Over 50 volunteers attended the annual pre-Festival coffee
morning at Harrogate Ladies’ College last Saturday to receive a briefing from the
Chairman, Paul Dutton, the Festival Secretary Linda Wilson ,both starring below and the mastermind
behind the volunteer rota, Maureen Greenberg, prior to the commencement of the
2016 Festival at the College on the evening of Friday 26th February.
It will then run for three successive weekends, culminating on 13th
March with the grand Final Concert featuring the final of the Young Musician of
the Festival Competition.
The Festival is entirely planned, organised and run by
volunteers. With 193 individual classes, divided into just under 50 separate
class events, the Festival will need over 200 volunteering sessions by over 70
volunteers to mount and run those. They will manage 12 different adjudicators
who will spend a total of 209 hours judging performances by 2692 performers in up
to 5 different rooms over three weekends.
In each room there will be four volunteers, two managing the schedule,
one assisting the adjudicator and one looking after the door to ensure that
performers are not disturbed. In addition to this massive effort there will be
a team of eight on almost permanent duty, producing certificates for every
performer. Another very important group of volunteers are those people who man
the doors, braving the cold and selling tickets and programmes. Last year at
least 3,000 people attended at least a part of the Festival and they all came
past the door team.
Five Official Piano Accompanists will be on duty for the
whole Festival. They will have learned 121 pieces in preparation for their
role.
Every single performance is to be praised. Some of the
younger performers are nearly as tall as their instruments and some of the
loudest voices come from the smallest performers. Every performance is a
highlight. A new addition this year will be the Virtuoso Class for the
Elizabeth Hopkins Trophy, to be held on the first Sunday evening. Performers
well have to play two different instruments from different disciplines, the
first at grade 8 or above and the second at grade 6 or above.
The printed version of the Programme is now available to buy
at Music House on Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate.
Tickets will be available on
the door. Further information can be found on the Festival website at
www.hcfmsd.co.uk
and follow us on Twitter at News@HCFMSD
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