association July Study Day and September Workshop

What is it?

The next BVA study day will take place on Sunday 7 July at Baden-Powell House, London SW7. ‘Hormones and the Voice’ will examine the effect of hormones on the spoken and singing voice, with topics including gynaecology and nutrition. The biennial Gunnar Rugheimer lecture will address the subject of hormones and the female voice.

Eurovox is an opportunity for a global community of singing teachers to come together and share best practice, deliver workshops and highlight the latest teaching models and therapies available worldwide. It is a fantastic chance to observe and interact with fellow teachers beyond the UK.

On Sunday 22 September there will be a day workshop on jazz singing led by Louise Gibbs. Details of the full line-up of presenters and session themes will be announced soon. For information about all our events and a wide range of free resources about voice health, please visit our website.

Call for papers, workshops, poster presentations

britishvoiceassociation.org.uk

SAVE THE DATE! EUROVOX 2020 is coming AOTOS will be hosting Eurovox 2020 in Edinburgh 24-26 July 2020.

Our central theme is ‘Let All the World in Ev’ry Corner Sing’.

We are now ready to invite all those involved in the latest research and pedagogy to submit applications of academic papers and practical workshops to be included in this Europe wide conference. This is a great opportunity for researchers to present their work to an international audience.

Submissions deadline is 1 October 2019.

Successful applicants will be entitled to discounted (Early Bird) rates for the conference.

Go to: eurovox.eu/papers/ Summer Conference 2019: Refresh, Recharge, Revitalise!

If you would like to meet like-minded singing teachers THIS year, then come to our summer conference which takes place at Woodland Grange, Leamington Spa 19-21 July. We have a wide range of speakers and it is

Impulse Music Consultants Let us help you to take stock of your resources If there is one thing that we are not good at as freelance musicians it is consolidation. We don’t take time to reflect on past achievements or disappointments, or to take stock of our resources. This can be a particularly fruitful exercise. We are experts at creative energy, ideas and getting on with the job as soon as the phone call or email comes through.

In the course of that whirlwind of activity, we can allow ideas with great potential to fall by the wayside or get kicked into the long grass.

Certainly those ideas may not have been the right direction for that moment, but they may well have had future potential as our careers have taken a different course and we have encountered new and different

creative partnerships. Equally, we may not have been in a position to maximise the potential of an idea when it first came up, but a change of circumstances can give a project a second breath and ensure that our creative output hasn’t gone to waste.

Only recently we worked on a discarded idea of our own which is resulting in a CD launch in the autumn – watch this space!

At Impulse, we can help you to review, analyse and rethink your ideas both old and new. We can work with you to develop a strategy or provide you with a template for discovering how to revisit resources that you may have unintentionally cast aside.

As ISM corporate members we are happy to offer ISM members a 10% discount on all consultations. Simply send an enquiry to contact@impulsemusic.co.uk or call us on 01760 441441.

We’re ready – are you?

Royal Northern College of Music New postgraduate scholarship offered to students from Western Australia The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University are deepening their partnership through substantial joint scholarships.

Worth £10,000 each, the financial support will enable two of WAAPA’s graduating classical music students to undertake a year of postgraduate study at the RNCM, commencing in 2020.

The initiative is part of an ongoing collaboration between the two institutions, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in 2017. Since then, both have engaged in collaborative research and performance opportunities, as well as placements and exchanges for staff and students.

RNCM Principal Professor Linda Merrick said: ‘I am thrilled that we are developing this partnership Continued overleaf È

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Below: Students of the RNCM opera course in a production

through substantial joint scholarships alongside smaller bursaries and opportunities for staff and student exchange. International partnerships form a significant part of conservatoire training, enabling us to share best practice, explore collaborative projects and further enhance the student experience.’

The Piano Teachers’ Course UK

Up to 15% discount to readers of MJ before 31 July for 2019-20! Discounted rate available on CPD for ISM members.

rncm.ac.uk Photo: Courtesy of RNCM

waapa.ecu.edu.au Now in its 12th year, this highly successful and all-encompassing course retains its leading position in the UK’s professional development for piano teachers. Share in the pioneering work of the principle tutors and see your skills and your students’ enjoyment grow exponentially whilst making lifelong friends. The course is part time, taking place on three residential weekends and five further Sundays between September and

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June, at the Purcell School of Music.

It culminates in the Cert PTC, or Dip PTC, and is suitable for those new to the profession as well as those who want to refresh their skills and keep up with the latest developments in piano teaching.

‘It was hugely confidence-boosting, transformed my teaching and performing, and inspired me to continue with professional development’ rhiana@pianoteacherscourse.co.uk / 07833 687473 pianoteacherscourse.org

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

We are very grateful to all our corporate members for their support.

GOLD CORPORATE MEMBERS

PLATINUM CORPORATE MEMBERS

ABRSM

Musicians Insurance Services

ALFA Education Ltd Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Black Dress Code

Allianz Musical Insurance Duet Group Hal Leonard Europe Ltd

NMC Recordings Park Lane Group

British Youth Band Association Classic FM Collins Music

Rocksteady Music School

EVC Music Publications Ltd Henri Selmer Paris Impulse Music Consultants

Insure4Music

The Royal Central School Of Speech & Drama

Kawai The Royal Philharmonic Society Lark Music Tido Leeds College of Music London College of Music Mark Allen Group

Trinity College London Victoria College Exams

Yamaha Music Europe

For further information about our different levels of corporate membership and a full list of 170 corporate members, visit ism.org.

Len Rhodes Music London College of Music Examinations Music Mark National Preparatory School Orchestras Oxford University Press Portsmouth Music Hub The Curious Piano Teachers The Piano Teachers’ Course UK Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Trybooking.co.uk Tutti University of Huddersfield University of St Andrews

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New from Spring 2019

London College of Music Examinations

Music Theatre Syllabus 2019–2021 lcme.info/mt

STENTOR Inspiring Players of All Ages * Stentor provides good quality instruments to enable players to progress to the best of their ability and enjoy making music. * Stentor’s ideal student and intermediate instruments: • Stentor Student I • Stentor Student II • Stentor Graduate • Stentor Conservatoire * Choose from our high grade orchestral models: - Messina, Elysia and Arcadia * Stentor violins, violas, cellos and double basses are carved from solid tonewoods, with correct measurements and good tonal quality, offering students the best start to their musical careers.

Stentor instruments available in all sizes from your local music retailer Contact us for a copy of the Stentor brochure

www.stentor-music.com Stentor Music Co Ltd Tel: 01737 240226 Email: info@stentor-music.com

ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

LOCAL EVENTS LISTINGS Full listings can be found on our website, ism.org

Friday 19 July 2019

Sunday 10 November 2019

Sunday 17 November 2019

Cambridge Drinks and Meal

North London Pupils’ Concert

Cambridge Pupils’ Concert

from 7pm, Cambridge location (details tbc) Contact: Stephanie Reeve steph.reeve@ chrisward.org.uk

2.30pm, The Cooper Hall, Hall School, 23 Crossfield Road, NW3 4NU Members are invited to put forward pupils to play or sing. Both children and adults are welcome to perform, whether individually, in duets, or in larger ensembles. Please note each pupil’s programme must not exceed seven minutes and each teacher may enter up to five pupils. Pupils may be at grade 1 or any level above, but should have their performance item at a concert standard.

Ensembles would be particularly welcome.

An accompanist will be provided if required but must be requested in advance. Admission will be by programme on the door. Light refreshments will be available. Please encourage pupils to bring an audience. The hall is available from 2pm for warming up.

Cost: Adults £5, Children £2. There is no charge for performers or for teachers presenting pupils.

Directions: Nearest tube Swiss Cottage (3 min walk) & Belsize Park. Parking unrestricted on a Sunday, but this is a dense residential area so allow plenty of time.

Contact: Claire Kitchin, ISM North London Secretary, 020 7272 3903 or claire_ crescendo@icloud.com

4 pm, St Andrew’s Church, Coldhams Lane, Cherry Hinton, CB1 3JS A concert for under-18 pupils of ISM Cambridge Centre members, Contact: Emma Cooper emmacooper5678@gmail.com

Volunteering as an ISM Representative is perfectly suited to members who enjoy planning or organising events and meeting other members in their local area. Supported by ISM, local group events provide networking opportunities, social events, professional development and performance opportunities in your area. They are a fantastic way to meet other musicians and enhance your career.

For more information or an application form please call 020 7313 9323 or email membership@ism.org.

Sunday 13 October North London North London Annual Dinner 7pm, Genzo Restaurant, 212-216 High Road, East Finchley, N2 9AY The Annual Dinner enables members to network, make connections with likeminded musicians and provides a chance to meet the committee members who represent your interests in North London.

Partners and friends - whether they are musicians or not - are very welcome too!

Cost: £23 per person for a three course dinner including wine.

Contact: Judith Sheridan, ISM North London Chairman 01525 222131 or judithclaresheridan@gmail.com

ISM Representative Vacancies We are currently looking for members to act as ISM Representatives for the following local groups:

London – South West Bournemouth Devon and Cornwall

Deadline for applications is Monday 2 September 2019.

ISM graduate membership – now just £50 We understand that the start of your career can be a difficult time financially. In response to increasing graduate debt and your feedback, we have reduced our graduate membership rate to £50, increasing to £110 in the fourth year of membership. This represents a saving of £452 over four years. If you were previously a student member, we will give you an additional year of membership at £50.

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ISM MUSIC JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2019

Ask me a question James Girling Classical and jazz guitarist, composer and arranger

Tell us a little about yourself I recently graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music with a master’s degree, having studied with classical guitarist Craig Ogden and jazz pianist Dan Whieldon. Since arriving here as an eighteen-year-old, I’ve now lived in Manchester for five years. I lead my own instrumental quintet, Artephis, for which I compose; current Northern Line artists through Jazz North, Artephis have released an album called All Change No Change. I play in various other jazz groups: Lieko Quintet who have just returned from

the UK tour of our original EP Amethyst, Prohibition-era septet The Easy Rollers, and Afrobeat/Ethiojazz-influenced 11-piece Agbeko with whom I’ve played in Milan, Malta, Croatia and Bulgaria over the past year. As a classical guitarist, I’ve performed with the Hallé Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Ensemble 10/10, and the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet. This year I gave my debut performance of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with orchestra, and have previously performed the Fantasia p para un gentilhombre concerto. My fl flute-guitar Meraki Duo, with whom I’m a Live Music Now artist, gives concerts yyear-round across the UK, and this spring w we competed in the final of the Royal O Over-Seas League Competition (Mixed Ensembles). As well as arranging repertoire ffor Meraki Duo, I’ve been commissioned by composer Andy Scott and performers CCraig Ogden and Jacqui Dankworth to write aarrangements. Elsewhere, I’ve just finished ffour months’ filming, playing a guitarist in tthe forthcoming WWII-set BBC One drama, World On Fire.

Who is your all-time favourite artist and why?

Miles Davis. Having been exposed to the breadth of his records from quite a young age, I’ve always admired his insatiable, ever-evolving artistic impetus. He possessed an open-mindedness, unpredictability and freshness of imagination that allowed his musical output to follow so many different directions, culminating in a range of genuinely incomparable records and ensembles over the course of five or six decades.

What was the last CD/music download that you purchased?

The album Origami Harvest by trumpetercomposer Ambrose Akinmusire What are your plans for the future?

That would have to be my dad, who at once inspired me to take up both classical and jazz guitar, and whose record collection continues to influence me!

Ahead of forthcoming tours supported by Jazz North’s Northern Line artist promotion scheme, I’m presently writing new compositions for Artephis. With Meraki Duo, the next couple of years are shaping up to be busy; I’m arranging pieces by Messiaen (originally for voice and piano) as well as preparing our new programmes for classical festivals and concert series. Agbeko looks set to continue making headway in mainland Europe. I’d love to study flamenco immersively in the future, and I’m attempting to learn Norwegian!

What would you say is your greatest achievement to date?

Finally, what is your ISM membership to you?

I’m proud to have been the first guitarist to have won the Royal Northern College of Music’s Gold Medal Award, during my third year as an undergraduate

My ISM membership means confidence

W Who (or what) has most influenced you and your career?

jamesgirlingmusic.com

Recommend a friend and save money on your membership fees Every time one of your friends joins the ISM as a full or graduate-rate member, we’ll give you money off your next year’s membership fee – £20 off if you are a full rate member, or £10 off if you are a graduate-rate member.

Your friend must be working at a professional level to join us. They can apply to join via one of our routes to membership and should use promo code FULLREC or GRADREC when they join. If they join at the full rate we’ll give them £10 off their membership fee too.

To claim your discounts, email membership@ism.org with the name and email address of the friend(s) you are recommending.

Please note: the number of rewards you can redeem is limited to the value of your subscription upon renewal. Please ensure that you have the permission of the person you are recommending to give us their name and email address. Their data will be held in accordance with the ISM privacy policy, available at ism.org/privacy_policy.

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London Mozart Players return to Fairfield Halls as Resident Orchestra

7.30pm, WEDNESDAY 18 SEPTEMBER, 2019 Celebrating their 70th birthday and 30 years as resident orchestra at Fairfield Halls, LMP will launch Croydon’s refurbished concert hall with a magnificent gala concert full of classical favourites performed alongside musical friends old and new.

PROKOFIEV Symphony No.1 in D, Op.25 ‘Classical’ MOZART Arias performed by Louise Adler (soprano) WOOLF Fanfare for Fairfield world premiere (new commission) BEETHOVEN Symphony No.7 in A, Op.92

HOWARD SHELLEY JANE GLOVER HILARY DAVAN WETTON GERARD KORSTEN

TICKETS £15-45 available via fairfield.co.uk Transaction fee applies to online and telephone bookings

TURNER VIOLINS One of the best selections of fine stringed instruments in the UK Violins

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Valuations

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Also at: Cavendish Square LONDON by Appointment

NOTTINGHAM 1-5 Lily Grove NG9 1QL 0115 943 0333

www.turnerviolins.co.uk