SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-01-09 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/London) | Zoom
Another in our popular series of webinars with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and a special guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. Robert will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice. Music links will be sent out in advance when you book.
This week’s guest is Ekaterina Antonenko who is the director of Intrada Choir in Moscow. They are giving the final Live From London Concert on Thursday 8th January at 7pm.
Please book below – you will receive the music links after you have booked as we do not have them yet.

"Let us Seek with the Shepherds" with Rory McCleery.
2021-01-16 11:00 - 12:30 | Zoom
In this workshop, Rory McCleery, Artistic Director of The Marian Consort, explores the fascinating history and rich musical lineage of Jean Mouton’s exquisite motet Quaeramus cum Pastoribus.
Composed at the very beginning of the sixteenth century, Mouton’s work would remain in the repertoire of the Cappella Sistina for over a hundred years, as well as travelling in print and manuscript as far afield as Aberdeen and Guatemala and inspiring parody compositions by several later generations of composers, including Cristobal de Morales, Pedro de Cristo and Annibale Stabile. We will be singing some of these works, as well as Mouton’s original – which Rory says is ‘one of his all-time favourite pieces!’ – as part of the workshop, with pdf scores circulated in advance.

SingTheScore EXTRA with Robert Hollingworth
2021-01-30 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Another in our popular series of webinars with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and a mystery guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. Robert will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice.
We are currently smack bang in the middle of Carnival – the period between Christmas and Lent so there will be a slight focus on that this week. Feel free to bring a mask! We will sing another movement from the madrigal comedy ‘The little carnival party’ by Adriano Banchieri: – a ‘giustiniano’ – an old man’s song. To balance that another song from a comedy but a beautiful and quite involved lament: Vecchi’s ‘Ecco che piu non rest speranza.’ Really the most wonderful piece, translation on the score.
The full DVD of the masked show (with I Fagiolini and Simon Callow) can still be bought here: right back in 2003 but something they’re still proud of (and great fun) filmed LIVE at Dartington Summer School.
Music links will be sent out in advance when you book below.

South American Adventures; in Search of Music with Jeffrey Skidmore
2021-02-02 19:30 - 20:30 | Online(Zoom)
An online workshop with Jeffrey Skidmore, OBE, Director of Ex Cathedra.
Jeffrey Skidmore OBE talks about his travels in Mexico, Bolivia and Brazil over the last 20 years and will share the music and manuscripts he found and the people he met – singers, players, musicologists and librarians. Beaches, jungles, pyramids, volcanos, caipirinhas, margaritas and mate de coca also play their part!
You will have the opportunity to sing along to some of the pieces that have become the ‘classics’ of the repertoire, singing in Nahuatl, Quechua, Chiquitan, Spanish, Portuguese and Latin.
Jeffrey Skidmore has been Artistic Director of Ex Cathedra for over 50 years and has an international reputation for the quality and range of his work. Baroque music from Latin America has featured prominently in recent years and he has given many magical performances in beautiful venues around the world, he has recorded four CDs, created many new editions and explored a whole new world of performance practice.
Please book below.

Venice 1: The Barber's Son: the Life of Silvestro Ganassi -a talk by Philip Thorby
2021-02-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Online(Zoom)
The life of Silvestro Ganassi, the son of a barber from Bergamo, became the most famous musician in Venice as well as being a renowned painter. We will look at the Venice he knew, the Doges for whom he worked, his rich patrons and his family band. We will
see what his contemporaries wrote about him, both in biography and in fiction, and follow his life from his birth to immigrant
parents above a humble barber’s shop near the rialto to his death as a proud Venetian cittadino.
If you know Philip you will know his love of Venice, Silvestro Ganassi and Adriaan Willaert: Venice for its innate beauty and its unique place in the history of the renaissance, Ganassi as the most famous and revered Venetian musician of his day, and Willaert as the gentle Fleming who expressed the Venetian ideals in his music and his character. Philip is going to share this passion in two on-line lectures and two webinars in which you are welcome to take part with comments and questions. Each one will stand alone, but taken together they will present a fascinating view of Venice in the early 1500s, where the lives of Ganassi and Willaert intertwined with the aristocratic Pietro Bembo, the great printer Aldo Manutio and the incomparable verse of Francesco Petrarca.
Please book below.
The remaining three talks will be:
2. The New Prometheus of Celestial Harmony on Saturday 20th February 7pm
3. Bellezza e Bontà on Saturday 6th March 7pm
4. Musica Nova on Saturday 20th March 7pm

SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-02-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and this week’s guest William Hunt, viol player and more. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. Robert will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice – this week Byrd’s Ne Irascaris Domine. Music links will be sent out in advance when you book.
Booking now open – see below.

The Petrucci Canti B Project - a talk by David Hatcher
2021-02-20 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
An online talk by David Hatcher about his Petrucci Canti B project which has involved his students at the Birmingham Royal Conservatoire, and which has been sponsored by MEMF and BMEMF.
This should be a fascinating session. Firstly David will tell us about the recording project that took place in November 2020 at Alpheton New Maltings, Suffolk, where the Linarol Consort recorded some of the Petrucci Canti B music. He will play video clips of rehearsal and recording sessions and explain a little of the processes involved, the choice of instruments and difficulties of social distancing.
Then he will tell us about the manuscript with illustrations and how he used it to help The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire students produce modern editions as part of their course work. He will then go on to explain and demonstrate the instruments; the renaissance viol compared to the baroque viol and the renaissance and baroque recorder. Finally we will finish with a sing through of Baises moy by Josquin (score provided with joining information).
Please book below.

Venice 2: the New Prometheus of Celestial Harmony with Philip Thorby
2021-02-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Online(Zoom)
The second in Philip’s talks about Venice in the 1500s. The New Prometheus of Celestial Harmony is how Silvestro Ganassi described the great Flemish composer Adriaan Willaert, who became Maestro di Capella of St.Marks in 1527 and stayed there until his death in 1562. We will follow his progress from Flanders via Paris and Ferrrara to Venice. This lecture is brought to you by the letter “P” – not only Prometheus, but also the Patrician (Pietro Bembo), the Poet (Petrarch) and the Printer (Aldo Manutio), all of whom come together in the Venetian palazzo of a rich Florentine exile, where, in an atmosphere of great secrecy, Willaert explores an entirely new kind of music.
Please book below.

SingTheScore EXTRA with Robert Hollingworth
2021-02-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and a mystery guest – this week a violinist. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. Robert will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice. This week we will be singing Byrd – Laudibus in sanctis (all three sections) and Byrd – O salutaris (if there is time)
Please book below – the scores will be attached to your confirmation email.

Venice 3 - Bellezza e Bonta, a talk by Philip Thorby
2021-03-06 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
This is the third of Philip’s talks about Venice in the 1500s. As we saw in the first lecture, Ganassi is at the centre of the musical establishment in a republic which exported its music and its musicians to the rest of Europe. We are lucky that he wrote three books on technique and performance practice, La Fontegara, Regola Rubertina and Lettione Secunda. What do his three books tell us about how music was sung and played in Venice in the first half of the sixteenth century? Well, quite a lot – and not all of it sits comfortably with how we see and hear renaissance music today. Philip will summarise the information from the books and put them into the context of other writers. Then, feel free to join in the conversation!
Please book below.

"Fly on the Wall" with Robert Hollingworth
2021-03-13 15:00 - 15:30 | Online(Zoom)
As I Fagiolini is rehearsing for their concert in the Polyphonic concert series, Robert is unable to present a SingTheScore Extra today.
He writes: “On Saturday March 13th I Fagiolini will be rehearsing in York for our Polyphonic Concert Club event the next day (to be broadcast in a couple of weeks). We’d like to invite you to drop in (free) online for 30 mins at 3pm. It’s a lovely line-up of singers – welcoming back Matthew Brook for the first time since 2007 as well as Julia Doyle who was a feature in the late noughties. We won’t stop to talk and take questions: I’ll simply open the laptop and you’ll eavesdrop! I’ll set it for you to enter muted and with camera off (you won’t have to do this – it’ll have been set up to start like that) as that ought to increase the quality of the sound/pic. ”
Please book below and follow the instructions for the session.

Venice 4 - Musica Nova, a talk by Philip Thorby
2021-03-20 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
The last talk/discussion will focus on the “sacro e divino collegio”: Ganassi’s description of those meetings where Adriano (as the Venetians called Willaert) directed voices and viols in his new kind of music – sacred motets and settings of Petrarch, music which became the most sought-after and costly musical real-estate in Europe. Philip will talk about the repertoire and the newness of this musical style and give a personal view of how a meeting of the secretive collegio might have worked. Afterwards your comments and questions will be welcome.
This final talk will again be recorded, but in smaller sections, with Philip in person talking and taking questions between each section. Each of the four sessions stands alone, but taken together they will present a fascinating view of Venice in the early 1500s, where the lives of Ganassi and Willaert intertwined with the aristocratic Pietro Bembo, the great printer Aldo Manutio and the incomparable verse of Francesco Petrarca.
Please book below.

Renaissance Recycling: an instrumental workshop (singers welcome) with Alison Kinder
2021-03-22 19:30 - 20:30 | Zoom
Reusing old material is not a new concept – Renaissance composers did it all the time, sometimes with their own material and sometimes with someone else’s. We’ll look at two such examples in this workshop, in both cases a kind of ‘upcycling’ from a short initial motet or chanson into an entire mass.
The first is a composer reworking his own material: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s beautiful 6-voice motet Tu Es Petrus is then gloriously expanded into a mass, not once, but twice! The first Missa Tu Es Petrus is also for 6 voices, but then he gets a bit carried away and does a setting for 18 voices in three choirs, still based on the same material. We’ll do the motet and a movement from the 6-voice mass, and if we’re feeling very brave then maybe the Kyrie of the three choir version…! The second example is where one composer borrows a piece by someone else. At that time it was thought of as a compliment – today we’d call it plagiarism! The original piece is the beautiful 4-part chanson by Josquin, Mille Regretz, and the recycling is done by Cristobal de Morales, who uses it as the basis for a 6-voice mass setting.
Alison Kinder read Music at Oxford and then studied viol with Alison Crum at Trinity College of Music, being awarded the college’s Silver Medal for Early Music Studies. Her love is of viols in all shapes and sizes, from soundpost-less Renaissance instruments to 7-string baroque basses. Alison is an enthusiastic teacher both privately and on courses, and she runs the Rondo Viol Academy with fellow teacher and player Jacqui Robertson-Wade.
Please book below:

SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-03-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and a mystery guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. Robert will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice.
Please book below.

Salamone Rossi - an online workshop with Elam Rotem
2021-04-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Elam will begin the session by telling us a little about himself and how he became interested in Early Music. He will then go on to a presentation on Salomone Rossi and the Jewish musical scene in Italy in the early 17th Century. We will sing together two pieces by Salomone Rossi, one Italian Madrigal (Udite lacrimosi spirit d’averno) and one Psalm in Hebrew (Lamnatseach al haggittit / Psalm 8). After that Elam will share with us how Rossi’s unique endeavours inspired him to compose new compositions in the style of the early 17th century and we will hear some examples.
Dr Elam Rotem is a harpsichordist, composer, and singer. He is the founder and director of his choir Profeti della Quinta. He specialized in historical performance practice at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and graduated with a master’s degree in continuo playing and another in improvisation and composition. In 2014 he established the award-winning resources website Early Music Sources. In 2016, he finished his PhD thesis with distinction “Early Basso Continuo Practice: Implicit Evidence in the Music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri“, within a new collaborative program between the Schola Cantorum in Basel and the University of Würzburg, Germany.
Please book below.

SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-04-24 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and guest trumpeter, Russell Gilmour. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. He will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice. This week we will be singing Monteverdi’s Beatus vir and “Departure is my chief pain” (Henry VIII manuscript) – anon . You will receive links to the music when you book.
Please book below.

Requiem for a King - a workshop for voices and instruments (A=415) with Jeffrey Skidmore
2021-04-27 19:30 - 20:30 | Online(Zoom)
Jeffrey Skidmore explores music by Michel-Richard de Lalande including two magnificent Grand Motets written for Louis XIV to be performed in the golden splendour of the Chapelle Royale in the palace of Versailles. The workshop includes the powerfully moving Requiem from De Profundis, which was performed at the Sun King’s funeral in 1715, and the uplifting Hymn for Easter Day O filii et filae. He will take a look at primary source material, discuss research and explore some important features of French Baroque style – ornamentation, pronunciation and notes inégales.
We will sing these two pieces at A 415 – SATBB chorus, backed by an orchestra of strings, oboes, bassoons, flutes, recorders, organ and theorbo. (Instrumental parts will also be available)
The powerful music of Lalande is still the least well-known of the great Baroque composers. With a major anniversary creeping up in 2026 NOW is the time to start putting things right. His music is consistently incroyable!
Jeffrey Skidmore OBE has been Artistic Director of Ex Cathedra for over 50 years and has an international reputation for the quality and range of his work. Baroque music from Latin America has featured prominently in recent years and he has given many magical performances in beautiful venues around the world, he has recorded four CDs, created many new editions and explored a whole new world of performance practice.
Please book below.

SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-05-08 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. He will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice. The guest this week is Greg Browning who will enthrall us with tales of his filming exploits with I Fagiolini over the last 20 years! He will play clips to us of his favourite moments and perhaps even the odd out take! His direction, production and filming of The Polyphonic Concert Club was quite something. He will also be open to questions so have any you might want to ask ready.
Please book below.

Definitely not the Pope - an online workshop with Rory McCleery
2021-05-15 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
In this workshop, Rory McCleery, Artistic Director of The Marian Consort, examines the music of Clemens non Papa and his elusive biography, including the origins of his intriguing soubriquet. We will be exploring some of Clemens’ lesser-known Marian motets, including Videte miraculum and O Maria vernans rosa, as well as the famous Ego flos campi and the chanson that seems to have given him his nickname, found in the colourful manuscript songbook of Zeghere van Male. We will be singing these as part of the workshop, with pdf scores circulated in advance.
Rory McCleery began his musical career as a chorister at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh. He gained a double first in music at Oxford University as both Organ and Domus Academic scholar of St Peter’s College, subsequently completing an MSt in Musicology with Distinction. Rory is the founder and director of The Marian Consort, with whom he performs across the UK, Europe and North America. Under his direction, The Marian Consort has become renowned internationally for its compelling interpretations of a wide range of repertoire, particularly the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque, but also of works by contemporary British composers, and in 2017 was nominated for a Gramophone Award. As a countertenor, Rory greatly enjoys performing as a soloist and consort singer with other ensembles including The Dunedin Consort, Contrapunctus, The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, Le Concert d’Astre?e, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Cardinall’s Musick. He also enjoys a solo career in venues across the UK and Europe, has appeared as a soloist for broadcasts on UK and European radio, and collaborates regularly with the Rose Consort of Viols. Rory is much in demand as a guest conductor, workshop leader and programming consultant, and has led workshop sessions, study days and singing courses across the UK, Germany, Spain and the USA, working with choirs of all ages and sizes in repertoire from 16th to 21st century. He is a passionate believer in the importance of music education and singing for young people and is director of choral music at City, University of London.
Booking will open in May.

SingTheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-05-22 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another in our popular series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative.
This week Robert and Nicolas Mulroy will talk about Monteverdi. They will each choose a track, play it and talk about why they like it and other Monteverdi-ish things. The two tracks are Laudate Dominum and T’amo mia vita and you will receive links to the scores when you book (see below) and have a chance to sing them on the day.
Questions welcome, as always.

SingtheScore Extra with Robert Hollingworth
2021-06-05 11:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
The last this summer in our popular fortnightly series of Zooms with Robert Hollingworth of I Fagiolini and guest. Robert is a natural chat show host and these Saturday mornings are always entertaining and informative. He will talk about the music he has chosen and you will have a chance to sing it through twice. This week’s guest will be the musicologist Professor Laurie Stras who will talk about the (until recently) mostly unknown world of music in convents in 16th century Italy.
Professor Stras is co-director of two early music ensembles, Musica Secreta and an amateur female-voice choir, Celestial Sirens. For over twenty years, her principal research focus has been the female musicians at the court and convents of 16th-century Ferrara, and she has complemented this research with performance activities with her two ensembles. Her monograph on the female musicians at the court and convents of 16th-century Ferrara, Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara will be published in 2018. She is also Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield.
Robert is hoping to continue SingTheScore Extra in the autumn, but probably only once a month.
Please book below.

Henry Purcell and the Music of Westminster Abbey with Patrick Craig
2021-06-05 20:00 - 21:00 | Online(Zoom)
Another presentation in Patrick’s inimitable style, with wonderful pictures, musical excerpts and personal anecdotes.
Henry Purcell has been described as England’s Orpheus and ranks alongside the greatest of this country’s composers. His rise to the position of Organist of Westminster Abbey at the age of 20 saw him lauded above the talents of his predecessor, John Blow and his teacher, Pelham Humfrey, both of whose music we will hear in order to place Purcell in context. His family home was just round the corner from the Abbey and for a while he turned his back on the theatre music he had been pursuing to focus on this job.
As a countertenor Patrick has had the joy of singing much of Purcell’s solo music and will be delighted to share this colourful period in our country’s history. Including music by Gibbons and Croft, Patrick will trace some of the most influential names in the musical heritage of Westminster Abbey and guide us through this extraordinary building.
Please book below.

Zoom Celebration with Robert Hollingworth
2021-07-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Online(Zoom)
What a strange 16 months it has been. How we have all adapted to keeping early music and musicians going as best we can, has been quite amazing at times. To celebrate this, we are finishing our season before our traditional summer break as we started, with Robert Hollingworth and a MEMF zoom workshop. Who knows what we will come back to in the Autumn – still zooming, live workshops? At present we just don’t know but we are going to sign off in style.
The session will start with a short chat between Robert and MEMF chair Nancy about how, in April 2020, they started things off, how difficult it was coping with the new technology we suddenly had to use and the pitfalls that beset the first sessions as we dipped our toes into the world of zoom, mute. etc – and who can forget the arguments over chat….
Then we are asking you to vote for some of your favourite MEMF zoom workshops and the Saturday morning EXTRA sessions. To help you choose there will be a list of all the Zoom sessions we have hosted and there will be voting buttons on the Jotform for you to fill in. You will hear a clip from the most popular ones during the session.

Please book below.

Monteverdi: Flaming Heart - workshop with Robert Hollingworth + I Fagiolini concert + buffet lunch
2021-10-09 10:00 - 17:00 | The Orangery Ingestre, Stafford
Our return to live workshops starts with this wonderful day in Ingestre, Staffordshire (SATNAV: ST18 0RF). We hope as many of you as possible will join us to make it a joyous occasion. We will be celebrating:

The start of live workshops again.
The life of former MEMF member Camilla Kurti.
A concert of vocal music by her favourite group I Fagiolini.
with the whole day led by Robert Hollingworth.
There will be two workshop sessions, one first thing, followed by the concert and then a catered buffet lunch, and one after lunch
We will be using the fabulous Orangery for the workshop and lunch, plus the only Wren Church outside London for the concert.
The event is being subsidised by the Estate of Camilla Kurti and an anonymous donation.
Friends of Camilla and MEMF members will have priority booking until 1st September and if numbers exceed 95, we will operate a waiting list. It will be very helpful to us (and to you) if you could book as soon as possible so that we can quickly get an idea of numbers and how many to cater for.
You will receive pdf’s of scores when you book, but a printed book of music will be provided on the day, as usual.

Welcome to Beautiful Venice - with Philip Thorby
2021-10-23 10:00 - 2021-10-24 17:00 | Solihull School
Philip will introduce us to a feast of music showing Venice at her most extravagant and sumptuous best in order to welcome royal and distinguished guests. In 1574 King Henri III of France visited the Serenissima and Andrea Gabrieli wrote the 10 part “Ecco Vinegia Bella” for the occasion. The King attended services in San Marco and we will represent this with Andrea Gabrieli’s sumptuous 16 part Gloria and Claudio Merulo’s setting of the Te Deum verse “Salvum Fac Populum”. Andrea also composed “Dal Gran Tuonante” for a distinguished lady visitor.
In this 2 day workshop we will also enjoy Giovanni Gabrieli’s 12 part motet “Virtute Magna” in honour of St Mark and “Udite, Chiari” to celebrate the Sposalizio, the annual ceremony when the Doge marries Venice to the sea.
Philip Thorby is a specialist in music of the Italian Renaissance, particularly Venetian. Formerly a Professor at Trinity College, Philip has become one of the most popular of workshop tutors. His four Zoom lectures on the music of Venice earlier this year were stunning and widely acclaimed. They can be viewed on another page of this website.
This workshop is for all voices, cornets, sackbuts, curtals, recorders, viols, violins and continuo instruments. The pitch will be 440.
Booking now open – please scroll down for the booking form.

Josquin 500 with David Hatcher
2021-11-06 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
Following on from their excellent Josquin 500 festival of concerts and online events, David Hatcher from The Linarol Consort of renaissance viols is going to lead this workshop for voices and viols (Jacobean and Renaissance) at A440 pitch.
We will be celebrating the life of Josquin. Imagine, shortly after his death in Condé sur Escaut on August 27th, 1521, that a group of this associates, friends, and colleagues, gather together to privately lament his recent passing. They are singers, but they are also players of the still relatively new viol and have access to copies of a number of his greatest works that would normally have been heard only in church without instrumental participation. With this as our pretence, we will look at a selection of motets written by Josquin, including what was possibly his last work, Pater noster/Ave Maria, which he asked to be sung in front of his house on religious processions. We will also take a look at some of the many songs of lamentation that were composed in his memory

Linarol Consort
David Hatcher was born in Warwick and upon attaining the LTCL diploma two years after taking up music, he went on to study viola da gamba with Charles Medlam and recorder with Philip Thorby at Trinity College of Music, London. In 1987 he moved to Japan where he was to remain for the next 9 years, taking an active part in that country’s flourishing early music scene. David now lives in Leominster on the Welsh Marches and regularly teaches on summer schools and is in demand as a tutor for many weekend and day courses. He is a founder member of The Linarol Consort of Viols, exploring the rich heritage of early 16th century music.

Please scroll down to book.

Christmas Workshop with Steve Davis
2021-12-04 10:00 - 17:00 | St Philip’s Church Centre, Dorridge, B93 8DX
Our Christmas Live Workshop will be a joyful day with Steve Davis and this time festive refreshments will be provided.
The workshop will explore three works – Gabrieli: In Ecclesiis, Schütz: Weinachtshistorie and Sweelink: Hodie Christus Natus Est. There will be opportunities for some solo singing and some interesting instrumental playing as well as ensemble work, with a run through of some of the music at the end of the day.
We welcome all voices, cornets/trumpet, sackbuts/trombones, recorders, viols, violins and continuo instruments. The pitch will be A440 and the cost for the day is £18 for MEMF and other EMF members, non – members £23

To get to the church you drive along the B4101 from the Knowle direction into Dorridge and under a railway bridge. There is a Sainsbury’s garage on the left after the bridge and you need to turn right after this onto Manor Road. The church is immediately on the right. There are plenty of disabled parking places and a few others. However, there is a large public car park immediately behind the church. To get to it you turn right immediately after going under the railway bridge and before the Sainsbury’s garage. This is a station over-spill park which is free at weekends. The signs do not point this out, but this has been confirmed by Chiltern Railways and the Council.

Stephen began singing lessons with the late Mary Parsons, and subsequently went to the Birmingham Conservatoire where he studied singing with Brian Raynor-Cook and conducting with Roy Wales and Jonathan Delmar. After graduating with distinction, he studied with Jessica Cash, Pamela Cook, Andrew King and Ian Partridge. He has been a regular soloist with many of the leading choirs in the Midlands, most notably Ex Cathedra, the region’s foremost chamber choir, and has also sung with the Britten Singers, Northern Voices, London Voices, The Academy of Ancient Music and The Schütz Choir of London. He is musical director for Halesowen Choral Society, having been appointed in 2004. He also works as guest conductor for several other choirs in the Midlands. He has recently retired from teaching singing at Malvern College, and as music librarian for Ex Cathedra (although remaining a singer with the choir).
Please scroll down for the booking form.

Let Us Seek with the Shepherds: The Musical Legacy of Quaeramus cum Pastoribus by Jean Mouton CANCELLED
2022-01-08 10:00 - 17:00 | Emmanuel Church, Loughborough, Forest Road, Loughborough, LE11 3NW
This workshop for singers with Rory McCleery is about the fascinating history and rich music lineage of Jean Mouton.
Composed at the very beginning of the sixteenth century, Mouton’s work would remain in the repertoire of the Cappella Sistina for over a hundred years, as well as travelling in print and manuscript as far afield as Aberdeen and Guatemala and inspiring parody compositions (both masses and motets) by several later generations of composers, including Cristobal de Morales, Pedro de Cristo, Adrian Willaert, Thomas Crequillon and Annibale Stabile. We will be singing some of these works, as well as Mouton’s original – which Rory says is ‘one of his all-time favourite pieces!’
Venue: We will be using either Emmanuel Church or the Church Hall, Loughborough (SATNAV LE11 3NW).
For all singers, fees for MEMF and other EMF members is £21, non-members £26.

Rory McCleery began his musical career as a chorister. He gained a double first in music at Oxford University as both Organ and Domus Academic scholar of St Peter’s College, subsequently completing an MSt in Musicology with Distinction. Rory is the founder and director of The Marian Consort, with whom he performs across the UK, Europe and North America. Under his direction, the Marian Consort has become renowned internationally for its compelling interpretations of a wide range of repertoire, particularly the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque, and in 2017 was nominated for a Gramophone Award. As a countertenor, Rory greatly enjoys performing as a soloist and consort singer with other ensembles including The Dunedin Consort, Contrapunctus, The Monteverdi Choir, The Sixteen, The Gabrieli Consort, Le Concert d’Astre?e, The Academy of Ancient Music, The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Cardinall’s Musick. He also enjoys a solo career in venues across the UK and Europe. Rory is much in demand as a guest conductor, workshop leader.
Booking is now open – please scroll down to the booking form.

Jean Maillard - International Man of Mystery with Tutor Rory McCleery
2022-01-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Online(Zoom)
In view of the recent alarming rise in Covid cases we felt it sensible to cancel our live workshop with Rory McCleery at the beginning of January and have this Zoom session instead, which Rory is happy to do.

Despite his being identified as ‘one of the most important French composers of the sixteenth century’ by the renowned Musicologist François Lesure nearly half a century ago, Jean Maillard is a figure who remains shrouded in mystery and whose works have rarely been performed in modern times. This contrasts sharply with his reception during his own lifetime: his works were widely disseminated and survive in manuscripts and prints originating in Germany, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and the UK. Telling also is the number of composers who modelled their own compositions on works by Maillard: this list includes fellow Frenchman Goudimel and also such luminaries as Orlando Lassus, Jacob Handl and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. It is possible that Maillard harboured Protestant sympathies which may have resulted in his exclusion from the circles of the Catholic royal court in Paris, and even, like his fellow composer Claude Goudimel, his death in the 1572 St Bartholomew’s Day massacres.
The session will last around 2 hours in all – 45 minutes then a 15 minute tea break with another 45 minutes and time for questions.
We shall be singing:
Pierre Cadeac Je suis desheritee
Jean Maillard Agnus Dei
Jean Maillard Fratres mei elongaverunt
Jean Maillard Omnes gentes attendite
Jean Maillard Ascendo ad Patrem meum
Jean Maillard In me transierunt
Jean Maillard Gaudent in caelis
Please book below. As usual all donations will go directly to Rory so please donate what you can.

The Gabrieli Times Table with Tutor Alison Kinder
2022-02-05 10:00 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
This will be an innovative multi choir day of music by Giovanni Gabrieli, with Tutor Ali Kinder, increasing the choir numbers as we go from 6 parts, to 8 parts (two choirs), to 12 parts (three choirs) and 14 parts (three choirs)
We welcome all singers and instrumentalists (strings, recorders, reeds and brass all welcome) Pitch A=440. Fees for MEMF and other EMF members is £18, non-members £23.

Giovanni Gabrieli
Nephew of the great Andrea Gabrieli and student of Orlando Lassus, Giovanni Gabrieli held the posts of both principal organist and principal composer at the basilica of St Mark’s in Venice. This workshop will look at four pieces from his vast output, two with sacred texts and two secular. As well as being beautiful music, it will hopefully be fun to witness the expansion of our ensemble into ever increasing numbers of parts during the day!

Alison Kinder read Music at Oxford and then studied viol with Alison Crum at Trinity College of Music, being awarded the college’s Silver Medal for Early Music Studies. Her love is of viols in all shapes and sizes, from soundpost-less Renaissance instruments to 7-string baroque basses. Alison is an enthusiastic teacher both privately and on courses, and she runs the Rondo Viol Academy with fellow teacher and player Jacqui Robertson-Wade

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