February: When writing my prospectuses I am aware that I should be addressing the uninitiated as well as the old lags; I always try to give some indication of what it’s all about and what you should expect to get out of coming to a music course. A phrase I have fallen back on more than once is ‘an intense musical experience’, which seem to sum it up for me, so I have been very pleased to notice that several bloggards have recorded their impressions of Lacock weeks. The first was the Israeli music journalist Pamela Hickman, who has been to course in Spain and Italy. She has published lengthy interviews with Carlos Aransay, Patrick Craig, Guy Morley – one of the professional sackbut players who have accompanied courses in Avila and Leon in recent years – and (if you’re really interested) me. Her blog can be found at http://pamelahickmansblog.blogspot.co.uk/. Then there is Val Pedlar, who has started a blog entitled Choral Singing in Southport, which by a masterstroke of variable geography, now stretches as far as Monteconero: http://www.goodlistening.com.br/?m=201209. Finally, for an idea of what the Monteconero looks like from Brazil, Martin Hester’s blog Good Listening at http://choralsinging.wordpress.com. Martin came all the way from Rio for last year’s course, which is impressive enough. On the subject of Brazil, there may be a Lacock course there in a year or two. I’m sending Carlos Aransay there on a recce in April.