August: Strange times. When it became clear that it would not be possible to hold courses in the spring and summer I found the new routine – or lack of it – oddly stimulating. I set out to enjoy my involuntary sabbatical. Five months in I am really missing the sheer thrill you get from singing together in a group and the large chunk of social life that comes with it. In general our policy has been to reschedule courses a year on, and it is heartening that nearly everyone enrolled has been happy to wait the extra twelve months. We are very grateful for this loyalty, which made it possible for us to pay the directors half their fee this year, when they were originally expecting it. As most of them are freelance musicians with children and mortgages, this policy has gone down particularly well and we say a very big thank you to you all.

January: We’re very pleased to have published details of a couple more courses the coming autumn. The first is a return, after a four-year gap, to the old Venetian port of Trogir, just along from Split on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. It is one of my favourite places to go to sing: a miniature Venice with nearby swimming beaches, good food and wine, a bustling harbour and markets. Patrick Craig has come up with another stonker of a theme, the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, with settings of politically-motivated texts from both sides of the sectarian divide, by Byrd, Gibbons, Tomkins, Weelkes and others. The dates are 6 to 11 of September and all the details are on the Lacock website.