Henry Purcell and the Music of Westminster Abbey with Patrick Craig
2021-06-05 20:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | 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

Booking now open – please scroll down

Communion Motets with David Allinson
2022-03-05 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
This workshop in Warwick is for all voices. David will introduce us to Motets by Victoria, Morales and – if numbers and voice parts allow – Palestrina, Guerrero, et al.
Music will be provided on the day.
David is one of our most popular and inspiring Tutors. He is a freelance musician based in Canterbury and has spent his musical career teaching, lecturing and conducting. He has taught and lectured at Universities in Oxford, Bristol and eventually Canterbury Christ Church University where he was Director of Music. Three years ago he returned to freelancing and now Tutors at workshops and Summer Schools all over the country and abroad. He has conducted choirs since he was a teenager and now regularly conducts two choirs – The Renaissance Singers and Cantores – and regularly guest conducts other Early Music groups. During Lockdown he mastered the art of lecturing on Zoom and as well as doing many excellent online workshops he instituted Friday lunchtime talks on Facebook in his own inimitable style.
Please book below

Purcell: Choruses from Dido and Aeneas with Tutor George Parris - CANCELLED
2022-04-02 10:00 - 17:00
Sadly we have had to cancel this workshop – the small number of people who had booked were not suficient for the workshop to be practical.
We are sorry for this, and hope to book George Parris for another workshop in the future.

Music by Rosenmüller with Tutor William Carslake
2022-05-21 10:00 - 17:00 | St Philip’s Church Centre, Dorridge, B93 8DX
Johann Christian Rosenmüller

Following his early career in Leipzig, Rosenmüller spent over twenty years in Venice where he was Maestro di Coro at the Ospedale della Pieta (like Vivaldi after him). At the end of his career he returned to Germany and settled in Wolfenbuttel. There is a fine blend of Italian and German styles in these appealing and approachable pieces of sacred music which show the influence of both Corelli and Schütz. Before emigrating to Italy in the late 1650’s Rosenmüller had already been there briefly in 1645/46 and the trip had a decisive influence on his style. This can be heard in his two famous collections of 1648 and 1652/3, the Kern Spruchen (Core Sayings) and Andere Kern Spruchen (other Core Sayings). The word painting is evocative and the sudden turns of harmony can take you by surprise! If you don’t yet know him you’re in for a treat.
We will be studying “Siehe an die Werke Gottes”, “Lauda Jerusalem”, “Also hat Gott” and a Magnificat
This is a workshop for Voices and the following Instruments:
One harpsichord and one chamber organ (or electronic organ) at A415 or two harpsichords at A415 and one or two theorbos. All keyboard and theorbo players need to be comfortable reading figured bass.
Strings with baroque set ups, or modern instruments with gut strings and baroque bows: violins, violas or tenor/bass viols, baroque cellos.
Sackbuts, cornets, curtals and recorders are welcome.
Bill Carslake

Bill studied singing with David Lowe at Cambridge and Peter Alexander Wilson at Royal Scottish Academy of Music, and orchestral conducting with Martyn Brabbins, Jorma Panula and Ilya Musin. He was a busy bass-baritone before he decided to focus exclusively on conducting and composing. He composes music inspired by outdoor places such as Greenland and is a 2018/19 Finzi Scholar for his current composition project about Mountain Hares. He is Artistic Director of Farnborough Symphony Orchestra and Imperial College Sinfonietta and was Music Director for the Royal Ballet’s Elizabeth in 2018 and 2016. He is passionate about Renaissance and Baroque music and directs programmes for EMF forums, Lacock Choral Courses and Benslow Music. He is a Trustee of the Elgar Foundation.
Music will be provided on the day.
Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand.
Please book below and then scroll down to make sure you have succeeded.

Wot No Bars 2 with Tutor David Hatcher
2022-06-18 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
A second workshop for singers reading from facsimile, following on from the highly successful one 2 years ago. Beginners welcome!

We’ll be looking at Isaac’s Missa Virgo Prudentissima a6, from the beautiful BSB Mus. Ms. C. Isaac had already composed the piece by the beginning of the century as it was almost certainly one performed by the joint choirs of the Emperor Maximilian I and of his son, Philip the Fair, when they met in Innsbruck to hold funeral rites for Maximilian’s brother-in-law, Hermes Sforza of Milan, on 26th September 1503. Each choir sang in turn during two consecutive services. At the first, the Burgundian choir performed Pierre de la Rue’s requiem mass and at the second, Maximilian’s choir (probably) sang the Missa Virgo Prudentissima. The lavish copy in Mus. Ms. C was a gift from Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria to the Palsgrave of Neuberg and contains both Isaac’s mass and de la Rue’s Requiem.
The void mensural notation is extremely clear and will present all the usual (surmountable) challenges, including perfect and imperfect tempus, colouration, a selection of ligatures and, of course, text placement – all of which will be very ably explained by David! It should be a challenging but very rewarding day; the sense of achievement from managing to sing from music as it was notated over 500 years ago makes it well worth the effort.

Tutor
David Hatcher is well known to MEMF and other EMFs. He studied viola da gamba with Charles Medlam and recorder with Philip Thorby at Trinity College of Music, London and began his career based in England, touring to America, Israel, France, Germany and the Netherlands. He has broadcast for both the BBC and independent radio and television. In 1987 he moved to Japan where he was to remain for the next nine years, taking an active part in that country’s flourishing early music scene.
He now lives in Leominster and has appeared with many other period orchestras and ensembles. He has taught regularly on summer schools and is in demand as a tutor for many weekend and day courses. He has taken part in a number of large-scale projects, including Damon Albarn’s opera “Dr Dee”, “The World Encompassed” (Fretwork) and performing and recording with I Fagiolini in their hugely succesful interpretation of Striggio’s 40-voice mass. David is a member of the Linarol Consort of Viols, specialising in early 16th century consort music.
Booking is now open.

Not Mortals but Angels - Convent polyphony from the 13th-16th centuries - with Tutor Prof Laurie Stras
2022-07-16 10:00 - 17:00 | St.Faith & St.Laurence Church Hall, Balden Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B32 2EL, United Kingdom
MUSIC
This one-day workshop will look at music from the convents of Europe, drawn from medieval and renaissance manuscripts and prints. We will cover a range of styles and practices, from simple harmonisations to complex imitative polyphony, in songs, antiphons, mass movements, and motets. Depending on voices available, sources will include manuscripts from the Bologna library, the Brenzoni-Maffei manuscript from Verona, the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript from San Matteo in Arcetri (convent home of Galileo’s daughter), and motets attributed to Suor Leonora d’Este – including repertoire that has fed into Musica Secreta’s newest project, Mother Sister Daughter. All female voices, from high soprano to low tenor, are very welcome, along with soft instruments (including viol, theorbo and recorder players of any gender). A keyboard player would be a welcome addition, too!

TUTOR
Laurie Stras is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Southampton and the director of Musica Secreta (co-directed with Deborah Roberts from 2002-2021). Stras and Musica Secreta have been at the forefront of research and performance of music written for and by women in the Renaissance. They have made numerous acclaimed recordings, the latest of which, Mother, Sister, Daughter, is released in June 2022. Her book, Women and Music in Sixteenth-Century Ferrara (CUP, 2018), won the prestigious Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society in 2019.
Booking will open in a few days.

Schütz and his World - with Tutor Gawain Glenton
2022-09-17 10:00 - 17:00 | Collegiate Church of St Mary’s , Stafford
This workshop will focus on the works of Heinrich Schütz and his brilliant German 17th-century contemporaries.
Schütz is regarded today as the leading German composer before Bach, but there is still much we can learn about his life and world (for example his first name: he only ever signed himself Henrich). Born in Thuringia in 1582, he received early training at the court of Moritz von Hessen-Kassel before being allowed to study for three years in Venice with Giovanni Gabrieli. This sparked in Schütz a life-long desire to incorporate the sounds and styles of Venetian music into German musical life, a project he would take to great heights during his long tenure as kapellmeister at the court of the Elector of Saxony in Dresden.
Schütz was not the only German composer to be inspired in this way. Michael Praetorius also wrote highly Italianate music despite never travelling south of the alps (thanks to the explosion in Venetian music printing he could educate himself in the latest styles via imported printed editions). Hans Leo Hassler meanwhile made the journey to Venice a decade before Schütz, also studying with Gabrieli.
More broadly, Schütz was just one of many gifted German kapellmeister composers who produced music of great skill and emotional depth in the appalling backdrop of the Thirty Years War which ran from 1618-48. We will also explore large-scale works by some of these, including Hammerschmidt, Staden and Berger.
We invite singers and players of renaissance strings (from the viol and violin families) and winds (in particular cornetts, sackbuts and dulcians). Pitch A=440. Music will be provided, but players must bring your own music stand.

The Tutor – Gawain Glenton is a specialist cornetto player whose work as a soloist and an ensemble musician takes him all over the world and is a member and co-director of the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble.

The Venue: St Mary’s Church is in St Mary’s Place situated just off the main street (Greengate Street) accessible on foot by the side of Boots Chemist or the Ancient High House. Road access (drop-off only) off Earl Street.
STOP PRESS: THERE IS A TRAIN STRIKE SCHEDULED FOR THIS DAY SO PLEASE CHECK BEFORE TRAVELLING. If you have no other way to get there please get in touch with Tim Boardman on 07794 837396 and he will try and help.
From Stafford Station (five minutes walk): turn left then immediately right over the river bridge, straight on through pedestrian area between Stafford College and law courts into St Mary’s Place. Regular direct trains from Birmingham New St.
Please note that the church does not have its own car park. We have arranged for a limited number of parking spaces in the church close, for those bringing bulky instruments or those with limited mobility. Please telephone or message Tim Boardman if you would like to make use of one of these spaces, and please try to car-share where possible. Tim’s mobile: 07794 837396.
Details of town car parks can be found at https://www.staffordbc.gov.uk/car-parking-in-stafford. The website includes a link to a map. Note that some car parks are pay-by-phone only.
Booking is now open.

Songs of Love and Death - the music of Leonhard Lechner Athesinus with Philip Thorby
2022-10-22 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull School
Philip Thorby is one of our most popular tutors and has again found some wonderful music by a composer most of us will have never heard of. This year it is a one day workshop so that members who could previously never commit to a whole weekend can take part.
All singers and the following instruments are welcome – recorders, cornetts, sackbuts, curtals, viols, violins and continuo (with figured bass). Pitch will be A=440.
The fees are £20 for MEMF and other EMF members, £25 for others.
Music will be provided on the day. Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand.
The Music
The German composer Leonhard Lechner Athesinus was born in the Italian Tyrol and was a gifted boy soprano who went on to sing tenor and study composition with Orlando di Lasso. The influence of the master is evident in the pupil, but Lechner is very much his own man, as demonstrated in the wonderful pieces Philip has chosen for our workshop. These include a six-part setting of a section of the funeral sentences, a fifteen-part three-choir setting of Laudate Dominum, and the masterly and splendid 24-part setting of a Latin verse commissioned for a wedding. In keeping with the German practice of the time the singers will be supported by many varied instrumental sounds.
Directions to Solihull School
By road – leave the M42 at junction 5 and onto the A41 towards Solihull. Take the first left turning towards Solihull town centre.
Turn right at the roundabout and continue towards Solihull town centre along the Warwick Road B 4025.The school entrance is on the right at the second set of traffic lights. There is plenty of parking in front of the chapel. The David Turnbull Music Centre is a short walk beyond the car park. The barrier will be unlocked so that instrumentalists can drive to the centre to drop off instruments.
Solihull railway centre is approximately a 1km walk through the town.
Booking is now open.

Song of the Birds - a Workshop for voices with Anita Datta
2022-11-12 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
The natural world has been a source of musical inspiration to singers and composers across the centuries. Taking its Janequin’s playful Chant des Oyseaux as a point of departure, this workshop explores the wide-ranging influence of bird calls on the early choral repertoire. This will include Vautor’s Sweet Suffolk Owl, Casulana’s Vaghi Amorosi Augelli alongside more familiar reference points including La Claire Fontaine, and Sumer is Icumen In (… seasonal!). The workshop also incorporates an invitation to try out bird-call inspired motifs within medieval and renaissance improvisational structures, in direct response to Janequin’s quirky paradigm.
Anita Datta is a Tutor new to MEMF. She is a conductor, soprano and organist from the East Riding of Yorkshire. Founder and Director of The Swan Consort, she is a specialist in music of the European Renaissance and Baroque. With The Swan Consort she has recently toured to Spain, and directed performances across the UK including for Ryedale Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, and London Festival of Contemporary Church Music. She is currently pursuing further studies in Orchestral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, in which capacity she made her debut conducting the orchestra of Welsh National Opera in June 2022. Drawing her musical knowledge together her academic expertise in Social Anthropology, she sits on the boards of English Touring Opera and the National Centre for Early Music, with special responsibilities for advising on Education, and Inclusivity and Relevance

Solihull Methodist Church is close to the centre of Solihull, at the junction of Blossomfield Rd and Station Approach. It is right next to Solihull Railway Station, which is also served by buses. If coming by car, use postcode B91 1LG for your satnav; there is plenty of parking. The hall is a separate building to the church and is clearly signed.
Booking is now open.

Benevoli Mass for four choirs c 1650 with Robert Hollingworth
2022-12-17 10:00 - 17:00 | St Philip’s Church Centre, Dorridge, B93 8DX
Expect a wonderful day with one of our favourite Tutors to get you in the spirit of Christmas! Robert has not told us which of Benevoli’s four masses we will be singing – he is still editing them! This is an opportunity to discover a really important figure – a lost link if you like – in the world of multi-choir music in the mid-seventeenth century: ORAZIO BENEVOLI. We will get to know a newly edited mass for four choirs and this time (unlike so much Venetian music) the choirs are manageable by all voices so plenty of male voices please
We will also be singing Sweelinck’s Hodie Christus Natus Est to get us in the Christmas spirit and there will be mince pies!
Pitch =A440 suitable for strings, recorders, cornetts, sackbuts and dulcians doubling the choral parts, and continuo including theorbo and bass instruments.
Robert founded I Fagiolini in 1986 and has spent much of his life thinking around how to present music of a different time and context to contemporary audiences. He has presented all the group’s signature projects but also directed the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Concert Orchestra and some of the world’s finest chamber choirs including Accentus, NDR Chor, BBC Singers, RIAS Kammerchor, Capella Cracoviensis, VOCES8 and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble. He succeeds Mark Deller as Artistic Director for the Stour Music festival from 2020, and is Reader in Music at the University of York where he directs ‘The 24’ and runs an MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing. During lockdown he created and presented ‘Sing The Score’ on Youtube and the podcast ‘Choral Chihuahua’ with Eamonn Dougan and Harry Christophers. He likes Monteverdi and Monty Python.
Booking is now open..

English Catholic Composers in Exile with David Allinson on 21st January 2023
2023-01-21 10:00 - 17:00 | Collegiate Church of St Mary’s , Stafford
“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange Land?”
This should be a marvellous day of music which ranges from bombast to pathos, from protest to serenity. Seasoned tutor David Allinson will set the music in context and shepherd us through.
William Byrd was not alone among church musicians in holding to the Catholic faith in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, at a time when it was increasingly perilous to do so. But several of his most talented contemporaries chose to leave England and work in exile. Peter Philips settled in Flanders, becoming a priest; Richard Dering worked in Brussels at a convent of English nuns. Perhaps liberated from native tradition, their music doesn’t feel particularly English; they absorbed the latest Italian style.
Byrd stayed in England and his talent shone openly, even as he endured an internal exile of faith. The Latin-texted music of his mid-career seems to articulate the anxiety and anger of recusant Catholics, whereas his last works serve the community’s need for liturgical music that may be used in secret domestic contexts. And always with Byrd, there is a scintillating level of inspiration, mixing native tradition with the latest continental innovations.
Our programme focuses principally on Byrd’s music – 2023 is, after all, the year in which we celebrate the 400th anniversary of his death – but we set him in wider context as a Catholic composer by sampling a Marian motet by Peter Philips (Ave Regina caelorum) and an Italianate motet by Richard Dering (Factum est silentium). As we will be singing in the beautiful Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, Stafford, much of the programme is Marian, with Byrd’s Salve Regina, Ave Maria and other pieces.
The planned repertoire needs lots of Tenors in particular (and some can-do singer flexibility about awkward ranges!), so please sign up in good time.
Venue St Mary’s Collegiate Church, St Mary’s Place, Stafford, ST16 2AP
St Mary’s is situated just off the main street (Greengate Street) accessible on foot by the side of Boots Chemist or the Ancient High House. Road access (drop-off only) off Earl Street. From Stafford Station (five minutes walk): turn left then immediately right over the river bridge, straight on through pedestrian area between Stafford College and law courts into St Mary’s Place. Regular direct trains from Birmingham New St.
Please note that the church does not have its own car park. We have arranged for a limited number of parking spaces in the church close, for those with limited mobility. Please telephone or message Tim Boardman if you would like to make use of one of these spaces, and please try to car-share where possible. Tim’s mobile: 07794 837396.
Details of town car parks can be found here . The website includes a link to a map. Note that some car parks are pay-by-phone only.
Neither MEMF nor the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged.
Tutor David is a specialist in early music choral works who has led workshops for every regional EMF in England, as well as EMF Scotland. He is a regular and popular tutor for MEMF workshops.

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The Noodle Factory with Paula Chateauneuf on 25th February 2023
2023-02-25 10:00 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
The Noodle Factory is a gentle introduction to the art of improvisation, ornamentation and decoration in the manner of the great 16th- and 17th-century Improvisation Masters.
Some people think one needs to be born with an ‘Improvisation Gene’ to be able to extemporise, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. All that’s required is to learn some basic techniques which can be ‘plugged in’ to a given situation. 16th- and 17th-century writers recognised this, and their fascinating improvisation manuals contain all the materials you could ever need or want to learn to improvise, and expand your ear and musical imagination. This workshop will be a taster session for anyone who would like to try their hand at doing some early improvisation – it’s very informal and no prior improvisation or early music experience is necessary to take part. However this course is designed to be inclusive – more experienced improvisers are also welcome and will benefit just as much.
The day will consist of various sessions during which different aspects of early improvisation will be covered, starting with a brief introduction to each subject. We’ll explore the materials in 16th- and 17th-century manuals and how to use them practically, and then apply those techniques to learn to extemporize on ground basses, create variations on popular tunes, and add your own graces and ornamentation to pre-composed pieces. There will be both solo and ensemble opportunities. Improvisation enhances, intensifies, and ‘seasons’ performances, and helps you to make a piece your own. Singers and instrumentalists are welcome (Pitch A+440) – come along and dip your toe in the water!
The Tutor: Paula Chateauneuf’s playing has been described as “one of the most exciting things on the pre-classical concert circuit”. A Fulbright Scholar to London, she soon established herself there as one of early music’s leading soloists and ensemble players and became the linchpin of numerous groups including the Gabrieli Consort, New London Consort and Sinfonye. She has also performed with the Academy of Ancient Music, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, English Concert, His Majestys Sagbutts and Cornetts, Handel and Haydn Society, Avison Ensemble, De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, and Jordi Savall’s Le Concert des Nations.
Paula’s repertoire spans medieval music to the baroque, with particular expertise in early improvisation and the music of early 17th-century Italy. Her knowledge and skill in the art of basso continuo has made her one of the most sought-after accompanists in early music, resulting in fruitful collaborations with many leading singers. Her wealth of experience in early opera has led to involvement as both repetiteur and continuo player for numerous international opera houses, including Bayerische Staatsoper, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, and Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
Venue Dorridge Village Hall is at the end of a driveway (with a height barrier) off the B4101 between Dorridge and Hockley Heath and is easy to reach from the M42.. The satnav is not pinpoint accurate so when you get near look for :the following:
From Hockley Heath, the driveway to the Hall is the first right after the Railway pub, before the “Welcome to Dorridge” signs and the start of the built-up area.
From Dorridge centre, the driveway to the Hall is the first left after Dorridge Park. If you get to the Railway pub you have gone too far.
Booking is now open until 17th February – scroll down for the booking form.

The Music of Robert Parsons with Bill Carslake on March 25th 2023
2023-03-25 10:00 - 17:00 | Coton Centre, Tamworth, Church Comberford Road, Tamworth, B79 9AA, United Kingdom
BOOKING IS NOW CLOSED AS THE MUSIC HAS BEEN PRINTED.
The composer Robert Parsons
Parsons, you who were so great in the springtime of life, how great you would have been in the autumn, had death not come. This Latin epitaph by the copyist, Robert Dow, is from a collection of partbooks produced in the 1580s, a decade or so after Parsons’ death. Robert Parsons (c. 1535-1572) is remembered today as a masterful life cut short when he drowned in the Trent. His music provides a remarkable link between the opulence of late 15th century composers such as those in the Eton Choirbook (e.g., Cornysh, Browne) and the emotional precision of artists like Shakespeare and Tomkins (who was born in the year Parsons died). It’s as if Parsons channelled his grandparents and grandchildren all at once. We will be singing the following pieces: O bone Jesu sings the soaring lines of Roman Catholic England before Henry VIII’s birth; Retribue is a detailed discussion of faith from the fraught period after Henry’s death; and Ave Maria is so pure and timeless that it is almost an icon for the ear.
The Tutor, William Carslake, studied orchestral conducting with Martyn Brabbins, Jorma Panula and Ilya Musin, and singing with David Lowe and Peter Alexander Wilson. He was a busy bass-baritone soloist before he decided to focus exclusively on conducting and composing. He has since held two composing residencies at Banff Centre, Canada. He composes music inspired by outdoor places such as Greenland, the Cairngorms and, currently, peatlands in Ireland. He has composed for the Finzi Trust and Imperial College Sinfonietta, and is currently writing for Orchestra of the Swan. He is Artistic Director of Farnborough Symphony Orchestra and co-directs the Farnborough Young Composers’ Competition. He was Music Director for the Royal Ballet’s Elizabeth in 2016 and 2018. He enjoys directing programmes for EMF forums and Lacock Courses.
The Venue The Coton Centre is on the A315 Comberford Rd on the north edge of Tamworth. The post code B79 9AA will take you to Rawlett school but if approaching from the north on the A513 it is on the left before the school and from any other direction is the next turning after the school. There is ample free parking on site.
Please let the organiser know if you are travelling by train and require picking up from the station which is 1 1/2 miles from the venue.

The Sacred Music of Giovanni Battista Casali in C18 Rome with Peter Leech on 20th May 2023
2023-05-20 10:30 - 17:00 | Barnt Green Church Hall, The Parish Centre, Sandhills Road, Barnt Green, Birmingham, B45 8NR, United Kingdom
EXPLORING GIOVANNI BATTISTA CASALI (1715-1792)
Rome in the eighteenth century, far from being the backwater described in many scholarly narratives, was a cosmopolitan melting pot of cultural influences from all over Europe, where the palaces and private chapels of Cardinals from widespread lands resonated to the sound of instrumental and vocal music composed by the city’s numerous permanent or itinerant maestri. Likewise, Rome’s churches resounded with contemporary concertato choral settings in addition to the stile antico repertory perpetuated in the Sistine Chapel and papal basilicas. Depending on where they were employed, church composers had to be adept with many different techniques, whether in the form of imitative Palestrinian polyphony (though with much longer and more daring melodic constructs than would have been acceptable in the late 1500s), grand polychoral designs (often with orchestral accompaniment), or quasi-operatic, multi-movement masses akin to those performed in other European Catholic capitals such as Vienna, Madrid and Lisbon.
In the anglophone world, most of the church composers active in Rome after the death of Alessandro Scarlatti (1725) are unknown, unresearched and unperformed. Their music manuscripts languish in thousands of volumes held by Rome’s music archives, just waiting to be explored. One such composer is Giovanni Battista Casali, maestro at S Giovanni in Laterano and the Chiesa Nuova (with additional connections to many other churches) who is mentioned by countless scholars as a leading mid-century composer, teacher, and organist, yet few of his works are known (even in Rome today), other than a handful of motets and one or two masses. In the S Giovanni archives alone there are over 500 works attributed to him.
This workshop will explore a variety of settings by Casali, including unaccompanied motets for Lent and Advent, concertato Vespers psalms for organ and basso continuo (often with virtuoso solo content) and polychoral works. It will be a showcase of the breadth and depth of Casali’s contribution to sacred music in Rome, a field in which the workshop leader Peter Leech has been immersed for the better part of 20 years.
We will be performing with voices and bass instruments.

Peter Leech is a musician with diverse skills and interests, including late sixteenth-century continental polyphony, Catholic court musicians in seventeenth-century England, early Russian Orthodox church music, seventeenth-century instrumental music and the music of late Georgian and early nineteenth-century English composers. He has over 30 years experience as a choral and orchestral conductor, composer and musicologist. www.peterleech.com
The Venue Barnt Green is on the B4120 off the A441 Birmingham to Redditch road and close to junction 2 of the M42. There is limited parking at the church, but plenty of street parking. Refreshments served from 10.00.
The station is a five minute walk away.
Booking is now open – see below.

Sweelink and Scheidt with George Parris on 3rd June 2023
2023-06-03 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
We are delighted to welcome George Parris having had to cancel his planned workshop in the Spring.
This workshop celebrates the figurehead of the Netherlands’ ‘golden age’: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562-1621). Primarily known as the organist of the city’s Oude Kerk — where his improvisations earned him the nickname among his contemporaries as the Orpheus of Amsterdam — Sweelinck was prolific across other genres including chansons, madrigals, and motets. In this workshop we will combine instruments and voices to perform one of his crowning glories, the 5-part Magnificat, along with one of his 153 settings of the Pseaumes of the Genevan Psalter in which Sweelinck mixes grand sacred gestures with colourful madrigalian writing.

Foremost among Sweelinck’s many pupils was Samuel Scheidt (1587-1684) from Halle, a key figure in late-Renaissance/early-Baroque music, who studied with Sweelinck between 1608-9. The Orpheus of Amsterdam’s influence is still prevalent in one of Scheidt’s most sublime motets for eight voices, Christ lag in Todesbanden, from 1620. It will be a day of glorious music and hopefully some new discoveries for everyone, both musically and linguistically!
The workshop is for double SATB choir, strings/viols, cornetti, sackbutts, 2 x chamber organs and theorbo (A=440)
George Parris grew up in deepest South Warwickshire and now works as a professional singer, the Founder and Artistic Director of The Carice Singers (named after Elgar’s daughter), an Associate Conductor of Ex Cathedra and one of the Co-Artistic Directors of the Aurore Renaissance Music Festival in Helsinki, Finland. He has degrees in Music from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and studied Conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki between 2017-2020. As a singer he has been trained in early music and ensemble singing, performed contemporary choral works with the Helsinki Chamber Choir and has appeared as a soloist alongside the Helsinki and Finnish Baroque Orchestras in works by Stradella, Purcell and Gilles.
Solihull Methodist Church is close to the centre of Solihull, at the junction of Blossomfield Rd and Station Approach. It is right next to Solihull Railway Station, which is also served by buses. If coming by car, use postcode B91 1LG for your satnav; there is plenty of parking. The hall is a separate building to the church and is clearly signed.
Refreshments are served from 10 am.
Booking is now open.

Treasures from the Baldwin Commonplace Book with Rory McCleery on 15th July 2023
2023-07-15 10:30 - 17:00 | Coton Centre, Tamworth, Church Comberford Road, Tamworth, B79 9AA, United Kingdom
Treasures from the Baldwin Commonplace book
John Baldwin (c.1560 – 1615) is one of the lesser-known but hugely important figures in the history of the music of Elizabethan England. A singer (at both St George’s Windsor and as a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal) and composer, Baldwin was also a professional music copyist responsible for My Ladye Nevells Booke, a compendium of William Byrd’s keyboard music, as well as the compilation or completion of a number of important manuscripts of vocal and consort music.
Chief among these is Baldwin’s idiosyncratic ‘Commonplace’ book – now housed in the British Library, it seems to be a repository for Baldwin’s personal favourite pieces, written out, unusually for the time, for the most part in score and without texts. Works by all of the great composers of the age – along with many by less familiar figures – can be found, as well as madrigals by Marenzio and historic pre-Reformation pieces.
We will be singing a selection of these, including masterpieces by Byrd (Tristitia et anxietas) and Tallis (Loquebantur variis linguis), fantastic pieces by William Mundy and Nathaniel Giles, a Marenzio madrigal and works by earlier composers, as well as something by Baldwin himself!

Rory McCleery is a popular Tutor whom we welcome back to MEMF. He is an award-winning Scottish conductor, countertenor & musicologist. Internationally renowned for his compelling interpretations of a wide range of repertoire, he is particularly associated with the choral music of the Renaissance and Baroque, and is also increasingly known for his affinity with the music of contemporary British composers. Rory has appeared at prestigious venues including the Wigmore Hall and BBC Proms and has directed choirs and led masterclasses, study days and workshops in the USA, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. He features regularly on radio and television, including the recent BBC2 series ‘Art That Made Us’.
Rory is Founder & Artistic Director of The Marian Consort, with whom he performs internationally, including a recent televised tour of Japan. Rory has an extensive discography with The Marian Consort on both Delphian and Linn Records, including many first recordings of both new and historic music which have garnered a variety of accolades and awards including the Diapason D’Or, Presto Classical Album of the Year and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. When not researching and conducting, Rory is also active as a countertenor, performing as a soloist with ensembles including The Dunedin Consort, English Consort and Ensemble 1604.
Venue: The Coton Centre is on the A315 Comberford Rd on the north edge of Tamworth. The post code B79 9AA will take you to Rawlett school but if approaching from the north on the A513 it is on the left before the school and from any other direction is the next turning after the school. There is ample free parking on site.
Lifts are available from the station which is 1 1/2 miles from the venue.
Refreshments are served from 10 am.
Booking is now open until 7th July.

William Byrd weekend- two workshops 9th & 10th September with Alison Kinder & Helen Charlston (9th only) + AGM
2023-09-09 10:30 - 2023-09-10 17:00 | Knowle Village Hall, St John’s Close, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0NN, United Kingdom
To mark the 400th anniversary of William Byrd’s death we present two individual workshops this weekend and a short concert on Saturday at 5.30 pm.
The MEMF AGM will take place in the lunch break on the Sunday.

Saturday 9th September 2023
Psalms, Songs and Sonnets of 1588
with Tutors Alison Kinder and Helen Charlston
This workshop is the first of MEMF’s celebratory Byrd weekend and will focus on small-scale pieces for voices and instruments. This day is for viols, low recorders (especially basses, great- and contra- basses) and voices, and will focus on pieces from the ‘Psalms, Songs and Sonnets’ of 1588. Pitch A=440
The Music is likely to include Blessed Is He, All As A Sea, Though Amaryllis Dance, but will be chosen to best suit the forces available once applications have closed. We will spend time all together, but also have access to a couple of breakout rooms where instrumentalists will be able to work on a consort song with Helen singing. The day will finish with an informal mini-concert to include pieces we have worked on.
In addition, you are invited to submit for performance at the mini concert a piece of Byrd (or Weelkes) prepared in advance, for any forces (so a viol fantasy, consort song, madrigal…). Please email Jill Davies (daviesmusic@btinternet.com) before 6 September if you would like to offer a piece for the concert. Friends and relatives are welcome to attend at 5.30 pm.
Sunday 10th September 2023
William Byrd on a Grand Scale
The Sunday workshop is for everyone – Singers, viols, recorders, brass, double reeds, anything at pitch A=440 – and will be Tutored by Alison Kinder. Everyone is welcome singing or playing as we celebrate this masterful composer.
The Music
Byrd – The Great Service (Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis)
Byrd – Domine Quis Habitabit a9
We thought that as Thomas Weelkes shares Byrd’s anniversary, we ought to allow him a piece as well! So we will include a Weelkes anthem – either ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, or ‘O Lord Arise’
Music will be provided on the day. Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand

TheTutors

Since winning the London Handel Singing Competition in 2018, Helen Charlston has crafted a place for herself at the forefront of the classical music scene in the UK and abroad. A founder participant of the Rising Star of the Enlightenment programme, she regularly works alongside the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She is a BBC New Generation Artist (2021-23) and recently won the 2023 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Awards.
https://www.helencharlston.com/

Alison Kinder is a viol player with Chelys Consort of Viols, who this year released a recording of consort songs and instrumental music by William Byrd with Helen singing. Alison is a regular tutor for the various early music fora and on courses including the Easter Early Music Course and NORVIS. She is also a member of the Linarol Consort, who play on a set of viols copied from the earliest surviving viol, made in Italy by Francesco Linarolo in about 1540. Alison has a love of working with singers, and one of her favourite places to be is as the viol player for the female polyphonic ensemble Musica Secreta.
https://www.alisonkinder.co.uk/
https://linarolconsort.com/

Venue: Knowle Village Hall is 1.5 miles away from the M42 Junction 5 and approximately 3.5 miles to the east of Solihull town centre. Nearby bus stops provide frequent transport links to Solihull Station and Dorridge Station.

Booking is now open – please scroll down

Baroque String Workshop with Oliver Webber 23rd September 2023
2023-09-23 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
A journey from England to Germany and Italy for violins, violas, cellos, double bass/violone, viols and theorbo.

The composers on the menu for today’s workshop represent a variety of styles of the late Baroque period. Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716), a German composer from Munich, was heavily influenced by the French style of Jean-Baptiste Lully. His Suite in D minor is a perfect example of Lully’s style. Henry Purcell (1659-1695) remains one of the greatest English composers. The instrumental pieces in his semi-operas, such as King Arthur, offer a delightful variety of quintessentially English dances. Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) is famous for having written literally hundreds of concertos for solo instruments. Perhaps less well known are his concertos for strings, with no solo instrument, in which he delights in the rich sonorities of the string orchestra. Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) was one of the most prolific and eclectic composers of the late Baroque. He wrote for many different combinations of instruments incorporating French and Italian styles as well as folk traditions from eastern Europe. We will be playing the Lustige Suite which is largely French in conception with an overture and a suite of dances, but with a few distinctive quirks of its own.
Music will be provided. Please bring a labelled music stand and your own mug

The Tutor: Oliver Webber is a baroque violinist from London with three decades of experience in the field. He is the director of the Monteverdi string band, specialists in ensemble music of the 17th century, and appears regularly with the London Handel Players and the Gonzaga Band. Among other posts, he has been a principal player and occasional guest leader of Gabrieli (Consort) for around 20 years, in the process helping the orchestra explore aspects of historical performance such as all gut stringing and use of the French bow hold. He teaches baroque violin and viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he also runs classes on ornamentation for instrumentalists and singers. He complements his teaching and performing with research, editing, translation and string making. In his spare time he enjoys cycling, watching cricket, and reading about European late antiquity.

Venue St. Nicholas Church, St. Nicholas Church Street, Warwick CV34 4JD is located on the southern edge or Warwick – adjacent to St Nicholas Park and opposite the south entrance to the castle.
There is no church car park, but St Nicholas Park car park (CV34 4QY) is directly behind the church, accessed via the A425 Banbury Road. This is a ‘pay and display’ car park 7 days a week. The maximum charge is £7.00. Payment is by card or the RingGo App.
Warwick station is less than 10 mins walk away. From the exit walk to the Coventry Road and turn right. At St John’s junction at the traffic lights, cross straight ahead towards St John’s Museum. Turn right into St Nicholas Church Street – the church is on the left at the end of this road.
Neither MEMF or the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged

Booking is now open – please scroll down.

Mysterious Motets from 1539 with Patrick Allies
2023-10-07 10:30 - 17:00 | St.Faith & St.Laurence Church Hall, Balden Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B32 2EL, United Kingdom
Assembled in Catholic Milan, these five-part Latin motets took a mysterious journey across the Alps in the 1530s and were published in Protestant Strasbourg. The collection features a range of composers of the day, from the well-known (Jacques Arcadelt) to the extremely obscure (Simon Ferrariensis).
The five motets chosen for this workshop represent the breadth of compositional styles and moods in the volume, from Johannes Lupi’s stirring Ascension motet Apparens Christus to the Marian devotion of Maistre Jhan’s Pater noster-Ave Maria.

Patrick Allies is Artistic Director of the London-based vocal ensemble Siglo de Oro, with whom he has made five acclaimed recordings of Renaissance music with Delphian Records. Under Patrick’s direction, the group has taken up invitations to perform in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland, Malta and the USA. Closer to home, Patrick and Siglo de Oro have performed several times at Wigmore Hall.
Patrick is currently Musical Director of The Ripieno Choir and Conductor of Imperial College Chamber Choir. Most recently, Patrick has spent a term as Acting Director of Music at King’s College London, conducting the chapel choir. He is currently a member of the REMArkables, the professional development scheme of the European Early Music Network.
Alongside his work as a conductor, Patrick is a DPhil student in music at the University of Oxford, where he has taught at St Peter’s College. Patrick’s research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, involves fifteenth-century choirs and their performance spaces.
The Venue St Faith & St Laurence Church is on the corner of Croftdown Rd and Court Oak Road in Harborne. There is a small carpark in the church grounds (the approach is from Croftdown Rd but you have to be heading westwards to get into it). On-street parking is also available in Croftdown Rd.
Buses run regularly from Birmingham City Centre to stops within a few minutes of the church.
Booking is now open.

What About Weelkes?! - workshop with Will Dawes and Katie Bank on 4th November 2023
2023-11-04 10:30 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
2023 has seen a huge outpouring of love for one of Britain’s finest ever composers – William Byrd. However, 1623 also saw the death of another really very fine, and almost certainly more fun, or at least more emotionally obvious composer, Thomas Weelkes. Stories abound as to his behaviour, and his music has some quite extraordinary texts and backgrounds. So with that in mind, we ask you – what about Weelkes? The session will including singing (led by Will Dawes) and historical background and context (led by Dr Katie Bank).
The music will include’ When David Heard’, ‘O Care Thou Wilt Despatch’, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, ‘Death Hath Deprived Me’, ‘O Lord Arise’, ‘Thule the Period’, and ‘As Vesta Was’.

Katie Bank is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. She has written a book on English recreational music called Knowledge Building in Early Modern English Music (Routledge, 2021) as well as academic articles in journals such as Early Music and Renaissance Studies. She is webmaster and creator of ByrdCentral.com, a collaborative educational initiative between academics, teachers, and musicians celebrating the quatercentenary of Byrd’s death, but she mostly writes about Weelkes. Katie is an avid choral singer and collaborates regularly with ensembles around the United Kingdom.
Will Dawes is a Choral Director and Baritone. He is Director of Chapel Music at Somerville College, Oxford, where he directs the only auditioned non-liturgical college choir in the University. He has directed the BBC Singers and the Eric Whitacre Singers as well as workshop days for Stile Antico and almost all the Early Music Forums in the UK. He was the founding Director of Music of Frideswide Voices, Oxford’s first group of 7-13 year-old girl choristers in over 500 years. For 16 years, he was a member of the triple-GRAMMY-nominated early-music ensemble Stile Antico and has also sung with some of the foremost choral ensembles in the UK including The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, Ora, Magnificat, Gabrieli Consort, Polyphony, and London Voices. He has twice curated a performance of the complete Latin works of William Byrd in 24 hours, both taking place in the church of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, where he is Director of Music.
Venue Dorridge Village Hall http://www.dorridgevillagehall.org/ is at the end of a driveway (with a height barrier) off the B4101 between Dorridge and Hockley Heath and is easy to reach from the M42. The satnav is not pinpoint accurate so when you get near look for the following:
From Hockley Heath, the driveway to the Hall is the first right after the Railway pub, before the “Welcome to Dorridge” signs and the start of the built-up area.
From Dorridge centre, the driveway to the Hall is the first left after Dorridge Park. If you get to the Railway pub you have gone too far.
Dorridge train station is approximately 10 minutes’ walk away. Directions can be provided on request.

Booking is now open – please scroll down for the Booking Form. Book by Saturday 28th October

Angels and Shepherds: Christmas workshop with Philip Thorby on Saturday 2nd December 2023
2023-12-02 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church, Bossomfield Road,, Solihull, B91 1LD, United Kingdom
Angelus ad Pastores
This year we have invited Philip to tutor our pre-Christmas workshop. Philip has found some wonderful music on the theme of Angels and Shepherds in the Christmas story. There will be music by Christoph Buehl, Hans Leo Hassler, Johann Hermann Schein and Agostini Soderini.
The angels are generally, well, angelic, but the shepherds are revealed as zither-strumming, boisterous and (as depicted by Schein) initially very grumpy at being woken up by the heavenly host.
The workshop will be for voices, violins, viols, cornetts, sackbuts, curtals, recorders and continuo. The pitch will be A440. Tenor viol players/violas please note that most pieces have octave-treble rather than alto clef parts.
Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand.

Philip Thorby is one of our most popular and respected tutors. He specialises in early Italian Music. Many people will have seen his wonderful Zoom lectures during the lockdown period, which are still available to watch on this website.

Venue is Solihull Methodist Church, next to the Railway station SatNav B91 1LG. There is a large car park with the entrance in Station Approach.
NB: If approaching from the west along Blossomfield Road, please note that recent road layout changes mean there is no left turn into Station Approach. Either go completely around the roundabout and then turn right into Station Approach, or take the first exit at the roundabout into Streetsbrook Road and then turn left into the opposite end of Station Approach at the traffic lights.
Booking is now closed.

The Battle of Lepanto: workshop with Tutor Gawain Glenton on 13th January 2024
2024-01-13 10:30 - 17:00 | Trinity Church,Stafford
The Battle of Lepanto took place on October 7th, 1571. This colossal naval battle pitted the combined forces of Europe’s Catholic states (under the overall command of Don Juan of Austria) against the Ottoman Empire and resulted in a major defeat of the Ottoman fleet. Galleys came from Spain, Genoa, The Papal States, Savoy, Tuscany and elsewhere. The Venetians were the dominant presence however, providing more than twice as many galleys as any other member of the Holy League.
For Venetians the battle of Lepanto became the defining military victory of the era and was celebrated for decades to come – in part because a decisive victory of this magnitude was rather unexpected. It was used as a major propaganda coup and was self-consciously built into the Venetian myth.
The focus of the annual celebrations was a procession (or andata) to the church of Santa Giustina culminating in a Mass of thanksgiving. Several Venetian composers wrote large-scale music for this event, including Giovanni Croce, Andrea Gabrieli, Claudio Merulo and Giovanni Bassano. This workshop will explore this fascinating aspect of Venetian musical culture.
This workshop is for singers of all voice types, plus cornetts, sackbuts, dulcians and string instruments. Recorder players are welcome, but should be prepared to also sing and/or play a different instrument. A = 440.
The Tutor Gawain Glenton is a specialist cornetto player whose work as a soloist and an ensemble musician takes him all over the world. He is a member and co-director of the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble and also a popular workshop Tutor.
Music will be provided on the day.

The Venue Trinity Church (www.trinitychurchstafford.org.uk) ST16 2BZ, is a spacious modern building in Stafford town centre. The main church space, where the workshop will take place, is on the first floor; a lift is available. The church website includes a link to a map. The church is a ten-minute walk from Stafford railway station.
Details of town car parks can be found here and here. Note that some car parks are pay-by-phone only. The church has a small number of parking spaces (about 8); these will be available for those bringing bulky instruments or those with limited mobility. Please telephone or message Tim Boardman if you would like to make use of one of these spaces, and please try to car-share where possible. Tim’s mobile: 07794 837396.
Please note: There are extensive roadworks and diversions in operation around Stafford centre that will continue well into 2024. If you wish to use the long stay Doxey Road car park (no. 13a on the Borough Council map) it is currently accessible from Chell Road by car, but may not be on the 13th. From the A34 north of the town centre follow the new link road (Pans Road) signposted Telford A518. At the first roundabout take the first exit into the car park, by Sainsbury’s. Currently,Trinity Church can be accessed via Chell Road/Broad Street. If there are any changes in the interim affecting access to the church, I shall post an update on this page.
NB There is also a small independent car park on Mount Street, immediately behind Trinity Church: SIP Car Parks Limited Sheridan Centre Mount Street Stafford ST16 2BZ. Charge is £5 for the day. It does tend to fill up quite early, but may be worth a try as it is cheap and convenient.
Booking is now open – please scroll down for the booking form.
