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

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

NEWSLETTER No.15

Dear Friends

Having just returned from a very successful weekend course at the beautiful St. Cross Hospital in Winchester I thought it was time to send round a newsletter as we have three new courses which are now live and bookable on the website.

For the moment we have decided to keep the revised date order for 2024 with the Friday (lunchtime)-Sunday course at St. George’s church, Cullercoats, on the coast just north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, taking place between 10-12 May and St. Cross, Winchester on 26-27 October 2024.

The first course in 2024, though, is our last visit to Chateau Rieutort, near Montpellier in the south of France which takes place as usual just after Easter. The dates for this next year are 3-10 April, arriving for supper on the 3rd and leaving after breakfast on the 10th.

We are singing a lovely variety of music during the week including a rarely performed motet by J S Bach, music by Batten, Dering and Weelkes, then by way of Holst and Stanford to some really lovely music by contemporary composers, James MacMillan, Owain Park (of the Gesualdo Six) and the Norwegian composer, Kim André Arnesen.

Chateau Rieutort is a beautiful building (which has its own wine domaine) and there is lovely accommodation both in the chateau itself and in surrounding gites on the site. There are swimming pools and a fabulous hot tub and sauna (which might be more appropriate in April!). We will, as ever be catered for by the wonderful Ken and Alison whose meals are often quoted as the real reason that people come on the French courses! We are very fortunate to have them to cater for us. This is the last year we will be able to go to Chateau Rieutort as, sadly, the owners are selling it. We will therefore be on the lookout for somewhere else suitable, and hopefully still within reach for Ken and Alison. If anyone knows anywhere with really good and sufficient accommodation, please let me know. Here are two pictures of the group from 2023.

I decided to slightly extend the course at Cullercoats partly because of the distance for many of you. This, therefore, will run from lunchtime on Friday to late Sunday afternoon (finishing around 5.15 after the final run-through). I have chosen unusual and, I think, really interesting new repertoire for this course which will be a bit challenging, but knowing now how most of you prepare well before coming, I thought it would be music you would all enjoy getting to grips with. A section (Gloria) of Christopher Tye’s Western Wynde Mass, Howells’s beautiful, and very rarely performed motet One thing have I desired of the Lord, Ola Gjeilo’s remarkable Unicornis Captivator, A Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis adapted from two movements of Rachmaninov’s Vespers (in English) and finishing with two lovely partsongs by Gerald Finzi.

The acoustic in the church is outstanding for choral music, and its setting almost falling into the sea, gives a real holiday feeling to the weekend. Nearby Tynemouth is also lovely. Some may like to extend their time in the north and go up into Northumberland, not forgetting that Durham is also close by! An embarrassment of riches!

St George’s Church, Cullercoats

The week at Dore Abbey in the gorgeous Golden Valley of Herefordshire is where everything started for the ECE back in 2007. It remains at the heart of our operation and is like going home every time we go there. It takes place next year between 21 and 27 July (28 for those singing in the Consort). 2024 is special as we will be welcoming a new catering company to look after us as the wonderful Mary Powell has finally decided to retire (very sadly). But I am very confident that our new caterers, Sisters Catering, who are also local and will be sourcing local produce and meats, will be every bit as good. They understand how important this aspect of the course is to us and will try very hard to make sure that the transition is seamless.

I have decided to change the feel of the repertoire next time and, for the first time, not sing any Tudor anthems but start, instead, with Purcell. So, we will move from that glorious music to SS Wesley, Stanford and then forwards to more modern fare as usual. This will include the piece Thomas Mottershead so kindly wrote for Mark Opstad and me as a thank you last year. I am delighted that Thomas will be with us again, but this time as an official Assistant Conductor (paid!). He has proved his worth over the last two years and is a really excellent conductor and a lovely guy. The main work in the programme will be particularly relevant to all the terrible hostilities taking place in Ukraine and Gaza/Israel: Vaughan Williams’s great prayer for peace: Dona Nobis Pacem.

There will be the usual smaller Consort choir singing Compline on Thursday and the Sunday Eucharist.

Thomas Mottershead (Photo by Tea Smart)

Other delights at Abbey Dore – Mon Darnbrough with one of the friendly Tan House Farm pigs

All these three courses are now live for booking on the website: englishchoralexperience.co.uk.

The other dates for your diaries are the upper voices weekend at Orford in Suffolk on 14 and 15 September, always one of the happiest couple of days in that lovely part of the country. As usual we will be singing in the beautiful church which has such a lovely acoustic as well as enjoying the sea air. The final course for 2024 will be at St. Cross, Winchester on 26 and 27 October. The repertoire and details for these courses has yet to be worked out but there will be other newsletters to bring things up to date.

The ‘Last Supper’ at St. Cross last weekend!!

The best advertising is by word of mouth recommendation. If you enjoy these courses please do spread the word and encourage others to join us. It is always lovely to see our regulars, but we need to keep bringing in new singers to the fold. Do please help in this if you can. You know well the kind of singer who is likely to be both good enough and is also likely to enjoy the way I work and the kind of music we do on the different courses.

I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and I look forward to seeing many of you during the course of next year.