Baroque String Workshop with Oliver Webber 23rd September 2023
2023-09-23 10:30 - 17:00 (Europe/London) | 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.

The Garden of Love – Anthems from the Song of Songs : Vocal workshop with tutor Sally Dunkley on 17th February 2024
2024-02-17 10:30 - 17:00 | St Philip’s Church Centre, Dorridge, B93 8DX
The Music: The sensuous love poetry of the biblical Song of Songs has long proved an inspiration to composers and found its way into use in the Catholic church mainly by way of metaphorical reference to the Virgin Mary.
Our workshop day features settings of Song of Songs texts by 16th-century composers from various European countries. Some are well known names, such as Palestrina and Gibbons, while others are rarer discoveries – Clemens non Papa and Vincenzo Bertolusi. All are delightful to sing.
The Tutor, Sally Dunkley, has enjoyed a long career as a professional consort singer, as a student in the Clerkes of Oxenford, then with the Sixteen from its very first concert, and the Tallis Scholars too. She started making performing editions when few were readily available; some are now published by Oxford University Press (series ‘Musica Dei donum’) and the Church Music Society. She is delighted to share her experience through workshops, summer schools and talks – this is her second visit to MEMF.
The workshop is from 10.30 to 5pm with refreshments at 10am, lunch 1-2 (bring your own or use shops nearby) and a tea-break.
Directions to St Philip’s church Centre – drive along the B4101 from the Knowle direction into Dorridge and under a railway bridge. There is a Sainsbury’s garage on the right after the bridge and you need to turn right after this onto Manor Road where the church is immediately on the right. There are plenty of disabled parking places at the church and some free street parking by the church and nearby. There is also 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 available on Saturdays for £5 for the day, payable through PayByPhone. There is a footpath at the back of the car park which takes you to the back door of the church so you do not need to walk all the way round by the road.

Booking is now open – please scroll down for the booking form.

The Triumphs of Oriana with Tutor Giles Underwood on 20th April 2024
2024-04-20 10:30 - 17:00 | Coton Centre, Tamworth, Church Comberford Road, Tamworth, B79 9AA, United Kingdom
The Triumphs of Oriana – a workshop for voices.
In 1601 Thomas Morley published a collection of madrigals in honour of Queen Elizabeth. There were 25 pieces in the publication from 23 different composers. All the works ended with the lines:
Then sang the shepherds and nymphs of Diana:
Long live fair Oriana.
This day of singing will include a selection of these 5- and 6-part madrigals, written by some of the foremost composers of the day; Morley himself, Mundy, Tomkins and Farmer as well as some writers who are less well known. These pieces are full of joy, movement and soloistic writing, being consort pieces, not choral. They were intended to be sung in drawing rooms across the land, and use commonplace pastoral imagery as well as more elevated language, all for the glory of the Queen.

Giles Underwood has a varied career as a bass-baritone, voice teacher, vocal coach and conductor. He is Professor of Singing at The Royal Academy of Music, having previously held a professorship at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD). He studied Biology at Oxford before going on to postgraduate and opera studies at GSMD under Professor Susan McCulloch. He runs a successful teaching practice in Oxford and taught in Cambridge from 2004-13. Since 2013, he has been Director of Music at University College, Oxford, where he runs the Chapel Choir and the two ensembles in residence – Martlet Voices and The Martlet Ensemble. These groups give student musicians the opportunity to work alongside professional performers in rehearsal and concert. He is a tutor for the Cambridge Early Music Summer School and Chorworks at Duke University in North Carolina.
Giles has sung with many of the UK’s leading vocal ensembles, most notably I Fagiolini, Contrapunctus, Magnificat and Gallicantus. He has been a soloist for The Academy of Ancient Music, The Gabrieli Consort and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has performed a variety of operatic roles, including Don Giovanni, Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Marcello (La bohéme) and Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia). In recital, he has sung English and Swedish song for Oxford Lieder, Wolf and Schumann in Wigmore Hall and Strauss in the Purcell Room.
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 it is the next turning after the school. There is ample free parking on site.
Lifts can be arranged from the station which is 1 1/2 miles from the venue. Please contact the organiser after you have booked
Booking is now closed.
Link to Booking Form

Music and Ritual in a C16th Florentine Convent with Laurie Stras on Saturday 11th May 2024
2024-05-11 10:30 - 17:00 | Angel Centre, Worcester
This workshop is for upper voices, all viols, lower pitch recorders and dulcians. We would also welcome one or two continuo keyboard players (there will be one instrument provided). Instrumentalists may expect to be asked to sing or listen at times.
Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand.
The Music
The Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, MS 27766 in the library of the Brussels Conservatoire, is the only surviving manuscript of polyphonic repertoire from a sixteenth-century convent. The two nuns named on its binding, Clemenzia Sostegni and Agnoleta Biffoli, lived at the convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, which later became home to Suor Maria Celeste Galilei, ‘Galileo’s Daughter’.
The manuscript contains 78 works for equal voices that would have adorned the convent’s worship at its most solemn feasts and for its daily devotions. This full day workshop will introduce you to this fascinating record of the musical lives of Florentine nuns at the end of the Renaissance, exploring its song, psalmody, motets, and imitation masses.
Music will be provided on the day, or can be sent in advance as PDFs to download and print, or read from a device. (If you want advance copies please let the organiser know as soon as you have booked.)
Laurie Stras is Professor Emerita of Music at the University of Southampton and director of the ensemble Musica Secreta, with whom she has made six critically acclaimed recordings of polyphony from the 15th to the 17th centuries. Her research focus over many years has been the music and musical activities of women in Renaissance Ferrara and Florence: she is currently preparing a Cambridge Element on the Biffoli-Sostegni manuscript, and Musica Secreta have recently recorded this repertoire for a forthcoming album https://musicasecreta.org/
Laurie is an expert in the convent music of C16 Italy and has undertaken extensive research into the original sources, music often written by women for women.
The Venue – The Angel Centre is located in central Worcester, on the corner of The Butts and Angel Place. The entrance is at the side, in Angel Place, directly opposite the excellent Francini’s café (recommended for lunch.) Look out for the WEM banner by the door. There is no parking immediately outside, but the Cattle Market car park (off the Butts) is a five-minute walk away, up the hill, and costs £6 per 24 hrs, or Croft Road is slightly further (by the Racecourse) and slightly cheaper at £4. (Both carparks are Pay and display or Ringo, post-coded WR1 3NZ and are accessed from Croft Road).

Click here to open link
Worcester Foregate Street station is very close by in the Main (Foregate) Street.
Neither MEMF nor the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged.

Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short break)
1.15 Lunch break – bring your own or use local shops and cafes
2.00 Afternoon session with tea break
5.00 Finish

Click here for the booking form
This is a direct link, rather than seeing the form on this page as mentioned below. Payment details are on the form.

Music by Marc'Antonio Ingegneri with Gareth Wilson on Saturday 22nd June 2024
2024-06-22 10:30 - 17:00 | St Philip’s Church Centre, Dorridge, B93 8DX
The workshop is suitable for singers of all voice types plus cornetts, sackbuts, dulcian/bassoon, strings/viols, theorbo, organ/harpsichord and recorders, A=440.
Introduction The Cremonese composer Marc’Antonio Ingegneri (1535/36-92) is remembered chiefly as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi while, for well over 400 years, his own achievements have been left to sit in the shadows. This workshop will look at the music Ingegneri wrote for the major events of the church year, from Advent through to the Assumption, allowing participants to experience the extraordinary range of moods achieved and musical techniques employed by a composer whose remaining output is comparatively small but extremely varied.

The tutor Gareth Wilson is Director of Girton College Chapel Choir, university of Cambridge, where he is also an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Music, is Director of Music at Christ Church Chelsea, Academic Professor at the Royal College of Music, and is an examiner for the Royal College of Organists. While his repertoire covers music spanning over 500 years, his growing discography has focused upon neglected or unrecorded Renaissance polyphony with instruments. He has now recorded four volumes of music by Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, all of which have entered the Specialist Classical Charts and have been met with critical praise.
Music will be provided on the day if you book by Friday 7th June
Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand

Venue St Phillip’s Church Centre, Manor Road, Dorridge, B93 8DX
To get to the church, drive along the B4101 from the Knowle direction into Dorridge and under a railway bridge. There is a Sainsbury’s garage on the right after the bridge and you need to turn right after this onto Manor Road where the church is immediately on the right. There is some parking at the church and free street parking by the church and nearby.
There is also 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 available on Saturdays at £5 for the day. There is a footpath at the back of the car park which takes you to the back door of the church so you do not need to walk all the way round by the road.
The station is 5 minutes walk away – 2 left turns then right into Manor Road
Timetable for the Day
10 am: Registration and drinks
10.30am; Morning Session with a short break
1 pm: Lunch (bring your own or use pubs and cafés nearby)
2pm: Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea
4.00: Final session
5.00: Finish.
Booking has now closed.

Music for the Dedication of St Gertrude's in Hamburg 1607 with David Hatcher on 13th July 2024
2024-07-13 10:30 - 17:00 | Knowle Village Hall, St John’s Close, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0NN, United Kingdom
This workshop is appropriate for players of strings (violin and viol families), sackbuts, cornetts, double reeds (yes, crumhorns too, if a quorum can be reached!), recorders, lutes, keyboards and of course, voices. Pitch will be A440.
We shall be working on music by Michael and Hieronymus Praetorius, Orlando di Lasso, Pierre Bonhomme and their contemporaries that was performed during a service in 1607 for the dedication of the church of St. Gertrude in Hamburg.
“… After that was sung the Introit In nomine Jesu in eight parts by Bandovius [Bonhomme]. Next followed the Missa super Deus misereatur nostri, also in eight parts, by the excellent composer Orlando [di Lasso]. Instead of the Sequence was sung Alleluia by Handl [Jacobus Gallus], composed for twelve parts, but in three choirs. The first choir was sung by the boys and musicians in the chancel, the second [was played] by cornetts and sackbuts, the third by the organ… After that was sung Herr Gott dich loben wir, which Hieronymus Praetorius, our church organist, has composed for sixteen parts in four choirs… Following that was also sung the Cantate [Domino] in eight parts, by the same Hieronymus Praetorius, by the choir, organs, cornetts, and sackbuts all together. To conclude, Sei Lob und Ehr mit hohem Preis was sung by the congregation, choir, organ, and instruments.”
Hamburg, 7 January, 1609, Lucas van Cöllen, Pastor of St. Jacobi in that city.
The music is a fascinating snapshot of the German response to Monteverdi’s works in Italy, including the Vespers of 1610, showing considerable experimentation and inventiveness in the movement towards the baroque splendour of later years.
The tutor: David Hatcher is well known to MEMF regulars. David 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. He began his career based in England, touring 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 9 years, taking an active part in that country’s flourishing early music scene. He has recorded with Evelyn Tubb, The Consort of Musicke, I Fagiolini, Sprezzatura, and the Japanese ensembles Chelys, Ensemble Ecclesia and the Bach Collegium of Japan.
David now lives in Leominster on the Welsh Marches and has appeared with Fretwork, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The Globe Theatre, The Consort of Musicke, Musica Antiqua of London, The Corelli Orchestra, The Harp Consort, Glyndebourne Opera and many other period orchestras and ensembles.
He has taught on numerous summer schools, including the Cambridge Early Music Summer School, the Easter Early Music Course at Monmouth and Sastamala Gregoriana in Finland, and is in demand as a tutor for many weekend and day courses.
Past projects include performing in Damon Albarn’s opera ‘Dr Dee’ and performing and recording with I Fagiolini in their hugely successful interpretation of Striggio’s 40-voice mass. He performed in the inaugural season of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014 and in the highly acclaimed production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle in 2014 & 2015. He is a founder member of The Linarol Consort of Viols, the UK’s only consort specialising in the earliest repertoire for that instrument.
Knowle Village Hall https://knowlevillagehall.co.uk 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.
There is very limited parking on site but there are several carparks very close by – some only take payment with the PayByPhone app.
Booking is now open – click here for the booking form.

Mateo Flecha's 'Ensalades' with Anita Datta on 14th September 2024
2024-09-14 10:30 - 17:00 | St.Faith & St.Laurence Church Hall, Balden Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B32 2EL, United Kingdom
Those of us who were able to attend Anita Datta’s ’s last MEMF workshop will know we are in for a treat!
She will explore with us three of the ‘Ensaladas’ of Mateo Flecha el Viejo (1481-1553). So-called for their eclectic mixing of languages and musical styles, they depict allegorical dramas as a form of courtly and carnivalesque entertainment. Exploring the Ensaladas offers musicians liberty to play with sound and imagination, creating rich and atmospheric depictions of life and politics in early modern Europe through delightful polyphony.
Repertoire: La Guerra; El Jubilate; La Bomba and Riù Riù Chiù. There’s a Spotify playlist here with performances of all the pieces to get a flavour of what we’ll be doing.
The workshop is for SATB voices and pretty much any instruments – melody (which can double any vocal line in their range) or continuo. Especially welcome: sackbuts and cornets, early percussion, early Iberian instruments (e.g. Vihuela). There will be some percussion instruments at the workshop, so anyone who would like to bang a drum or rattle a tambourine is welcome to come as a percussionist. Pitch: A=440
Please note that Anita will need notice well in advance for instruments not in C so she can prepare parts.

The Tutor, Anita Datta, is a conductor and Early Music Specialist from East Yorkshire. She is the founder and artistic director of vocal ensemble The Swan Consort, and with them has performed at major music festivals across the UK and Europe. Graduating from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge as an organ scholar (2014), she is frequently engaged as an organist and continuo player, and has directed a number of early and contemporary operas. She is also a soprano, Indian Classical musician, and composer, having recently delivered commissions for Multitude of Voyces and the BBC Singers.
The Venue St Faith & St Laurence Church is on the junction of Balden Rd & Croftdown Rd in Harborne. There is a small amount of parking on site, and plenty more street parking on Croftdown Road.
The MEMF AGM will be held during the lunch break at 1pm.
Organiser: Jonathan Spencer 07784 657563 or jonathan-spencer@blueyonder.co.uk

Booking is now open – click here for the booking form.

The Sacred Music of Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695) with Simon Harper
2024-10-12 10:30 - 17:00 | Angel Centre, Worcester
This is a workshop for singers and one keyboard player, exploring some of the sacred anthems by Henry Purcell, regarded as one of England’s greatest composers of the Baroque period.
Although Purcell wrote prolifically for the theatre throughout much of his life, as organist of both the Chapel Royal and Westminster Abbey he is remembered just as much as a master of choral composition, with his characteristic expressive textures and harmonies.
This workshop will focus on a selection of anthems for full choir in four, five and eight parts, including one of Purcell’s finest works I was glad, a setting of verses from Psalm 122, composed for the coronation of James II in 1685; the funeral sentences performed at Queen Mary’s funeral in 1965, as well as Purcell’s own funeral later the same year; and some shorter motets including the exquisite eight-voice setting of Hear my prayer, O Lord, full of Purcell’s characteristic expressive harmonic dissonances.
Music will be provided on the day

The tutor Simon Harper is a freelance singer, conductor and teacher. He read Music at the University of York, studied choral conducting with Paul Spicer, and was a member of the prestigious Genesis Sixteen scheme. As a Tenor Lay Clerk in Hereford Cathedral Choir, Simon has sung in live BBC broadcasts, participated in tours of the USA, performed in the Sistine Chapel, and sung at international events in Normandy to commemorate both the 75th and 80th anniversaries of D-Day.
Simon’s busy schedule as a choral conductor includes the directorships of Hereford Chamber Choir, Cotswolds-based Cantores Chamber Choir, Ledbury Choral Society, and Kington Choral Society. He has worked with professional orchestras – the Central England Camerata, period instrument ensemble The Musical and Amicable Society, and internationally renowned viol consort Fretwork. He has conducted premieres of works by composers including Kerensa Briggs, Liz Dilnot Johnson and Robert Peate at the Three Choirs Festival and the Hay Festival. Simon also teaches singing and A Level Music at schools in Malvern and Worcester.

The venue is the Angel Centre in Worcester Town Centre. There are plenty of car parks in Worcester, but the nearest all day ones are the Cattlemarket and Croft Road about 5 minutes walk away up the hill. It is also close to Worcester Foregate station.

Booking is now open – the booking form is here
Book by Friday 4th October
Organiser: Jill Davies daviesmusic@btinternet.com
Mobile on the day: 07721 317030

Music from England, Italy and Germany - Baroque String Workshop at A=415
2024-11-09 10:00 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
This Baroque string workshop is for violins, violas, cellos, double bass/violone, viols and continuo – to include theorbo. A=415
Music to be played will be:
John Blow (1649-1708) Chaconne for strings. John Blow was an English composer and organist who started his musical life as a chorister at the Chapel Royal where he became ‘proficient in music’. Obtaining a Doctor of Music, he later had a distinguished career as composer and organist at St Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, where one of his pupils was Henry Purcell, and the Chapel Royal. Although most of Blow’s music was choral, he wrote some instrumental music, one of which is the Chaconne.
Archangelo Corelli (1653-1713) Concerto Grosso in Fmajor Op 6 no 2. Archangelo Corelli was an Italian virtuoso violinist and composer whose music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, and the importance of the violin. His concerti grossi are regarded as the epitome of the style and Opus 6 is a collection of 12 concerti of which we shall play no 2
Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716) Suite in E minor. Johann Christoph Pez (1664-1716) was a German composer from Munich. One of his early employers offered him the chance to study music with the leading Italian composer, Corelli, in Rome. From there he returned to Germany, working to improve the various court orchestras where he was employed as Kapellmeister. After returning to Italy to study composition and violin, he finally settled in Germany where he enjoyed a successful career Like many of his contemporaries, Pez was heavily influenced by the French style and was one of many imitators of Jean-Baptiste Lully.
Ludovico Viadana (1560? – 1627) La Fiorentina. Ludovico Grossi da Viadana was an Italian composer, teacher and Franciscan friar who held various posts as Director of Music in several Cathedrals. He is known mainly as the first significant figure to make use of the newly developed technique of figured bass, one of the musical devices which was to define the end of the Renaissance and beginning of the Baroque era in music.
Music will be provided on the day. Please bring a labelled music stand.
The tutor, Oliver Webber is a London based Baroque violinist with three decades of experience in the field. He is director of the Monteverdi String Band, specialists in 17th century ensemble music. He also appears regularly with the London Handel Players and the Gonzaga Band, with whom he has recently been coaching students at Stavanger University. In the orchestral world, amongst various other posts, he has been a principal player and occasional guest leader of the 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.

Venue Please note that this has changed from St Nicholas Church, Warwick as the heating is broken. It will now take place in Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG. It is close to the centre of Solihull at the junction of Blossomfield Road and Station Approach (no left turn from Blossomfield Road). There is a large car park accessed from Station Approach. – it is right next to the Railway Station and well served by buses.Neither MEMF or the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged.

Organiser: Sheila Koch 07931 237076 or sheilakochuk@gmail.com

Booking is now open – book here by 19th October 2024

Praetorius Christmas Workshop with Patrick Craig on 14th December 2024
2024-12-14 10:30 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
This workshop is for voices and any number of instruments – strings, including viols, wind and brass at pitch A440.
The German composer and music theorist Michael Praetorius (born Michael Schultze about 1571/2) was the son, and brother, of Lutheran pastors. After studying theology and philosophy in Frankfurt he later became organist and music director to the Duke of Brunswick, where he stayed for over 20 years. After the death of his employer, he travelled extensively in Germany working as music director in several north German courts where he met and worked with Schütz, Schein & Scheidt. Praetorius considered himself a pioneer in the introduction of the new Italian Baroque style into Protestant Germany.
We will work on a selection of his pieces for the festive season.
Music will be provided on the day Instrumentalists please bring a named Music stand

Patrick Craig is a countertenor who sang a thousand concerts with The Tallis Scholars while singing as a Vicar Choral at St Paul’s Cathedral where he has worked for almost thirty years. He has also recorded extensively as a member of The Cardinall’s Musick. He lectures on choral music for the Arts Society and conducts singing workshops for organisations across Europe. He is the founder Director of this country’s preeminent all-female professional choir Aurora Nova.
Timetable for the Day
10 am: Registration and drinks
10.30am; Morning Session with a short break
1 pm: a free buffet lunch will be provided as part of a very generous legacy left by the late Heather Holt, our previous Treasurer – and much more.
2pm: Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea
4.00: Final session
5.00: Finish

Directions Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA has plenty of parking but there is height restricting barrier of 2m at the entrance, If you need to travel in your pantechnicon please inform the organiser who will arrange for it to be open!
Warning for sat nav users. The official postcode for the Village Hall B93 8QA may set your destination quite some distance from the Hall.
The What3Words location is ///sponge.flopping.wedding .
From Dorridge centre on the B4101 (Grange Road) the turning to the Hall is the first left after Dorridge Park. If you get to the Railway pub you have gone too far!
From Hockley Heath, the driveway to the Hall is the first right after the Railway pub, before the “Welcome to Dorridge” signs.
Please note: The M42 will be closed between junctions 6 & 7a the weekend of the workshop, which will affect anyone travelling southbound on the M42. Details of the closure and the diversions in place can be found here.
Dorridge Station (Chiltern Line) is about ½ mile away. Turn left out of the station and at the main road turn left under the railway bridge = Grange Road. The venue is on the left past the park.
The Organiser is Jonathan Spencer 07784 657563
To book click here

Tribus Miraculis - workshop with Stephanie Dyer 11th January 2025
2025-01-11 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
Tribus Miraculis – Music for a Saturday after Epiphany
This workshop is for all voices and instruments and Renaissance wind instruments – cornetts curtals, recorders, sackbuts and shawms – are particularly welcome.
String players are also warmly invited to participate plus one continuo player, or others who come with their own instrument. A=440

The music we will be playing is in multi parts:
a12 – Jacob Handl – Tribus miraculis
a8 – Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina – Surge illuminare
a8 – Caspar Vincentius – Gloria tibi
a12 – Hans Leo Hassler – Jubilate Deo

Music will be provided on the day
Instrumentalists please bring a labelled music stand

The Tutor Virtuoso historical trombonist Stephanie Dyer enjoys an international career as Early musician, modern performer and educator. Born and raised in Cardiff, Stephanie studied at King’s College, Cambridge, Royal Academy of Music, London and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Switzerland. She performs with world-renowned historic brass group His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts, of which she has been a member since 2016. Stephanie’s performance activities are diverse: equally at home in the theatre and recording studio as on the concert platform, she is trombonist and Cover Conductor for Disney’s Aladdin the Musical (UK/Ireland Tour, 2023–25), and is part of the 2024 Songs of Praise Christmas Special, to be broadcast Sunday 22nd December on BBC One.

A devoted teacher, Stephanie is Baroque Trombone professor at RAM, teaches trombone at the University of Cambridge and is a passionate workshop leader in the UK and internationally, including for the regional Early Music Fora (2021–), Beauchamp Adult Early Music Course (2024–); International Early Music Summer School, ?cinawka Górna (Poland, 2017–), Warsaw Sackbut & Cornett Festival (2021–); and for Alta Capella Vianensis (the Netherlands, 2022–).

Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short break)
1.00 Lunch (bring your own)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea break
4.00 Final session
5.00 Finish
The Venue 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 and is well served by buses. There is a large car park with the entrance in Station Approach. If coming by car, use postcode B91 1LG for your satnav.
NB. If approaching from the west along Blossomfield Road, please note that 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.
Book here by 3rd January 2025
Workshop Organiser is Jill Davies – 07721 317030 or daviesmusic@btinternet.com

The Music of Thomas Tomkins - workshop for voices with Carys Lane on 15th February 2025
2025-02-15 10:30 - 17:00 | Coton Centre, Tamworth, Church Comberford Road, Tamworth, B79 9AA, United Kingdom
Thomas Tomkins
Perhaps less well known than predecessor William Byrd or his contemporary Orlando Gibbons, Tomkins is nevertheless a composer of wonderful invention and skill. His work,
like that of Gibbons, forms a bridge between the music of the renaissance and the baroque and comprises consort music in the form of madrigals, and liturgical music including both full anthems and the more modern verse anthems. Born in Wales, he was a chorister at St Davids cathedral. He held post as organist at Worcester cathedral for some 50 years from 1596 until the cathedral’s closure in 1646 due to the civil war, but was also a Gentleman Ordinary of the famous Chapel Royal in London, travelling frequently between the two jobs. In this workshop we will visit both his madrigal output, looking at works from his 1622 publication – Songs of 3,4,5 and 6 Parts- and music from his sacred output. Repertory will include, possibly his most famous piece, the great lament – When David Heard and also it’s companion piece the lesser known Then David Mourned. We will investigate his huge invention in the madrigalian fa-la-la in madrigals such as Too much I once Lamented and O Let me Die for True Love. And also enjoy some forgotten gems, such as an expansive 6 part setting of the psalm 120 Woe is Me, and possibly one of the greatest madrigals ever written, Music Divine.
Music will be provided, but if you would like to download it onto your tablet please contact liz.ashby@ntlworld.com and she will send you a link.

The Tutor Carys Lane studied at the Purcell School and Royal Academy of music, and in 1999 was awarded an ARAM from the Academy for her service to Music. Having graduated, her early career was spent specialising in early music and ensemble singing. She recorded and performed with nearly all the major professional ensembles and choirs in Britain at the time, including The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, The Cardinal’s Musicke, The Clerk’s Group, Tenebrae, and The Gabrieli Consort. Since then Carys has changed the focus of her career to coaching and teaching. She is now based in Oxford and teaches choral scholars at Magdalen, Merton and Queen’s and Christchurch Colleges, as well as offering lessons and classes across the university. She is the vocal consultant for The Oxford Bach Choir, and works with the Merton Girls Choir for whom she leads the probationers program. She has held coaching residencies at the university of Perth Australia, the University of Vermont, and Dartington summer schools. She teaches for the Rodolfus Foundation Choral Courses and for the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain. Ensemble singing has always been her primary musical passion, and she now works with The Martlet Ensemble, a professional small vocal ensemble whose remit is to work with students at University College Oxford, offering coaching to singers whilst performing with them.

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.
Lifts are available from the station – just contact the organiser (below)
Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short comfort break)
1.00 Lunch (bring your own)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea break
4.00 Final session
5.00 Finish
Workshop Organiser: Elizabeth Ashby 07892 715401
Book here for this workshop before Sunday 2nd February

Hei Mihi, Domine - Workshop for Voices with David Allinson on 15th March 2025
2025-03-15 10:30 - 17:00 | Collegiate Church of St Mary’s , Stafford
Hei Mihi, Domine – Iberian Penitential Motets.

The Music. Join us for a day of plangently penitential motets to mark the season of Lent. For this workshop we explore music by some of the most celebrated composers of the Iberian ‘golden age’ of polyphony – Morales, Guerrero, Vivanco and Victoria – but also sing stunning motets by lesser-known composers, including Portuguese musicians Filipe de Magalhães and Aires Fernandez.
While the mood of these pieces can be anxious or gloomy, their texts focusing on sin, the Passion and the afterlife, the music is deliciously expressive and life-affirming (as every singer knows, it’s the saddest music that’s most enjoyable). Laden with suspensions and with moments of huge dramatic contrast, these mostly-unfamiliar works should offer participants a highly-rewarding day of emotionally-engrossing, technically-challenging singing.
As ever, the music list is subject to change according to forces signing up, and we especially need a strong contingent of Tenors and Basses to balance the likely strength in the upper voices. So please sign up early!
Music will be provided on the day.

The Tutor, Dr David Allinson is a freelance conductor, singer and academic with wide experience as a leader of choral workshops. His special love is Renaissance polyphony, and he has led countless workshops and singing holidays in the UK and Europe, working for every UK Early Music Forum, for organisations such as Run by Singers and for numerous private groups. He is known for his combination of scholarship, technical know-how and humorous positivity.
David has been the musical director of the Renaissance Singers (London) since 2010 and has conducted numerous other choirs including his own ensemble, Cantores. He is Honorary Vice-President of the Southern Early Music Forum. [More at www.davidallinson.com].

Venue: https://www.stmarysstafford.org.uk
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 (see below) if you would like to make use of one of these spaces, and please try to car-share where possible.
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.
Timetable for the day:
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short break)
1.00 Lunch: bring your own or use local pubs and cafés (easily accessible from venue)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea break
4.00 Final session
The organiser for the day is Tim Boardman – tim.boardman.tb@gmail.com or 07794 837396
Booking closed

From Mexico with Tears: Lamentations by Padilla and López Capillas with George Parris on 12th April 2025
2025-04-12 10:30 - 17:00 | St.Faith & St.Laurence Church Hall, Balden Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B32 2EL, United Kingdom
We welcome back George Parris to tutor this workshop, for voices and all instruments at A440 pitch.
We will explore two settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah by outstanding composers: Juan Gutierrez de Padilla
(c. 1590-1664) and Francisco López Capillas (1608-1674). Both composers worked at the magnificent cathedral in Puebla, Mexico, where the music-loving Bishop Juan Palafox y Mendoza presided over the richest establishment of the Spanish Empire outside Spain. Their music represents a high point in the Spanish manner of sacred polyphony, exhibiting a use of voices and a tonal instability that is both remarkable and highly expressive.
Juan Gutierrez de Padilla was born in Málaga, in Old Spain, and was appointed maestro at Cádiz Cathedral in around 1616. He next appears at the Cathedral in Puebla in 1622 where he later became maestro and would spend the rest of his life.
Francisco López Capillas was born in Mexico City where he sang in the Cathedral choir and studied theology at the University. By 1641, he is found working as organist, cantor, and assistant to Juan Gutierrez de Padilla at Puebla Cathedral, but he later returned to Mexico City where he became maestro of the Catedral de México in 1654.
George Parris read Music at Cambridge University, following by a Master’s Degree at Oxford University, and then studied choral conducting and ensemble singing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 2011 he founded The Carice Singers, now a professional vocal ensemble, and works across Europe as a singer, chorus master, and conductor. His work is varied and far-reaching, from being Artistic Director of the Aurore Renaissance Music Festival in Helsinki, performing vocal works by Kaija Saariaho and Luciano Berio, and mentoring the next generation of choral composers on schemes for Cheltenham Music Festival, Spitalfields Music Festival, and the Three Choirs Festival.
Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks – PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN MUG
10.30 Morning session (with a short break)
1.00 Lunch (bring your own /or use local pubs and cafes)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea break
4.00 Final session
5.00 Finish
Venue St Faith & St Laurence Church is very visible at the junction of Balden Rd & Croftdown Rd in Harborne, Birmingham, B32 2EL . There is a small amount of parking next to the church, and plenty more street parking on Croftdown Road.
The organiser is Jonathan Spencer. If, having booked, you need to cancel, please let him know on 07784 657563
Booking is now open- book here.

'Veni Domine, et noli tardare' - Sebastianist Music from Renaissance Portugal with Rory McCleery on 10th May 2025
2025-05-10 10:30 - 17:00 | Emmanuel Church, Loughborough, Forest Road, Loughborough, LE11 3NW
The Music
Musical settings of disconsolate devotional and biblical passages often presented Renaissance musicians with an effective and potentially covert vehicle for political commentary, and such is the case with works by many of the Portuguese composers living under the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs. These musicians expressed through their compositions both the sadness of the people at being governed by a foreign power, and also the longing for the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy, a sentiment which found expression in the cult of ‘Sebastianism’, a belief that the young King Sebastian, who vanished in 1578 during an ill-advised military campaign in Morocco, might one day return to reclaim his throne. This was not to be, and it would not be until the accession of the music-loving John, Duke of Braganza as John (João) IV in December 1640, that the throne would be reclaimed from Spain.
Join our popular tutor Rory McCleery for an exploration of this fascinating and beautiful repertoire, including plangently expressive motets and mass movements by Duarte Lobo, Manuel Cardoso and Estêvão Lopes Morago.
Music will be provided on the day
The Tutor
Rory McCleery 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.
Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short comfort break)
1.00 Lunch (bring your own as there are no facilities nearby)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 Tea break
4.00 Final session
5.00 Finish
The Venue
Emmanuel Church Centre, Forest Rd, Loughborough LE11 3NW
Free parking in the church car park further along the road (on the same side going out of the town) – separated from the church complex by a grassed area. Disabled parking is available at the church entrance.

Organiser: Philippa Bristow 07812 268246 or memfworkshops@gmail.com
Booking is now open: Book here by Friday 25th April

Thomas Morley - workshop for voices with Will Dawes and Katie Bank on 21st June 2025
2025-06-21 10:30 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
Plaine and Easie? The life and music of Thomas Morley
Following a very successful double-act on Weelkes in 2023,Will Dawes (music) and Dr Katie Bank (historical background and context) return to present a workshop on Thomas Morley.
Thomas Morley was more than a composer and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He was a businessman, a mover and a shaker. He propagated trends that altered the English musical landscape and had the expertise and competence to bring major projects to fruition, even politically sensitive ones. As a musician, Morley had a range unlike most of his contemporaries. Though he is mostly known today for his Italian-style madrigals and fa-las, he also wrote evocative Latin polyphony and experimented in a variety of musical idioms.
The music will include secular and sacred music by Morley in up to 7 parts, with texts in Latin, English and Italian. We will be singing Agnus Dei, I follow, lo, the footing, De profundis, Phyllis, I fain would die now, Laboravi, Nolo mortem, It was a lover and his lass and Now is the month of Maying (but not as you know it…)

Katie Bank is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Birmingham. She has written and edited books and articles on English recreational music, William Byrd, Music in the Chapel Royal and musical-visual culture in Renaissance England. She was creator of ByrdCentral.com, a collaborative educational initiative between academics, teachers, and musicians that celebrated the quatercentenary of Byrd’s death, 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.
The Organiser is Marion Thompson, 07436 540608
Booking is now open – book here by 13th June

A Musical Banquet - Schein's Banchetto Musicale - with Alison Kinder on 19th July 2025
2025-07-19 10:30 - 17:00 | Knowle Village Hall, St John’s Close, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0NN, United Kingdom
In this workshop for instruments we will cover three of the instrumental suites from Johann Hermann Schein’s Banchetto Musicale of 1617. It is suitable for recorders, strings, brass and reeds at pitch A=440. One keyboard continuo player would also be welcome. The workshop begins at 10.30 with refreshments from 10.00

The Composer Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630) was Thomaskantor in Leipzig from 1615 to 1630, the post later held by J S Bach. He was one of the first composers to import the early Italian stylistic innovations into German music. Unlike his friend Heinrich Schütz, he did not live a long or happy life. His wife died in childbirth; four of his five children died in infancy; he died in Leipzig at age 44, having suffered from tuberculosis, gout, scurvy, and a kidney disorder.
Schein wrote sacred and secular music in approximately equal quantities, mainly vocal; however, today he is perhaps best known for his collection of instrumental suites called Banchetto Musicale (Musical Banquet), published in 1617. The twenty suites each share the same format: Padouana, Gagliarda, and Courente, all in five parts, followed by an Allemande and Tripla in four parts.
Schein does not specify the instrumentation, and although he does say in the preface that he prefers to have viols included, the style hints at early violin writing, and is also reminiscent of the wind music of people like Bassano. Schein also says that in his next published work he will begin providing a written part for a keyboard, so it might be appropriate to use continuo in the Banchetto Musicale.

The Tutor Alison Kinder is a viol player with Chelys Consort of Viols and the Linarol Consort. She particularly enjoys working with viols and voices, and is the viol player in the female polyphonic group Musica Secreta, directed by Laurie Stras who ran a workshop for MEMF last year. Alison also enjoys a close exploration of the connection between music and dance with lutenist Lynda Sayce and two baroque dancers in Apollo’s Revels. More recently Alison has been playing with Sounds Historical, presenting innovative programmes around the Midlands, and is a co-founder of Banbury Early Music Festival. Alison runs the Rondo Viol Academy with colleague Jacqui Robertson-Wade, and regularly leads Forum workshops as well as teaching on various Early Music courses and summer schools. Occasionally she is allowed out of the viol playing department and onto recorders and baroque violin!

The Venue is Knowle Village Hall, St. John’s Close, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0NH
https://knowlevillagehall.co.uk/
Parking is pretty good around the village hall, as it is surrounded on three sides by public car parks owned by the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and at the front of the building on the forecourt we can usually park four/five cars. The first two hours in the public car parks are free but for longer stays a fee is charged.
The 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.
The Organiser is Jane Warren please contact her by text if you need to, on 07472 793531
Booking is now open please book here by 10th July.

A celebration of Andrea Gabrieli with Philip Thorby on 27th September 2025 + AGM
2025-09-27 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
The music
This workshop to mark the 540th anniversary of the death of Andrea Gabrieli will explore some of his 12-part works and, depending on forces, his 16-part Gloria. We welcome singers and the following instruments: cornetts, sackbuts, recorders. curtals. all strings and continuo. A=440
Instrumentalists please note that there will not be C-clefs for all the pieces, and continuo players will be working from scores or figured bass parts.
Music will be provided on the day
There will be a short AGM at lunchtime.

Andrea Gabrieli
Marking the 540th anniversary of the death of Andrea Gabrieli, pupil of Orlandus Lassus and Maestro di Cappella of St Marks in Venice. Andrea was much more than just the uncle of Giovanni! Even in his large-scale works, Andrea’s music has an intimacy and subtlety which reflect his great teacher, Lassus.
We will explore some of Andrea’s twelve-part works, including the psalm setting Benedicam Dominum and Magnificat and the masterly hymn to music Cantiam di Dio, and (if the forces are suitable) his immense, four-choir, sixteen-part Gloria.

Philip Thorby is a regular and popular tutor and we are delighted to welcome him back again – he is well known as one of the country’s leading performers and teachers in the field of Renaissance and Baroque music. He founded and directed the ensemble “Musica Antiqua of London” which was at the forefront of research-based performance of renaissance music, a passion he is now exploring further with professional and amateur musicians in many different contexts, including courses held each year in Venice and elsewhere.
He is Emeritus Fellow in Early Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London.
Philip is particularly well known to MEMF members, having delivered many inspiring workshops. His series of 4 lectures on Venice in the early 1500s present a fascinating view of the city – with the lives of composers Ganassi and Willaert intertwined with notable names of the day. These lectures were delivered during the pandemic and can be found on our website. https://memf.org.uk/home/philip-thorby-lectures/
Timetable for the day
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session (with a short comfort break)
1.00 Short AGM followed by lunch (bring your own or use local pubs and cafes)
2.00 Afternoon session
3.30 approx Tea break
4.00 Final session
5.00 Finish
Venue Solihull Methodist Church, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG
Solihull Methodist Church Hall is situated close to the centre of Solihull in the West Midlands. It is right next to the town’s railway station, at the junction of Blossomfield Road and Station Approach. There is a large car park, including a number of dedicated disabled parking spaces, with the car park entrance in Station Approach. As you enter the car park the Church Hall is ahead of you – we are not in the church on the left. If using a SatNav to direct you, the postcode is B91 1LG.
NB If approaching from the west along Blossomfield Road there is no left turn into Station Approach. Either go completely around the roundabout back the way you came and turn immediately right into Station Approach, or, more easily take the first exit at the roundabout into Streetsbrook Road and then turn left into the other end of Station Approach at the traffic lights (by the Fire Station).
https://www.solihull-methodist.org.uk/where-are-we/
Neither MEMF or the venue can accept any responsibility for property lost or damaged.
Booking has now closed.

Vivaldi's Gloria with Tutor Ben England on 18th October 2025
2025-10-18 10:30 - 17:00 | Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Road, Dorridge, B93 8QA
Come and sing the choruses from Vivaldi’s momentous Gloria in D major, and learn about the fascinating history of this work – how it was lost for centuries before being rediscovered in the mid 20th century. Ben England BEM, acclaimed conductor and music educator will lead the day, with support from an array of online resources to help singers learn the parts before they come. Pitch will be A415 (Baroque pitch).
Vivaldi’s celebrated Gloria was written for the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice around 1715. It is a perennially popular work and great fun to sing and play but it is perhaps more unusual to have the chance to work on it at the pitch for which it was intended, which is also easier on the singers’ voices. This workshop will also give us a chance (in chorus or perhaps semi-chorus) to try out the lovely soprano and alto solos and duos.
We welcome applications from all voice parts.
Have a look at Ben’s preparation materials on www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIngS9V1Y4Lj-ovsbCMiW06Go1IqMsi7V
Singers, please read the following notes with care before applying.
We will be working from the Westermann score of the Gloria: https://koorpartij-oefening.nl/partituren/Partituur-Gloria-RV-589-Vivaldi.pdf
The vocal score runs to 90 pages, so it is impractical to print vocal scores for all. You are welcome to download the vocal score to a tablet or print it yourself. The correct printed score is also available readily for a small cost: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gloria-RV-589-Vocal-score/dp/1932419551
If you own a different edition of the vocal score, these are mainly compatible, except for the second movement (Et in Terra Pax). A substitute page 11 can be provided for the problems in the Ricordi edition.
Instrumentalists: The Gloria is scored for oboe, trumpet, strings (of the violin family) and continuo. Winds are not used throughout so wind players may wish to sing in the other movements if they have a vocal score (spare scores will not be available – please read above). We welcome applications from violins, violas, cellos, double bass/violone, and one or two Baroque oboes or trumpets. Up to two recorder players may be accepted if they have C instruments (descants) at A415; they will be doubling or substituting the oboe and trumpet parts. One or two keyboard continuo players (one organ and one harpsichord), theorbo and bassoon are welcome to apply. The orchestral bass part is figured.
Instrumental parts can be provided on the day or links can be sent out in advance. MEMF reserves the right to limit acceptance to preserve the orchestral balance.
Ben England is a new tutor to MEMF, but our South West colleagues were very enthusiastic about this workshop: https://swemf.org.uk/vivaldi-workshop-with-ben-england/. Ben is an award-winning conductor, educator and musical innovator based in Bristol. He has conducted choirs and orchestras across the UK and internationally and was awarded the British Empire Medal in 2020 for services to music and the community during the COVID-!9 pandemic.
Ben is the founder of Homechoir and co-founder of Choir of the Earth, two pioneering online choirs that bring high-quality choral learning to singers around the world. He is also Principal of Earth Choir Academy, a non-profit organisation dedicated to music education and digital singing resources. In recognition of his work, he received the University of Bristol Alumni Award for Community Engagement and Impact in 2022.
Ben is known for his engaging and inclusive approach to music-making, from Renaissance motets to large-scale symphonic works and in much in demand He has conducted major performances in venues such as Salzburg’s Mozarteum, the Haydn Hall at Esterhazy and St Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta, and has worked with groups such as the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Tenebrae and the Gesualdo Six. His educational music work reaches tens of thousands of singers globally.
An award-winning Advanced Skills Teacher with a long and successful teaching career, Ben has worked extensively across the education sector, including city-wide as Vocal and Instrumental Manager for the Bristol Beacon and prominent roles with the University of the West of England and St George’s Bristol on the ground-breaking Sing for Happiness initiative.
Venue Dorridge Village Hall, Grange Rd, Dorridge, Solihull B93 8QA
https://dorridgevillagehall.org.uk/
The drive to the Hall can be found on the B4101 (Grange Road), on the left hand side heading away from Dorridge village centre, just after the park. The What3Words location is ///sponge.flopping.wedding . Satnavs tend to misdirect you. Dorridge station is 0.6 miles away.
Workshop organiser is Jane Warren, janeariadnesclew@gmail.com
Booking is now open. Click here.

Consumed with Sorrow - workshop for voices with Angus Smith on 8th November
2025-11-08 10:30 - 17:00 | St Nicholas Church, Warwick
Consumed with Sorrow – Renaissance Masterpieces inspired by loss.
Whether it was the passing of a much-loved and respected individual, or a response to calamities that befell whole nations, these occasions inspired outstanding composers to write some of their finest and most exquisite music. This programme of stunning pieces – to be presented by a tutor new to us, tenor Angus Smith, founder-member of the Orlando Consort and regular contributor to many leading early music vocal groups, – follows the development of compositional styles across Burgundy, the Low Countries, Spain, Italy and England from the 1450s to the 1550s, and features Robert White’s majestic 5-part setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah.

Guillaume Dufay Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constaninopolitanae
Johannes Ockeghem Mort tu as navré
Josquin Desprez Nymphes des bois
Heinrich Isaac Quis dabit pacem populo timenti
Tordesillas Lamentations of Jeremiah (4-part)
Robert White Lamentations of Jeremiah (5-part)
Thomas Tomkins When David heard

Printed music for this workshop will be provided free of charge on the day of the event by music publisher Stainer & Bell and participants are welcome to keep them after the event subject to respecting copyright conditions. A limited number of scores will be available on request for posting out to individuals in advance. Please note: Due to time constraints, it may be that sections of some of the pieces listed will be considered rather than the complete work. However, White’s Lamentations will be sung in its entirety

Angus Smith was a choral scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, and a post-graduate singing student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He sang regularly with many leading early music ensembles, including the Taverner Consort, Tallis Scholars, the Sixteen, and the Gabrieli Consort, and is perhaps most often associated with the Orlando Consort of which he was a permanent member from its foundation in 1988 through to the group’s retirement in 2023. The Consort performed at Britain’s top festivals (including the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival), featured all across Europe (including the famous Salzburg and Lucerne Festivals), made over 30 concert tours to the USA (inc. Boston Early Music Festival and Carnegie Hall), and travelled to Singapore, Japan, Bolivia and Peru. The Consort also regularly presented workshops with local musicians and at prestigious universities, and had a distinguished recording career, releasing 39 CDs (twice earning the accolade of ‘Early Music CD of the Year’ from Gramophone Magazine).
Angus now works with the highly respected music publisher Stainer & Bell and is the Artistic Director of the Music at Paxton Chamber Music Festival in the Scottish Borders.
Venue: St Nicholas Church, Warwick. https://www.stnicholaswarwick.org.uk
St. Nicholas Church 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 £8.00. 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.
Booking is now closed.
Workshop Organiser: Jill Davies: daviesmusic@btinternet.com 07721 317030

Workshop for Voices and Instruments with Robert Hollingworth on 6th December 2025
2025-12-06 10:30 - 17:00 | Solihull Methodist Church Hall, Blosssomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1LG, United Kingdom
We welcome back Robert Hollingworth who last came to MEMF three years ago, just before his Benevoli project began with I Fagiolini. Their third and final Benevoli album of mid-17th century multi-choir masses from Rome is already recorded (released next spring) and includes a wonderfully flowing three-choir mass, Missa Angelus Domini. Based on a lost original, the mass is fast moving at times with delightful detail and reduced voices sections for the Christe and ‘Et resurrexit’. It’s for three equal choirs (SATB) but can happily take instrumental doubling on strings, recorders, cornetts/sackbuts and bass dulcians (but not double reeds generally). Come and uncover a work of quality and a real pleasure to sing and play.

Robert Hollingworth founded I Fagiolini in 1986 and has since spent much of his life thinking about how audiences receive music, instead of just how performers want to deliver it. Aside from his work with I Fagiolini, he is a conductor, broadcaster, educator, editor and festival director. Robert has conducted orchestras including the English Concert, Academy of Ancient Music, BBC Concert Orchestra, Irish Baroque Orchestra and directed some of the world’s finest chamber choirs including Accentus, NDR Chor, RIAS Kammerchor (Berlin), Netherlands Chamber Choir, National Chamber Choir of Ireland, BBC Singers, Danish National Vocal Ensemble and Capella Cracoviensis. Robert is Artistic Director for Stour Music Festival and the new ‘Fairest Isle Festival’ on the Isle of Wight.
At the University of York, Robert directs two choirs and the UK’s only MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing, now in its 13th year. He has written and presented programmes on BBC Radio 3 and more recently created over 30 episodes of the YouTube choral series SingTheScore as well as co-founding and presenting the UK’s top choral podcast series, Choral Chihuahua, with Eamonn Dougan and Nicholas Mulroy, now in its twelfth season. Both are made by Polyphonic Films (Greg Browning). Robert Hollingworth is managed worldwide by Percius.
The venue, Solihull Methodist Church Hall, is close to the centre of Solihull, easily accessible from junction 5 of the M42. It is right next to the town’s railway station, which is also served by buses, at the junction of Blossomfield Road and Station Approach. There is a large car park, including a number of dedicated disabled parking spaces, with the car park entrance in Station Approach. If using a SatNav to direct you, the postcode is B91 1LG. The Hall is a separate building to the church.
The day includes a free lunch thanks to a generous bequest from our former Treasurer, Heather Holt.
The organiser is Jonathan Spencer 07784 657563
Booking has now closed

Palestrina: Missa Tu es Petrus a 18 with David Hatcher on 17th January 2026
2026-01-17 10:30 - 17:00 | St Nicholas Church, Warwick
The Music: Palestrina’s six-voice motet Tu es Petrus, setting a text from St Matthew in which the pun of Petrus meaning both Peter and rock,was first published in his second book of motets in 1572. The same composer’s six-voice parody mass based on the motet was published by the Venetian printer Girolamo Scotto in 1601 in the Missarum Liber XII, but other parody masses based on the same motet were already known. Orazio Benevoli’s sixteen-part (4 choirs each of 4 voices) has recently been recorded by I Fagiolini and this 18-part, attributed (with some doubt) to Palestrina, is the subject of this MEMF workshop.
It is written for three six-part choirs, but combines the top and bottom parts of each choir in a number of passages to produce four-part choral textures that contrast beautifully with the full sections.
Singers and players of brass, curtals, lower shawms (tenor and below), recorders, bowed strings (viols and violin family) and plucked strings (lutes, harps) and harpsichord & organs are all welcome.

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. He began his career based in England, touring 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 9 years, taking an active part in that country’s flourishing early music scene. He has recorded with Evelyn Tubb, The Consort of Musicke, I Fagiolini, Sprezzatura, and the Japanese ensembles Chelys, Ensemble Ecclesia and the Bach Collegium of Japan.
David now lives in Leominster on the Welsh Marches and has appeared with Fretwork, The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, The Globe Theatre, The Consort of Musicke, Musica Antiqua of London, The Corelli Orchestra, The Harp Consort, Glyndebourne Opera and many other period orchestras and ensembles.
He has taught on numerous summer schools, including the Cambridge Early Music Summer School, the Easter Early Music Course at Monmouth and Sastamala Gregoriana in Finland, and is in demand as a tutor for many weekend and day courses.
Past projects include performing in Damon Albarn’s opera ‘Dr Dee’ and performing and recording with I Fagiolini in their hugely successful interpretation of Striggio’s 40-voice mass. He performed in the inaugural season of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014 and in the highly acclaimed production of The Knight of the Burning Pestle in 2014 & 2015. He is a founder member of The Linarol Consort of Viols, the UK’s only consort specialising in the earliest repertoire for that instrument.

St Nicholas Church, Warwick. https://www.stnicholaswarwick.org.uk
St. Nicholas Church 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 the 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 full day charge is £8.00. 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.
Workshop Organiser: Jonathan Spencer 07784 657563 jonathan-spencer@blueyonder.co.uk
Booking is now closed

William Byrd and his Circle with Sally Dunkley on 7th February 2026
2026-02-07 10:30 - 17:00 | Knowle Village Hall, St John’s Close, Knowle, Solihull, B93 0NN, United Kingdom
We welcome the return of Sally Dunkley, show-casing Byrd and his contemporaries. While parts of William Byrd’s large musical output are very familiar to many singers, who were his colleagues and his models? We know that he held in the highest esteem his teacher and friend Thomas Tallis. But he also worked alongside and shared techniques with his contemporaries Robert Parsons, John Sheppard and Allonso Ferrabosco. In this workshop we will explore some of these less well-known discoveries alongside some substantial pieces by Byrd – lots of wonderful music!

The Tutor – Sally Dunkley has enjoyed a long career as a professional consort singer, as a student in the Clerkes of Oxenford, then with the Sixteen from its very first concert, and the Tallis Scholars too. She started making performing editions when few were readily available; some are now published by Oxford University Press (series ‘Musica Dei donum’) and the Church Music Society. She is delighted to share her experience through workshops, summer schools and talks.
The Venue: Knowle Village Hall, St John’s Close, Knowle, B93 0NH https://knowlevillagehall.co.uk/
The Hall is 1.5 miles away from the M42 junction 5 and approximately 3.5 miles to the east of Solihull Centre. Nearby bus stops provide frequent transport links from Solihull and Dorridge stations.
Parking is pretty good around the Village Hall, as it is surrounded on three sides by public car parks owned by Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and at the front of the building on the forecourt there is room for four or five cars. The first two hours in the public car parks are free but for longer stays there is a charge.
Workshop Organiser: Marion Thompson – 07436 540608
Booking is now open – book here

Schutz: Psalmen Davids workshop with Bill Carslake on 7th March 2026
2026-03-07 10:30 - 17:00 | Coton Centre, Tamworth, Church Comberford Road, Tamworth, B79 9AA, United Kingdom
Come and celebrate one of music’s finest dramatists, Heinrich Schütz, in four of his great psalm settings in German. Whether Schütz was writing opera, oratorio or these ‘Psalmen Davids’, he prioritised character and intention, and maintained a musical pacing that was close to life. His freedom in word-setting in German and Latin and his use of everyday speech rhythms were as liberating and far-reaching as in the work of his contemporary, John Donne. His introduction of thorough-bass/’basso continuo’ created a musical double commentary – a tension between the sung text and its harmonic underlay. Yet he could be stark and ask the big, bold question. His work transcended religious and national divides, and his travels between Venice and Dresden brought the latest Italian urgency into Germany’s Lutheran church, changing it for ever. Welcome to the German Baroque! We will be ‘going big’ with Zion Spricht, and will also include the joyous Danket dem Herrenn.
Repertoire: Zion Spricht swv 46, Ich freue mich swv 122, Ich danke den Herren swv 111, Danket dem Herren swv 45

This workshop is for voices and instruments:
Continuo: Organ, Harpsichord, Theorbo/lute/chitarrone, Cello/double bass.
Winds: Cornetti, sackbuts, Bassoons, Recorders/flutes, Trumpets (great for Danket SWV 45, where Schütz incorporated the court trumpet ensemble, and for Zion Spricht swv 46, but not for the other two – so it would be good if the trumpets could sing or play something else in those pieces).
Strings: Violins, Viola, Violone

The Tutor, Bill Carslake, composes music inspired by outdoor fieldwork collaborations. He conducts widely, and he is passionate about eco sail. He has a lifelong fascination with Renaissance and Baroque choral music. His latest orchestral work, Carrownagappul (2024) was commissioned for the 25th anniversary of Imperial College Sinfonietta – inspired by fieldwork in Galway, Ireland in collaboration with photographer Tina Claffey. A Finzi Scholarship orchestral piece, Mountain Hare (2022) was premiered by Farnborough Symphony Orchestra; and the travel essay Composing with Hares features in the Finzi Trust podcast series. Bill collaborated with poet Helen Mort on The Singing Glacier (2017) inspired by their climbing expedition in East Greenland – which has featured twice on BBC Radio 4. The current fieldwork project is The Sea of Trees, a sailing voyage to the Faroe Islands to study phytoplankton and sea bird colonies. He is Co-founder of Guild of Ships Ltd – a platform for sailing ship companies that carry passengers and cargo by wind.

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 from Tamworth station, a mile and a half away, can be arranged if required – please get in touch with the organiser: Elizabeth Ashby 07892 715401
Booking extended to 24th February – click here.

Composers of the English Reformation 18th April 2026 CANCELLED
2026-04-18 10:30 - 17:00
Unfortunately we have had to cancel this workshop.

!A la Batalla! with Greg Skidmore and Sue Addison on 2nd May 2026
2026-05-02 10:30 - 17:00 | Swallowbeck Methodist Church, Lincoln
The Music for this workshop will comprise Sections from Victoria Missa Pro Victoria and Guerrero’s Missa de la Batalla Escoutez and Spanish Music reflecting battle songs. Singers and instrumentalists will rehearse separately in the morning and together in the afternoon, in preparation for a sing/play through at the end of the day.
10.00 Registration and drinks
10.30 Morning session with short break
1.15 Lunch (bring your own)
2.00 Afternoon session
4.00 (approx) Tea
4.30 Sing/playthrough
5.00 Finish
The Tutors
Born in Canada, Greg Skidmore arrived in England as an undergraduate at Royal Holloway College, University of London. After graduating with First Class Honours in Music, his post-graduate Choral Scholarship at Wells Cathedral led him to Lay Clerkships at Gloucester Cathedral and Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. He now lives in London and pursues a varied career as a consort, choral, and solo oratorio singer alongside his growing commitments as a conductor and workshop leader.
Greg is one of the UK’s leading consort and choral singers, having appeared with The Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, The Cardinall’s Musick, I Fagiolini, Tenebrae and The Gabrieli Consort
More recently he was appointed Musical Director of The Lacock Scholars and has performed throughout the UK with them, including ongoing engagements at Westminster Abbey.
He has given workshops and masterclasses in the UK, France, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia in association with The Sixteen, I Fagiolini, and on his own.
Sue Addison is recognised as one of the world’s leading exponents of historic trombones. She currently plays principal trombone with The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Academy of Ancient Music, The Sixteen and the Gabrieli Consort. Her experience ranges from being a full time member of the City of Birmingham Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, to recording for the BBC Comedy ‘The Two Ronnies’. She is a founder member of His Majestys Sagbutts & Cornetts and of The Orchestra of The Age of Enlightenment. She is currently Professor of Baroque trombone at the Royal College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire, Royal Northern College, and Trinity Laban.
Venue
Swallowbeck Methodist Church, 472 Newark Rd, Lincoln LN6 8RZ
The church has a small car park only at the front so if anyone has mobility problems let me know and I will keep a space for you.
Otherwise the dentist next door has a car park at the back of the building. Drive in and you will see the signs directing you to the car park. Parking well should allow at least 20 cars to park in there. They do have a surgery on that day so there may be people walking from the car park. There is also street parking opposite.
The railway and bus station hub is a good walk away from the venue but it is on a bus route.

Workshop Organiser is Wendy Leonard 07540 560656
Book by 18th April here
