Summer Melts into Autumn
Dear cellist,
I hope you have had a lovely summer, playing, listening to music, and enjoying your musical world.
Here in Lewes, the two summer courses were a joy to prepare and teach to returning players and newcomers from far and wide.
At Unsung Heroes Summer School, we celebrated its 20th anniversary with eloquent six-part music by Brahms and Palestrina, whose Kyrie for the Missa Papae Marcelli filled people at the very first course with so much joy. There was also emotionally rich music by Bridge and Schubert, with which we had a good time exploring and developing.
Through Coloured Glass had its third run, with several new pieces added, and some taken out to keep the programme varied. The players created some very magical moments in performance, and afterwards, I was stopped in the street by a couple who had been at the concert. The man had been moved to tears by the combination of the unique sound of ten cellos, the soundscape of the natural world, which enhances the age-old story the music tells, and the silence within the church.
Although I could play Through Coloured Glass daily, we all need change, refreshment, and new things to focus on, so TCG will have a sabbatical. Right now, I am developing a new course to grab your imagination as cellists and musicians. It doesn’t yet have a title, and I have some people to talk to, but you can be sure that it will be as enriching to rehearse and perform at St Michael’s church next August.
The dates for both courses will appear soon.
If you are in the UK, there are two 1-Day Workshops coming: October 18th is music by Haydn, the great optimist. It is a lot of fun to play and has so much to teach us. On November 29th, we turn to magical music for wintertime. Your score will be sent out when you book your place. A player is joining us from Ireland and hiring a cello from me. If this sounds like something you’d like to do, please get in touch.
I first met a lot of you during Covid, at the online courses, and I hope to see you again at All About My Bow on October 4th at 6 pm, and then on December 6th. I will be choosing the music soon and will be in touch about it.
Autumn, I feel, has almost a feel of a new year to it, and at Your Tool Kit on November 8th, part of our class will be dedicated to creating a programme that you can expand and change, focusing on specific techniques and musical ideas, checking what we think is happening, actually is happening! It’s a bit like going into training, and I hope it will encourage you to create your own evolving programmes.
I often do this as a September Reset, but notice it works better a bit further into the term.
If you are looking for new music for your cello group or for solo repertoire, there are pieces of great beauty at Vaulted Sky Music to download. If you are looking for some stonking tunes with piano accompaniment, then check out Capri ʻ66 by Mark Sinclair from his collection One Chair in a Room. They are all a joy to play.
If you're looking for a solo cello piece and you are around Grade 6–7, then Christopher Fox’s exquisite piece In the Shape of a Rose is deeply engrossing.
I wish you an enriching autumn time, and do get in touch with any queries or ideas.
With warm wishes, Catherine