It was a great moment in August when we gathered in St Edmund Hall, Oxford for this year’s Kammermusik Workshop after a four-year pause due to the pandemic. Our visit to Santa Fe in July/August 2019 seemed an age ago as we caught up with our friends Will and Daren, Janet and William, Keith and all the Kammermusikers who made the journey for another Oxford week.

Kammermusik is a very special organisation. The music making combines playing well-known works with a fearless approach to new and unusual repertoire which this year included the Martinu Nonet, Onslow Septet, Farrenc Nonet, Amy Beach Piano Quintet, Vincent d’Indy Septet, Holst Sextet, Copland Sextet, and Khatchaturian Trio. It was a real treat for me to work on Martinu’s La Revue de Cuisine, amongst other works.

It so enjoyed working alongside Robert Manasse, Marie Ross, Steve Stirling, Anthea Wood, Roger Coull, Jane Salmon and other coaches. Our coaches concert, put together in the small amount of time available, was huge fun – with the Linckelmann quintet arrangement of the Magic Flute Overture starting us off and followed by the Reicha E flat Quintet. Steve Stirling’s Mozart Horn Quintet was a joy to hear and Roger Coull’s direction of Colin Touchin’s Sinfonietta proved to be a moving ‘in memoriam’ for the composer.

Many thanks to Will Buss, Janet Yaker Murray, Keith Bowen and all those involved in organising this week.

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