St Albans - Adult Learners' Musical Afternoon

[b]Date: [/b] Saturday 2 October 2010.

Venue: St Stephen’s Church Hall, 14 Watling Street, St. Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 2PX.

Travel:

1. Train from Euston to Watford Junction, then Abbey Flyer train from Watford Junction to St Albans Abbey. The service from Watford to St Albans runs about every 50 to 60 minutes, so if you are using this route I suggest you check times and connections. St Albans Abbey station is about a five minute walk from the venue.

http://www.londonmidland.com/your-journey/timetables/

click on 'Watford - St Albans' to find the timetable, which is in .pdf format.


2. St Pancras International to St Albans City (Thameslink). First Capital Connect run regular trains, but the station is about 1 mile from the venue, so we will arrange to pick you up from here if you send a PM to David Mackay or me. Please note that all Thameslink trains will start and finish at St Pancras on 16 January.

http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/Main....nt=HomeBusiness


Time: 1pm to 5pm. If numbers increase, the event may start slightly earlier or finish later.

Performances: There is a Steinway grand piano at the venue, and people are welcome to bring other instruments. Each person has a maximum of 5 minutes. If you wish to do a duet, two people can add their time together to make 10 minutes.

Open to: Anyone aged 18 or over – you do not need to be a forum member.


Cost: £6.50 per person. The aim is to cover the costs of the day, but any surplus money remaining will be donated to a local charity.

Refreshments: The cost includes light refreshments (tea and coffee). You may wish to bring a packed lunch to eat during the rehearsal and networking time. David Mackay will be organising a post-event meal.

Attendees: All attendees will be performing or accompanying. No spectators.

Rehearsal time: There will be some rehearsal and networking time at the beginning of the event. This will allow time for people accompanying on the piano to have a full run-through. People playing solos will have time to warm up by playing a few scales, but there mayl not be time for soloists to go through their whole performance. There is a separate room available for rehearsal for people playing instruments other than the piano.

How to confirm your place: Many of you have already expressed a general interest. In order to confirm your place, you will need to complete a very short form, and make payment via PayPal. Everyone attending in any capacity will need to complete the form, even non-forum members

In order to confirm your place, please send me a PM including your e-mail address and I will send you the booking form.

Pm fired off

Now will I be playing Piano, Recorder... or something else?

Just planning my musical outings for the next few months and this looks ideal - will PM you for a form.

For any of you travelling long distance by train to this event, the cheap rail fares are now online to/from St. Albans.

Hi everyone

I'm finalising the booking for this event, and it looks as though there may be a few more people than originally planned. In order to confirm the time we will need the hall for, can anyone who has expressed an interest but not yet returned the form please do so. I have sent e-mails to those people I have e-mail addresses for, and have PMd others to provide an e-mail address if you are still planning to attend. This will enable me to send you the very simple form that you'll need to complete to confirm attendance.

The other important aspect is sorting out accompanists - so if you need one, or want to volunteer to be one, please indicate this on the form. I'll do my best to make sure that as many people as possible who want to do this have an opportunity. To facilitate this, anyone who wants to be accompanied will need to decide what music they are playing, and make this available in the near future.

Because it is the holiday season and people may be away, I've not set a deadline for this, but would appreciate your earliest possible response.

Anne

Hello everyone

I had a computer glitch over the weekend, and have lost all my e-mails. Fortunately, I had made a list of those people who have completed their booking by filling in the form and making payment via PayPal.

This is the list of people I have:

Mini-mo
davidmackay
Katyjay
controller76
margaret
muffinmonster
vicky violin
lee
me

Many more of you expressed interest - please can you confirm whether or not you'r attending, by completing the form and PayPal instructions. PM me (or e-mail me if you already have my e-mail address) and I will send you details if you don't already have them.

If you think you have paid and I've left you off the list above, please let me know.

I need to finalise the booking by Monday next week (6th September) so I need your final decision before then. Also, if you want to be accompanied, please can you let me have the music asap so I can match you with someone appropriate. The deadline for this is Friday this week, 3rd September.

Anne

I have the form, I have filled it in, I just need to tell my husband that I'm busy that afternoon I will get form and payment to you tomorrow, I promise

I have now finalised the hall booking. The numbers went up, and then went down again, but we now have the following people attending:

andante in c
mini mo
maizie
katyjay
davidmackay
controller76
margaret
muffinmonster
vicky violin
lee
me

The booking has been confirmed for 2pm to 5pm. David will be organising a meal afterwards, and will post nearer the time about this.

From 2pm to 3.30 will be rehearsal (with priority given to those who are accompanying). I have also booked the other smaller room for non-pianists to rehearse from 2pm to 3.30.


We'll be performing from 3.30 to 5pm. I will do a running order to send out nearer the time.

Look forward to seeing you all there, and I'll see some of you at Letchworth tomorrow.

Anne

Thanks for this, Anne. Looking forward to it (and practising hard!).

I'll be sending out the running order for this soon.

Also, I would appreciate it if anyone would care to volunteer to help out with organising refreshments and booking the meal afterwards. Any volunteers? Please send me a PM.

Anne

I've e-mailed the running order to you all. I hope you received it OK. If not, please let me know.

Anne

Muffinmonster has kindly agreed to help organise refreshments and the meal afterwards. Some of you have already let me know about your availability for the meal, and I have passed this to muffinmonster.

Can the rest of you let either of us know, so muffinmonster can make a booking. The meal will be at the King Harry pub, just down the road from the venue.

Those coming so far are:

Mini_mo
Lee
OctaviaPiano
Muffinmonster


Anne

Unfortunately I cannot attend meal afterwards.
But I am really looking forward to seeing (and hearing) everyone.

Regards, Peter.

Sorry but I can't stay for the meal afterwards

Lois

I'm not able to stay either this time, I'm afraid.

I'm another one who won't be able to stay for the meal.

Thanks to all who have replied about the meal. If you haven't can you let me know as soon as possible? I'd like to book the table today or tomorrow.

mm

Hope it all goes well today!

Seconded!

thirded have a great day

Fourthed! Have a good day everyone.

Back home.

A great afternoon with some great performances.

It was good to meet everyone.

Thanks to Octaviapiano for organising

Lois

...and all that from me too.

...and from me three

A great afternoon - so inspiring to see so much enthusiasm and musical ambition! Thanks to Octavia_piano - looking forward to the next one.

Hi all,

A smashing afternoon with great performances.

It was good to meet and hear everyone.

And how good it was to see and hear The Viol, really interesting and sounded super.

Many thanks to Octaviapiano for organising.

Hope to see you all at other forum events soon.

Regards, Peter.

I really enjoyed the afternoon - thanks to Muffinmonster for organising the meal, and muffinmonster and maizie for organising refreshments.

Great to see and hear the bass viol - I had not been aware of this instrument before. it was also fantastic to hear everyone's performances, which were very inspiriing and made me realise I must practise more. Hope to see you all at future events.

Anne

I shall just add to the 'Thank you's for organising it, I enjoyed it.

I know you said you wouldn't be coming to Teddington just yet, Octavia, but the good thing about Teddington is that you can just come along for a day out as a supportive audience member - if you fancy a fun musical day out without the few minutes of abject terror

Hi everyone,

I had a great day on Saturday - my first event so thanks for making me feel so welcome. Really enjoyed all the performances and looking forward to seeing you all next time.

Vicky

The next one will be around March or April next year. I'll start making arrangements after Christmas.

Anne

Thanks for a great day Anne.