Liberation International Music Festival 2013
8th-12th May 2013
Another remarkable line up of international musicians assembled for the Liberation International Music Festival. During this year’s festival the educational activities fell into three different areas:
Firstly, short student compositions based on Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale were performed to open the concert at the Noirmont Command Bunker on Friday 10th May at 1pm, based on the ‘March’ and ‘Dance du Diable’ movements. The student’s compositions were performed by clarinettist Michael Collins, violinist Boris Brovtsyn, and pianist Michael McHale. This provided a fun and dramatic start to a memorable concert of music and poetry.
Later that day at 4.30pm a short session of masterclasses took place for clarinet, cello and piano, in which local students received on-stage tuition from the visiting soloists:
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On the Saturday a large-scale flute project coordinated by Claire Boleat involved seventy eight young flautists in a day of workshop activities led by Philippa Davies, culminating in a massed flute choir performance:
The day ended with a chance for all the students to meet Sir James Galway and watch the final rehearsals of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra:
Our thanks go to Music In Action for involving the visiting team of musicians in these incredibly worthwhile education activities.
Coutances Music Service Residency
25th-27th April 2013
Thanks to a contact initiated by the St Ouen’s Twinning Association, the academy ran a project with a group of young wind players from the Ecole de Musique de Coutances, the region’s music service, led by their Director Philip Arnaud.
During their stay the trio firstly performed at Georgetown Methodist Church to celebrate the church’s 150th concert. Playing alongside Jersey soprano Gabriella Cassidy, the audience enjoyed a wonderful varied evening of music.
The following morning the trio performed a schools concert at Les Landes Primary School, taking it in turns to demonstrate their instruments, leading towards a trio performance of a set of variations by Beethoven on ‘La Ci Darem La Mano’.
During their visit, the students also joined forces with local young musicians to create a large ensemble to rehearse a traditional Klezmer song entitled ‘Bulgar from Odessa’. All the students then performed at St. George’s Church on Friday 26th April to bring the tour to a close, and in this concert a variety of flute ensemble works led by Claire Boleat complemented a variety of cello ensemble works led by Emmanuelle Dumas, and various performances from the visiting students. The concert was enjoyed by a packed church and culminated in the combined groups performing the Klezmer finale together.
Our thanks go to the St Ouen’s Twinning Association for enabling this link to be established, and the Jersey Arts Trust for their support. Dates are already in the diary for the return leg of the exchange to take place in 2014, in which a group of young Jersey musicians will travel to Coutances to perform and work with their young musicians.
Article in Quest France newspaper, 2nd May 2013:
Grand Hotel Musical Brunch
Sunday 24th March 2013, JAM
The concert series linked with Grand Jersey continued with performances from four students in the hotel’s Park Suites. The concert included a variety of pieces including Burgmuller’s Ballade, Chopin’s Mazurka in A minor, and Kabalevsky’s Sonatina no.1 for solo piano, and two contrasting works for trombone. All students and parents then enjoyed lunch together in Victoria’s Restaurant. The next concert in this series will take place on June 30th, and we would like to thank Grand Jersey for continuing to provide this valuable performance platform for the students.
