Corsham Consort Workshop
 a course of one-to-a-part consort singing led by JanJoost van Elburg
Corsham, Wiltshire, 1 to 6 August 2010

The Corsham Consort Workshop is for serious amateur and student professional singers who are interested in developing their musicianship in solo-voice unaccompanied vocal consorts.

Every day there will be tuition in groups of between three and eight voices, a tutti warm-up session, and group workshops on aspects of vocal technique of particular interest to the ensemble singer, covering topics such as voice production, extension of range, breaks in register, intonation, balance and blend. Some sessions will be in masterclass format, with a small group receiving tuition and the rest of the course participating as auditors. The repertoire will naturally focus on the Renaissance, the great era of unaccompanied vocal music, but will include music of other periods. There will be no more than eighteen participants, who should be confident, assured readers with experience of singing a line by themselves, have a blending voice with full dynamic range, be used to the normal disciplines of the ensemble musician and be able to respond quickly to direction.

JanJoost van Elburg studied choral conducting and singing at Rotterdam Conservatory. His association with Lacock courses goes back to 1998, when he enrolled as a student on the Casares Easter Music week in Andalusia. His outstanding gifts as a musician, vocal coach and director were immediately apparent and he has since become a regular director of Lacock courses: in England (including the celebrated 2007 performance of the Monteverdi Vespers at the Lacock Summer School), Scotland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Cyprus. Through these courses he has been much in demand in England, and has been conductor of The Reading Bach Choir, The Bartholomew Consort of Oxford and The Renaissance Singers of London.

Corsham is an attractive small town in the south Cotswolds, deriving its mediaeval wealth from the wool trade, and later, the quarrying of Bath Stone. Corsham Court, an Elizabethan stately home is well worth visiting for its impressive picture collection including a Betrayal of Christ by Van Dyke and an Annunciation by Fillippo Lippi, Chippendale furniture, Adam decorations and a park landscaped by Capability Brown. The Corsham Consort workshop will be held in the town's new Arts Centre in Pound Pill.

Admission to the Corsham Consort Workshop is by application. Please read carefully the criteria given in the first paragraph above. With the application you are asked to give brief details of your singing experience. If you are not already known to Lacock courses or to JanJoost van Elburg, you are also asked to appoint a referee – who may be, for instance, the conductor of a group you have sung with, or a singing teacher – whom we may approach for an independent assessment of your suitability for the course. We will aim to let you know if we can offer you a place on the course within three weeks of receiving your application.

The course begins with supper on Sunday 1 August and ends in the evening of Friday 6 August 2010. The daily schedule will vary, but expect to start with a tutti warm-up session, and to have scheduled classes all morning and in the late afternoon with JanJoost van Elburg as a peripatetic tutor, and less structured music-making in the early afternoon. You will be assigned to different groups each day, and music will be provided from the Lacock library of performing vocal scores, which holds over 1,600 separate titles. Each day a light lunch will be provided and is included in the fee, and also a supper on the Sunday on which we meet and the final Friday.

Corsham has a range of places to stay: bed and breakfast houses in the town or surrounding countryside, pubs, comfortable hotels if you don't mind a short drive, and the spare rooms of local supporters of the course. We can send you a list when you have accepted a place, or book accommodation for you according to your preference. Expect to pay around £25 per night with friends of the course, and from £30 upwards for guest houses. The nearest railway stations are Chippenham and Bradford-on-Avon (crassly, the hyphens are necessary if you are dealing with it on the internet); National Express coaches from London Victoria and Heathrow stop on the edge of the town, making Heathrow as convenient an airport as Bristol.

The fee for the course is £425. This includes all tuition, music, the lunches and the two suppers, but not travel or accommodation. On acceptance, we will ask you to confirm your place with a non-returnable deposit of £100, with the balance due six weeks before the start of the course. To apply, please email us the following information:

  • your name
  • address
  • telephone number(s)
  • preferred email address
  • voice (soprano – mean/mezzo – alto – tenor – baritone – bass)
  • brief details of your singing experience
  • if not already known to JanJoost van Elburg or to Lacock courses, the email address and telephone number of a referee – who may be, for instance, the conductor of a group you have sung with, or a singing teacher – whom we may ask for an independent assessment of your suitability for the course. Please check that they are happy to do this first.
  • Any other relevant information.

    • Please email if you need any more information.