Parkside, Burnthill Lane, Rugeley, Staffordshire WS15 2HX
Tel: +44(0)1889 801929
Mob: +44(0)7866 770360

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

NEWSLETTER No.8

Dear Friends

We are now starting to look forward at last to some fresh courses which start from scratch rather than with hangover bookings from the pre-pandemic year. All good news! Mark Ewins, who designs, maintains and updates our terrific website, is giving the site a completely new look which I think is fresh and contemporary-looking whilst also being clear and, ‘behind the scenes’, having all the latest technology to make the site as useful and interactive as possible. Huge thanks to him for doing this work.

ABBEY DORE 2022 will be ready for booking very soon. All the details have been finalised. I really hope that this will be a genuine celebration and that we will have a lots of old and new friends joining us for that week (17-23 July). It will include the premiere of my ECE commission Oceans of Eternal Thought from which we sang two movements in July this year which seemed to be much enjoyed. This is what the cover will look like with a wonderful image by Merlyn Chesterman called We swam into the dancing light.

It is also Vaughan Williams’s 150th anniversary and we will be singing his uplifting Toward the Unknown Region. We are making various changes which we felt worked better this year including sitting in a semi-circle facing the high altar rather than the serried ranks on the stage. Everyone can hear each other much better and there is more space. We will also be having only one Compline service (Thursday) to give Consort more preparation time for that and the Sunday Eucharist. The concert at the end will be an informal run-through with some audience. This was much more relaxed this year and we felt it better in every way.

FRANCE 2022: We will be going to Chateau Rieutort again (near Montpellier) from 20-27 April and I am in the process of hearing from everyone who booked for the 2020 week which had to be cancelled. As soon as I know how many places we can offer we will open the website up for bookings. It is always a wonderful week and we will have the great pleasure of Ken and Alison’s fabulous catering again.

ORFORD 2022: This upper voices weekend will take place on 17/18 September if regulars want to book their accommodation in advance! We had such a great weekend there two months ago and were so fortunate with the weather which also helped the Covid restrictions as we were able to have our beautifully boxed up lunches outside (as well as two delicious soups each day!).

We will be going to GREGYNOG HALL in Wales again on 8 and 9 October next year. This beautiful house in mid-Wales has a purpose-built Music Room with an outstanding acoustic which makes all our music making sound even better than ever! This is a residential weekend and accommodation at the hall is available (if idiosyncratic!). There is a major plan for refurbishment.

We are actively looking for new venues in beautiful places and will be hoping to go to the great Pearson church of St. George’s, Cullercoats in the north-east, right on the seafront between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay soon.

Please rest assured that we are only too aware that Covid is very much with us. We take really serious precautions and expect everyone to comply with the instructions laid out in e-mails prior to each course. This is for everyone’s safety and protection. There have been some serious incidents on other courses recently and we want to try to avoid anything transpiring from one of ours.

With all good wishes

PS: In case any of you can come, please do consider coming and joining my Brahms Requiem day in the Coton Centre at Tamworth on the 27th of November. It should be a wonderful day. Tickets from www.trybooking.co.uk/BFOO