2025
October: We have just announced the three early summer courses in 2026 and hope you will be tempted to join us. The first two are our annual pilgrimage to that idyllic former monastery on the Adriatic, Monteconero. One title encapsulates both repertoires: ‘After Josquin . . . before Monteverdi’. We begin with a week for invited […]
2024
August: This newsletter brings you news that our three summer 2025 courses are now published at www.lacock.org, though bear in mind that Lucy and I are shortly off to Trogir and won’t be able to respond to any applications for over a week. Lacock courses are generally fully subscribed but the odd free place appears […]
2023
September: I am writing to let you know that details of five new 2024 courses have just been published on the web site www.lacock.org. The first is in March (3rd to 8th), a continuation of our Andalusian pilgrimage with Gabriel Díaz, this time to the city of Granada. The repertoire will be based on the […]
2022
October: We end 2022 with a sigh of relief. At last we were able to run the programme of courses planned back in 2019, but not always at the times of our choosing, as we juggled the new availabilities of venues and directors, nor with the singers that originally signed up for them, though we […]
2021
April: These newsletters have become rather irregular for obvious reasons. Not much has happened though everything changed. A summer of isolation and relative inactivity had its appealing facets; a long winter with no music-making, no festivities and a much-curtailed social life was harder to bear. But work has gone on, and as in our case […]
2020
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 […]
2019
September: Our main summer school next year will be in Edinburgh in the middle of July. The young conductor, singer and musicologist Rory McCleery will direct a programme of music found in Scottish 16th century sources, including Robert Carver’s 19-part O bone Jesu. Rory is someone we had been wanting to meet for some time, […]
2018
September: All three of us are not long back from another memorable summer school – this time with Justin Doyle – in the excellent town of Ludlow. Each time we make more helpful contacts with the townspeople. The mayor came to the final concert to receive the Proclamation that alto Ruth Bamberger had brought with […]
2017
September: For a long time we have been looking for venue that could match Monteconero for its splendid situation, beautiful surroundings, a place where a group can stay together for a week cut off from the outside world and wallow in music. Now we have found one: Castello di Gargonza, a fortified mediaeval village surrounded […]
2016
June: These newsletters seem to be getting longer. We send them to you because you have been to, or expressed interest in a Lacock course. If, having tasted the waters of the Pierian spring, you have decided to exercise your talents in other directions and would rather not be on the list, simply send a […]