This year’s York Wind Chamber Music course at the University of York from 4 – 10 August proved to be another most enjoyable week. Under the guidance of Course Directors, Richard Ingham and Suzie Palmer, another remarkable group of musicians gathered to take on the sheer pace of events – a minimum of three sessions per day playing a huge selection of works, known and less-known, and culiminating in a most enjoyable play-through concert at the end of the week. The works played ranged from the Mozart Gran Partita to quartets, trios and even duos; players showed as much commitment to the smaller ensembles as to the larger ones, though the beautiful rendition of Gran Partita this year, needs a mention!

It was so good to work alongside tutors Pat Moynihan, David Campbell, Bob Ashworth, Stephen Reay and Richard Ingham and with the resident strings players, Eric Clark, Alison Major, Ruth Addison, David Brereton and Thomas Rushton who enabled the wind chamber music course to include music for wind and strings. Works included the Schubert Octet and Beethoven Septet, of course, but there were many more such as Moeran’s Fantasy Quartet and Malcolm Arnold’s Oboe Quartet. Among the larger works done were Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No 1 and Gary Carpenter’s Pantomime for wind orchestra. Pianist Andrew Black was on hand again, too, to enable ensembles to explore works for piano and winds.

For me, it was a treat to have a group of twelve oboists to work with: Sue Bulmer, Tom Burke, Alison Martin, Mark Millington, Nicola Pennill, Anne Rees, Helen Rhodes, Hans Senn, Tim Softley and Jo Watts all of who contributed considerably to the ensembles through the week. Of note was the fact that many players came with their cors anglais and it was fun to hear a sextet of cors being played in the final performance! We resolved that there should be more involvement of this instrument in future years.

This remarkable course is a real gem. Started years ago in Harrogate by Evelyn Barbirolli, it has involved many great players as tutors in the past: Roger Winfield, Gareth Morris and Thea King to name but three. It is another example of Lady B’s vision that continues to shine today.

Stephen Reay rehearses Mozart’s Gran Partita

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