Promoting early music across the Midlands
MEMF are sad to announce that our friend and Treasurer of several years, Heather Holt, has died after a long illness. Heather was a keen viol and recorder player, a member of various consorts and an asset to many MEMF
We are sorry to tell you that Beresford King-Smith, a past and eminent chairman of MEMF for sixteen years, has died. He had been very unwell for some time and had reached the stage where he could not manage at
We were sorry to hear of the death of our friend Sue Peters, a stalwart of MEMF, Committee member and for several years our Publicity Coordinator. Sue had been ill for some time, and some of you will have been
We began the year with a wonderful Renaissance vocal workshop with David Allinson, which was so oversubscribed we had to start a waiting list. David was in excellent and witty form as usual, though sadly will not be available for further
We look forward to Jeffrey Skidmore’s workshop on Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit on December 10th. Amazingly it will be 20 years to the month since Jeffrey did his first workshop with us on the same work! The long planned Peerson project,
Renaissance Fest in July was an excellent informal day with a long and delicious tea break! Members Sheila Koch and Jonathan Spencer organised the singers and viol players respectively and we sang and played some really lovely music. The new
We are delighted to welcome back Graham O’Reilly to run the next MEMF workshop. Graham O’Reilly, founder of the “Ensemble William Byrd”, has lived in France for more than 30 years. Originally from Australia, he studied at University of Sydney
Close on 60 people spent a glorious day singing and playing Bach Cantatas on Saturday 27th April under the expert direction of Paul Spicer. Cantatas 77 and 150 were chosen not only for their lusciousness, but also because they have
The next workshop on 27th April is with Paul Spicer who is well known as an outstanding choral conductor, composer and musicologist. This will be a rare and exciting opportunity to sing or play Cantata BWV 150 with baroque orchestra