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Here and there….

By George Caird on December 10, 2014 in My News

Well, there’s been plenty of variety in the past three weeks! If you are playing, teaching, managing, planning, supporting others and staying in touch with your family, what can you expect? On 17 November I was in Rotterdam to kick off the week and returned on the 18th to attend the wonderful concert of the Schubert Ensemble at Leighton House, surrounded by the stunning exhibition currently running of Leighton and contemporaries. I was teaching my students at Birmingham Conservatoire on the 20th, back to Rotterdam on the 24th for a week which highlighted a most enjoyable Open Podium (see Post on Open Podiums) and Colin Currie’s concert in De Doelen with the Codarts Percussion Ensemble (27 November).

I had to miss the Codarts Young Talent Orchestra under Mikhail Zemtsov on 29 November but was in Rotterdam for the second Chamber Music Concert of the year on 3 December which included the Dvorak A major Piano Quintet (Natasha Morozova, Maria Bykova, Ron Ephrat, Monique Heidema, Sander Sittig) and Beethoven’s Septet with Benzion Shamir leading Ron Ephrat, Monique Heidema, Peter Leerdam, Nancy Braithwaite, Wendy Leliveld and Frans Berkhout. This was the first time that I had heard Benzion Shamir play and this made me wistful that I had never heard the Daniel String Quartet live during his many years as leader.

In between all these things, I have been involved in helping get my daughter Lizzie to all her violin playing (Birmingham Conservatoire Young Strings) and singing (CBSO Children’s Chorus) rehearsals and engagements – all very exciting.

Time this week has been taken up with planning. We are now getting clear on the Codarts season for 2015 – 2016 and I have also been communicating with Port Erin over chairing the Tertis International Viola Prize in March 2016. Performance plans are coming together for next year too.

Delia Ruhm (1925 – 2014)

By George Caird on November 26, 2014 in MUSICIANS, People

On Sunday 16 November, a large gathering of family and friends came together at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens to celebrate the life of Delia Ruhm who died in September at the age of 89. Delia was a much-admired flautist whose early career included playing for the Boyd Neel Orchestra, Chelsea Opera Group (under Colin Davis), the Scottish National and BBC Scottish orchestras and who played Principal Flute for the Orchestra da Camera for thirty years as well as in many other orchestras and ensembles in the Midlands notably the CBSO.There is a fine obituary for Delia written by her daughter Becca in the online Guardian dated 30 September 2014, detailing her early life growing up in a Jewish family in Berlin and the Netherlands and her arrival in Britain in 1939. Delia was an extraordinary person who determinedly worked towards a career as a flute player at a time when this was no easy thing to do. She was championed by her teacher Gareth Morris (Principal Flute of the Philharmonia Orchestra for many years) who, when realising that there was no deterring her from her aim, did everything he could to help her.

Apart from her performing, Delia taught the flute at the Birmingham School of Music, King Edward’s School and privately and using her great understanding of people worked as a volunteer for the Samaritans and the Children’s Hospice, Acorns. With her husband, Harlan Walker, her generous spirit flowed into her successful family and into the legendary hospitality that they offered to countless itinerant musicians as they passed through or stayed in Birmingham. In my own case, yearly visits with the Albion Ensemble for the Cannon Hill Chamber Music Weekends resulted in some stupendous meals at their house in the Hagley Road together with much laughter and joie-de-vivre. In 1993/4, when I was appointed to Birmingham Conservatoire I stayed no fewer than 70 nights in one year at the Walkers, thereby feeling a real part of their family ever since. Birmingham Conservatoire students have also stayed with Harlan and Delia and made use of their piano for practising. One of these, Pei-Chun Liao flew from Taiwan to play the piano at the celebration which also featured an expanded Albion Ensemble. Delia, you will be missed.

Association of European Conservatoires Congress in Budapest

By George Caird on November 25, 2014 in Association of European Conservatoires

It was a real pleasure to return to Budapest on 13 – 15 November for the AEC Congress. In uncommonly mild weather, the city was looking beautiful as was the newly refurbished Frans Liszt Academy. We were hosted most generously by Andrea Vigh, Beáta Furka and former President and AEC Council member, András Batta. The river trip on the Danube on our first evening was especially memorable. With the renewed EU funding for the Polifonia programme, AEC is in a strong position for the future. Congratulations to Jeremy Cox, Linda Messas and all the AEC team. Representing Codarts Rotterdam with my colleagues Wilma Franchimon, Frans Koevoets, Okke Westdorp and Linda Bloemhard, we met old friends and made some very interesting new connections too. Our plan is to increase our participation in Europe and further afield with special interests in Research, Orchestral and Chamber music connections, Pop and Jazz collaborations and, of course, Erasmus Plus exchanges to name a few. There is no doubt that AEC plays a vital role in keeping the world of conservatoires alive and developing.

Composition at Codarts Rotterdam

By George Caird on November 12, 2014 in Codarts Rotterdam

Looking back over the past thirty years of working in three conservatoires (Royal Academy of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and Codarts Rotterdam) I get much pleasure from thinking about the influence that composition and new music has had on these institutions in this time. The exceptional series of composer concerts that Paul Patterson organised for the RAM in the 1980s, featuring visits by among others Messiaen, Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Berio, Penderecki, were a window on a Composition Department that exerted (and still does!) a considerable influence on the Academy.

In Birmingham Conservatoire, Andrew Downes built up a strong and broad Composition Department that Joe Cutler has developed further into a major part of the Conservatoire’s personality. New work is constantly in evidence and the sense of open-mindedness that goes with this has a very broad influence.

And I am delighted to say that Peter Jan Wagemens leads a similarly inspired department in Rotterdam along with Paul van Brugge, Robin de Raaff, René Uijlenhoet and Hans Koolmees. Last night, I attended the first concert this season of the Akom Ensemble, under the direction of Roberto Beltran, playing works by Codarts composition students in a programme where ‘Poems from the First World War meet composers of today’. Beginning with a thoughtful talk on the First World War by Paul Schuurman and followed by a fine performance of Ives’ The Unanswered Question, the featured works set poems by John McCrae, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Alfred Lichtenstein and Wilfred Owen. A moving and beautiful event for Armistice Day in an equally beautiful venue – the Korenbeurs in Schiedam.

What is really interesting is that the Akom Ensemble is a creation of Jan Kuhr who has been a leading student composer in recent years. The ensemble contains graduates and students of Codarts with some other players too, and they provide performances through the year for the Codarts’ Composition Department. This is a really creative way of providing enough performance opportunities for composers and excellent performing experience for emerging professional players. Win, win all round.

Codarts Project Week (3 – 6 November)

By George Caird on November 3, 2014 in Codarts Rotterdam

This week is the autumn Project Week at Codarts, a time when the normal curriculum in the Bachelor is suspended to allow for other activities to be pursued. There are two Project Weeks each year and the first is generally carried out within each department, whilst the spring Project Week is managed across all departments. In Codarts Classical Music we have designed these autumn weeks to explore issues of professional development and entrepreneurship. In the past four years our themes have been:

2011 Personal development and entrepreneurship

Beginning with an inspirational address from Dame Janet Ritterman, former Director of The Royal College of Music, the week held a series of instrumental and vocal workshops that looked at opportunities for individual specialisation. General workshops on entrepreneurship and orchestral playing were also presented by Neil Wallace (Programme Director, De Doelen), Henk Swinnen (Artistic Manager, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) and other speakers. Each day began with physical warm-up exercises taken by Robert Hlatky and a choir rehearsal with Wiecher Mandemaker which resulted in a sing-through of Fauré’s Requiem.

Eroica in Lichfield

By George Caird on October 21, 2014 in Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra

A week of exciting orchestral events in Rotterdam was complemented for me on Saturday by playing in the Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra (DECO) concert in Lichfield Cathedral. Figaro Overture and a delightful performance of the Mozart Flute and Harp concerto by Lisa Nelsen and Eleanor Turner was followed by the magnificent opportunity to play Beethoven 3 under Philip Scriven’s eloquent conducting. Having played in the orchestra over the last five years with regular players (including Alex Laing leading, Kelly McCusker, Ruth Woolley, Jane Salmon and David Burndrett leading the string sections and Luan Shaw, clarinet, Keith Rubach, bassoon, Mike Revell, horn as principal winds joined on Saturday by Joanna Kirkwood on first flute) it was a most enjoyable experience to play this great work. The first oboe part was made all the easier by working with Simon Dewhurst as second oboe.

Codarts and RPhO concerts

By George Caird on October 21, 2014 in Codarts Rotterdam, Rotterdam Philharmonic Codarts Academy

The Open Rehearsal with Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting the Codarts Symphony Orchestra in the Grote Zaal was a great success yesterday, 20 October. With a good sized audience there, the session had a real sense of occasion and the orchestra really responded to Yannick’s amazing direction. He rehearsed the work for over two hours and then followed this with a play-through. This was another sign of the close working relationship between Codarts Classical Music and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Thanks to Yannick for offering his time so generously.

I attended the RPhO’s concert on Thursday night in which Yannick conducted a lovely performance the Siegfried Idyll followed by the Four Last Songs of Strauss (beautifully sung by Dorothea Röschmann) and Brahms’ Third Symphony. The concert celebrated the 40 years of principal horn playing of Martin van de Merwe who finished the evening with a touching account of the Mondschein-Musik from Strauss’ Capriccio. Martin and former principal horn Bob Stoel are our horn teachers in Codarts and are two of many RPhO members doing a great job with our students.

Friday saw the Codarts Symphony Orchestra playing to a large audience in the Grote Zaal for the lunchtime ‘snapshot’ concert in which Ineke Hellingman gave a brilliant account of the Mendelssohn D minor concerto followed by Hans Leenders’ beautifully judged Sibelius Second Symphony in preparation for the Yannick Nézet-Séguin Open Rehearsal. A large audience of at least 1000 was there to support us.

Rotterdam Philharmonic Codarts Academy (RPCA)

By George Caird on October 9, 2014 in Rotterdam Philharmonic Codarts Academy

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Codarts Academy held its auditions last week with very encouraging results. From 49 applicants in the first round, 16 were selected for the scheme in the second round auditions. A larger number have also been admitted to the general scheme which will involve group sectionals and attendance at RPhO rehearsals and concerts. The full members of the scheme will receive individual coaching and audition training as well as all the other benefits of the scheme. A further selection for the Master training, which involves working with the RPhO with a mentor from the orchestra, will be made later this autumn. The scheme will work in two periods before and after Christmas and will focus on a number of the RPhO’s concerts.

The scheme is guided by a committee from the RPhO chaired by the Leader, Igor Gruppman and assisted by Principal Second Violin, Charlotte Potgieter. The audition panel for the second round comprised Igor Gruppman, Charlotte Potgieter, Letizia Sciarone, Veronika Lenartova, Mario Rio, Remco de Vries, Julien Hervé, Hendrik-Jan Renes and myself as Codarts representative.

Codarts Chamber Music Recital

By George Caird on October 7, 2014 in Codarts Rotterdam

After a heartwarming Jubileum concert, including a performance of the Schubert Octet, to celebrate Nancy Braithwaite’s 25 years of clarinet teaching at Codarts earlier this year, Codarts Classical Music inaugurated its Chamber Concert Series last night. I was delighted to open with the Mozart Oboe Quartet playing with Natasha Morozova (violin), Ron Ephrat (viola) and Herre-Jan Stegenga (cello). Herre-Jan Stegenga with Rob Broek (piano) then followed with an eloquent account of the Brahms E minor Cello Sonata and the evening finished with the wonderful First String Sextet of Brahms played by Natasha Morozova and Svetalana Pilipenko (violins), Ron Ephrat and Floor Feleus (violas), Jeroen den Herder and Marc Maricourt (celli).

The next concert will be at 19.00 on 3 December in the 6.35 Concert Hall, Codarts, Kruisplein, Rotterdam. The programme will include the Beethoven Septet and Dvorak Piano Quintet. Entry is free.

Codarts Orchestral Concerts

By George Caird on October 7, 2014 in Codarts Rotterdam

Last week Codarts Classical Music opened its year of public concerts with two performances in the Energiehaus in Dordrecht (3 October) and the Jurianssezaal of De Doelen, Rotterdam (5 October) by the Codarts Chamber Music under the direction of Igor Gruppman. The programme featured the 15-year old Hawijch Elders in an eloquent account of the early D minor Violin Concerto of Mendelssohn, who, as was pointed out, was a year younger than Hawijch when he wrote the work. Igor Gruppmen directed the strings in the Barshai arrangement for string orchestra of Shostakovitch’s 8th String Quartet and the wind section joined for Sibelius’ Valse Triste and Beethoven’s First Symphony.

Hawijch Elders, who is in the Codarts preparatory department, was selected to play from our concerto auditions which take place each summer. During the season, a number of students will have concerto opportunities as a result of these auditions. Next week, Ineke Hellingman (piano) will appear in Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto with the Codarts Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Leenders in a lunch concert (12.30) in the Grote Zaal of De Doelen, Rotterdam and followed by Sibelius’ Second Symphony.

The Sibelius Symphony will be repeated in an Open Rehearsal to be taken by Maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin
(Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra) in the Grote Zaal of De Doelen, from 12.00 – 15.00 on Monday 20 October. Free entry and not to be missed.

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