From the replies on the concert board I found the Benslow Trust weekends - can anyone list any other short residential courses that'd suit an adult learner (specifically I'm interested in Piano, but if you know of singing/strings/woodwind etc I'm sure folk'd be interested too).

Yes, I'd be extremely interested to hear of singing workshops in the South East. KatyJay mentioned British Choirs on the Net, but haven't had the chance to go investigating yet.



Amber
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I haven't been to any, but you could have a look at the Jackdaws courses, here.

They seem to run a good variety, and give an indication of the level of each course. They are based at Frome in Somerset.

I love going on music courses, and would go on even more of them if I had the spare time and money!

My regular ones are firstly the Easter Early Music Course at Ascot (a week-long one, this year taking place after Easter - usually it's before), for recorder and viol players, in which we DON'T just play early music, but anything we want to, really - though in front of certain of the tutors we wouldn't play modern stuff. It's a REALLY good course! And I get to play my clarinet with a string trio/quartet in our free time!
Then there's the recorder consort weekend at Belstead House in Suffolk in July - and a group of us now go there for a regular weekend in January too, as a do-it-ourselves recorder consort - brilliant fun! In mid/late-July I go away for a week on the Clarinet Summer School. And I've booked to go to Benslow for the first time this October for a Wind Chamber Music weekend.

Looking forward to them all - they're my reward for working hard during term-time!

There are some Flutewise courses that are specifically for adults of all abilities. If you email Liz, the organiser of Flutewise I am sure she'll be able to tell you more. There are lots of great opportunities (e.g playing with James Galway and at Alton Towers), but you also get to make lots of new friends

They have a course at Easter, if anyone is interested.

Hi Fen
I'm going to my first Benslow weekend in a few weeks time. The course is run by Timothy Barratt and called Classical Period Piano. It consists of performance workshops on interpretation and technique and discussion sessions on repertoire and style. We are asked to prepare a couple of pieces from the period. I'm really looking forward to it.
They are running a "learn to enjoy sight-reading on the piano" course June 17 - 19 for intermediate to advance pianists if anyone is interested.

Thanks Margaret,
I've had a look through the Benslow site, looks like a couple of them would be fun to do.

I'm sure that TB was one of the examiners for one of my Dip exams - name just seems familiar...

Thanks everyone for the number of responses so far!

I recommend John Huw Davies,* particularly for voice training, but also for the opportunity to work with accompanist David Elwin, a superb pianist and a fine musician, whose ideas on interpretation you would find valuable (if he is JHW's accompanist on the course you choose: you might wish to check that).

* This page has a link to this year's courses, including both full weeks and weekends.

I'll see you at the Classical Period piano at Benslow, Margaret. Timothy Barrett is an absolutely brilliant tutor and it will be great fun. He's doing another (midweek) course at the end of May on Impressionist/Modern period for advanced pianists, if anyone is interested.

Suepea
Oh, that's really great to know. How will we recognise each other? I would PM you to describe myself but that's not possible at the moment. Sounds like we have quite a lot in common. I am a piano teacher. I also started cello about 2 years ago and took my grade 4 back in the Summer although haven't practiced for ages because of having to write an enormous dissertation.I taught recorders to 40 primary school children for about 8 years and one last co-incidence I took the CTABRSM course in 1997!! I have met Timothy Barratt at local festivals and he seemed really nice. I am looking forward to the course and am preparing a Mozart sonata and a couple of Schubert songs. What are you doing? We could always try some duets if you are interested....

Some interesting similarities in our backgrounds, Margaret! We get name badges at Benslow, and mine's not too difficult to work out from my log-in nickname.

I'm preparing Clementi Sonatina no 6 and a couple of Beethoven Bagatelles, including Op126 no 4 if I have the courage to do it (I won't play it on the first night, though!)

Yes, I'd be happy to join you with a duet. The only Clasical period ones I have are Mozart KV19d and the Diabeli Sonatinas on 5 notes. Do you have either or both of those?

Hi,

I was just wondering if any of you have done any of the violin courses at Benslow? I've been thinking about doing one for the last couple of years but haven't got round to it yet.

Hi

I did a quartet course, but we went as a quartet and were coached on the music we had been working on. Have not done any of the other strings courses.

Jane

QUOTE (violinist @ Mar 4 2005, 05:47 PM)

I was just wondering if any of you have done any of the violin courses at Benslow? I've been thinking about doing one for the last couple of years but haven't got round to it yet.

I've done the 'Elementary Strings' one (playing the Viola). It was good fun (though I was amazed at how tiring it was playing for so long!). I was slightly disappointed that there weren't any other people under 40 there, but I suppose the age mix is different for each course. Benslow has a good range of courses to choose from.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any good string quartet courses?

There's something odd going on with this thread, as I can't get the most recent message to display. This was the last one that displayed so that I could reply, but when I hit Reply the recent one showed up below the reply window in the usual way. Weird!

K503 wrote on Nov.15:

Benslow (Hitchin) does quartet courses for players at various standards. Have a look. I run an adult learners' orchestra and four grade 2-4-ish players are going to Benslow for quartets very soon. I think they have all been to and enjoyed previous string courses there. PM or email me if you would like to get in touch with them for first-hand info. You didn't say what approximate standard you are.

I'm thinking of going on one of the Benslow courses towards the end of next year.
I don't have holdays as such so a few days of intensive music making and coaching would be a holiday for me.

My teacher runs weekend piano courses at her house in Bedfordshire (only about 4 miles from Benslow). She has various courses for different standards from beginners to diploma & beyond. She also teaches at some of the Benslow courses. Other distinguished teachers sometimes join her in teaching piano & dealing with performance nerves (for any instrument).