Parkside, Burnthill Lane, Rugeley, Staffordshire WS15 2HX
Mob: +44(0)7866 770360

E-mail: ece@paulspicer.com
Website: https://englishchoralexperience.co.uk

NEWSLETTER No.19

Dear Friends

I thought it was time to send another news update and to encourage you to think of joining up with one or more of our lovely ECE courses.

Having thought that 2024 was the last week at Abbey Dore I decided that I missed it too much and that, even if it was going to feel a little different, it would be better to restart and enjoy not only that beautiful place (which is like a second home to me) but also the company of all of you (and others) who come and make lovely music during that week. Having thought, too, that the exhibitions would not be able to restart, Merryn has managed to make new connections so that we will indeed have a lovely visual arts element to our offering again which is wonderful.

Do please think of joining us between 19-25 July next year (26th for those in the Consort). Twenty-six have already signed up but it would be lovely to have a good full house and I think the repertoire is an exciting mix of old and new, familiar and unfamiliar names with Vaughan Williams’ beautiful Benedicite as the ‘big’ piece’. I am very happy to say that Thomas Mottershead will be joining us again as assistant conductor and expert tenor, and Mark Opstad will be back with us at the piano. So, business as usual!

Another big change next year is the return to a full SATB course at Orford in Suffolk after many years of upper voices weekends. That course is 19/20 September and the booking will be live on the website soon now. An email will let you know that it is open. Next year is the 50th anniversary of Benjamin Britten’s death. Britten, of course, was closely associated with Orford and it is where Noye’s Fludde and the Canticles were first performed. The repertoire is varied and I hope will appeal widely and includes Britten’s Gloriana Dances from the opera.

The annual weekend at St. Cross, Winchester is booked for 17 and 18 October 2026. We are so privileged to be able to use this stunningly beautiful location every year. I have decided to return to a programme which includes two of JS Bach’s thrilling motets:

Stanford’s extraordinary double choir part-song On Time was an exciting discovery for me a few years ago when I planned the first ever disc of his part-songs. This, and Holst’s truly beautiful Nunc Dimittis will make for an unforgettable weekend’s music. Again, this course will be live for booking very soon.

Before all this we have another weekend at the lovely church of St.George, Cullercoats Friday 15-Sunday 17 May, 2026. This amazing Pearson church with its wonderful acoustic is perched on the edge of the seafront with its beautiful sandy beach below. This is always a popular location just north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and we look forward to returning next year. As always, the repertoire is varied and will, I hope, appeal widely.

This, too, will be live for booking on the website very soon now. Do come and join us if you can.

I send the sad news to those who knew him that Roger Gibson, one of our regular basses from near Malpas in Cheshire (along with his wife Maire), died on 14 May from heart failure. Roger was a larger-than-life character who I first came across when I was conductor of the Chester Bach Singers right at the start of my career. He and Maire were regular attenders of Andrew van der Beek’s courses especially those in Italy. After one of those weeks I went with them on a sailing holiday which was wonderful until we encountered a storm on our way back to the mainland from the island of Elba when things became ‘hairy’ to say the least. But we weathered it and arrived encrusted with salt from the hammering waves! He was a lovely man with a great sense of humour who will be much missed. Our sympathies are, of course, with Maire.

One final thing which may be of interest to some of you: I have recently written a book about choral conducting which will be published by the Crowood Press in February next year (the same publisher as my biography of Sir Arthur Bliss). It is very different from other such books (there aren’t many about choral conducting anyway) and includes reflections on running courses like the ECE ones. I hope it is something which you may find stimulating. This is the proposed outer cover.

I hope very much to see some of you on various courses over the next twelve months.

With all good wishes