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TROGIR MUSIC WEEK Choral singers of all ages and nationalities are warmly invited to join this week of early music leading to a public performance in Trogir, a beautiful old Venetian port on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. The course will be held in English. The general aim is to create an intense musical experience in good company and a relaxed and convivial setting. Large-scale 16th century psalm settings will be the central theme
of this week. The range of composers will include some of the Venetian composers we particularly associate with this genre, from Willaert to Monteverdi. We hope also to include music by Tomaso Cecchino, an important Croatian
composer who spent his entire working life as organist and choirmaster at the cathedrals of Split and Hvar. The final choice of pieces will be left until we have a better idea of the size and make-up of the group.
Trogir is one of the gems of the Dalmatian coast: a real Adriatic pot-pourri, with its Greek street pattern, Albanian and Slav stonework and Venetian campaniles. As the best-preserved Romanesque-Gothic complex of all central
Europe, it is now a Unesco World Heritage Site. We'll be based in the historic centre, which is on a small island. Our concert will be in the famous cathedral and our rehearsal sessions will be in the church of St Peter. The
cathedral is the tall tower on the left in the picture and St Peter's is the one just in front of it. Trogir has many small hotels, a wide range of apartments that can be rented by the week and many modestly-priced restaurants and
other eating places. Our plan will be to meet in time for supper on Sunday 16 September. Then on the following five days to do a full morning's work (say from 9.30am to 1.00pm, with a break), then take an indulgent
four-hour lunch break – to rest the voice as much as anything else – and then put in another couple of hours of singing before supper. Throughout the week we'll all eat together at different restaurants in the evening. We'll give a
public performance in the cathedral on Friday 21 September at 8.00pm. Trogir is very easy to get to: Split airport is only ten minutes away by bus or taxi. Services from Britain are Easyjet from Gatwick, Stansted and
Bristol, Wizz Air from Luton, Jet2 from Manchester and Croatia Airlines from Heathrow and Gatwick. There are also airports at Dubrovnik and Trieste, but from these places the onward journeys will need some planning. There are
ferries to Split from Venice, Ancona and Pescara and there are many that ply the Dalmatian coast. Split itself – half an hour away by bus or boat – shouldn't be missed, a bustling port that has grown up around Diocletian's Palace,
begun in AD 295 and occupied almost continuously ever since, gradually turning into the present warren of alleys, churches, catacombs, tenements and piles of rubble. You arrange your own accommodation. There is ample
choice in the historic centre itself, and we will send you a list of suggestions when you register. They are typically old houses converted fairly recently into small hotels, or into rooms that can be rented by the week
(apartmani), which can be very cheap. Croatia has its own currency, the kuna, but everyone connected to the tourist trade seems happy to accept euros. English is widely spoken. There is also a travel agency (cum information office)
that is happy to give advice on hotels or apartments: Travel Agency Portal, This is a course for experienced and confident choral singers of all ages. You should be a
good reader and be comfortable singing a line by yourself, be able to manage a short solo passage (though of course you can always decline the request), have a blending voice with full dynamic range, be used to normal choral
discipline and be able to respond quickly to direction – the aim being to combine professional pace of work with amateur enthusiasm. JanJoost van Elburg
is very experienced at working with amateur singers and the atmosphere is relaxed and informal. The music will be printed in a booklet and sent to you in good time before the course. The fee for the course covers
all the musical arrangements but not travel, meals or accommodation; is £380, paid in two parts: a deposit of £125 or a sterling cheque for £125 payable to A van der Beek online transfer of £125 to account 00703787, sort code12-11-03, or for international transfers, in the Netherlands, a transfer of €150 elsewhere in the Euro area, transfer of €150 |
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