>>Not sure if I've missed something when you first started reporting the week,
>but is it a course (and, if so, who organises/runs the Marlowe Music Week)
>or is it more a self-help or 'fun' session of like-minded musicians?
>
>David D
Marlowe Music Week started out as a group of friends going to a holiday cottage in Cornwall for a week and taking their instruments along with them to play. The holiday cottage ceased to be available some years ago, but it was decided that that was no reason not to have a week of music making, so the music making still happens, but it takes place in venues in and around Sidcup instead.
It isn't a course. It's just an opportunity to get together and make music. The main organisers are Malcolm and Sheila Youngs. Malcolm conducts The Marlowe Ensemble, who meet every Wednesday evening, and most of the people who attend Marlowe Music Week are the regulars at the Marlowe Ensemble, but there are a few extras like myself who come along and supply an instrument that isn't regularly available within The Marlowe Ensemble.
Malcolm puts together a programme of events for the week, and organises where each event will be held. In the course of the week, he books the Keston Methodist Church Hall and Hurst Place for one session each; and books the Holy Redeemer Church Hall for three sessions. The various orchestral sessions take place at these venues. Additionally, The Marlowe Ensemble joins force with Jim Kelly's orchestra at St. Andrew's Church Hall on Tuesday evening. Many people belong to both The Marlowe Ensemble and Jim Kelly's orchestra, so it makes sense to augment Jim's regulars with anyone else from Marlowe who wishes to attend.
The chamber music sessions take place in private houses. The Marlowe Ensemble are fortunate in having a couple of members who have houses large enough to be able to accommodate three separate chamber groups in non-adjoining rooms, and other chamber music sessions are spread across multiple venues. On Wednesday evening, for example, Jerry and Mary hosted a wind group, while clarinet quintets (i.e. clarinet plus string quartet) were taking place in somebody else's house.
On Thursday we all crowd into Joyce's house for "Party Pieces". She has two rooms connected by double doors which she throws open. The audience sit in the larger room, while the performers share the smaller room with the piano. Anyone who owns folding chairs brings them along so that there's enough seating!
There is also a social element to Marlowe Music Week with lunches being hosted by two or three people, and at the end of the week, a dinner is organised at a local restaurant.
Because much of Marlowe Music Week takes place in private homes and the participants live locally, it is a low cost event, with each person only needing to make a small financial contribution. It's a format which other groups would do well to consider, and not just for financial reasons: during Marlowe Music Week, we can often muster enough people to do works like the Mozart Thirteen Winds, which is generally impossible to find sufficient players for. Another piece of music which often gets done is the Spoehr Nonet, which requires a mixed wind/strings group. Trying to arrange a suitable date in that many diaries is usually an impossible task, but when the participants have blocked out a whole week in their diaries, these things suddenly become possible.
Helen
Last Revised: 9th August, 2002.