Corsham Consort Workshop 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, coverings 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. Participants should be
confident, assured readers with experience of singing a line by themselves, have straight, blending voices with full dynamic range, be used to the normal disciplines of the ensemble musician and be able to respond quickly to
direction. 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, Adams decorations and a park landscaped by Capability Brown. The Corsham Consort workshop will be held in the 12th and 15th century church and other nearby venues. Admission
to the Corsham Consort Workshop is by application. Please read carefully the criteria given in the 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 a mid-afternoon session on Sunday 24
August 2008 and ends in the evening of Friday 29 August 2008. 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 and (if you can take it) evening. 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 supper and a light lunch will be provided and is included in the fee. 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 £20 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 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 at the
start of the course. To apply, please Please
a course of one-to-a-part consort singing led by JanJoost van Elburg
Corsham, Wiltshire, 24 to 29 August 2008