I am really looking forward to this years York Wind Chamber Music, my fourth year as a tutor on this highly enjoyable course. It will run from Saturday 2 August to Friday 8 with a play-through concert that evening in the Sir Jack Lyons Hall at York University. The days are action packed with non-stop music running into each evening, but the week is a great social gathering too with good food and time for a drink at the end of the day in the pub in Heslington or the university bar.

It will be great to see colleagues again – Patricia Moynihan, David Campbell, Bob Ashworth, Naomi Atherton, Simon de Souza, Stephen Reay and our Course Director, Richard Ingham. Paul Feehan will be our resident pianist for the week and it will be good to work with our perennial strings, Eric Clark, Alison Major, Ruth Addison, David Brereton and Thomas Rushton. The chance for everyone to play works for wind and strings as well as the huge range of wind chamber works available is an amazing factor in the week.

I am thinking about the oboists for the week – ten in all this year – and the oboe ensemble and double reed ensemble possibilities. Thinking back to my days with the National Theatre’s Double Reed Ensemble, I wonder about Dominic Muldowney’s Four From Arcady as a challenge for our oboists.

For anyone who has not been before, this is a course to look out for in future years. It tends to get booked up very early, so it’s advisable to make contact early to be sure of a place. Suzie Palmer, Course Director extraordinary, is the person to contact.

Richard Ingham, Course Director, York Wind Chamber Music

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