Counting down to the 2016 Festival

All entries in - one or two more checks to run.  

The process now well under way to layout the schedule.  The team are working hard.  We are on draft 2 already.  Only a couple more iterations to run before we can publish.  Hold your hats on.

If you are excited join in the twitter using #HCFMSD

An Event Not To Miss

Our 2015 Concerto Class winner, Maria Marshall, will be performing Elgar's Cello Concerto with the Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra, on Saturday 13th February, at St Mark's Church on Leeds Road, Harrogate.

The concert starts at 19:30 with Elgar's attractive Dream Children suite and ends with Brahms' magnificent 2nd Symphony.

Tickets cost £10 and will be available at the door and on-line at  
http://www.harrogatephilharmonicorchestra.org.uk/tickets.htm and from Castlegate Books, Knaresborough and P & C (Pomp and Circumstance) on Skipton Road, Harrogate. Please telephone 01423 545188 if further information is required.

ADC

The current state of play

Entries for this year's Festival finally closed on 10 January and, as in previous years, there was a last-minute rush. With over 1,000 entries, slightly more than half of which are in the various music classes, we should see over 3,000 people "on the stage" over the course of the three Festival weekends. There will be over 120 hours of adjudication. The final programme is now being devised.

Our new Virtuoso Class, for the Elizabeth Hopkins Trophy, in which performers must play two different pieces each one on a different instrument from different disciplines, has attracted a good entry. This is a really exciting addition to the Festival programme.

The classes for choirs of all ages and numbers have attracted a large entry this year.  It is a real opportunity for people to perform with their friends and fellow pupils and is a constant (usually large) audience pleaser, so it is excellent to see it being so popular.

On the Speech front, Verse Speaking appears to be very popular this year, especially with our younger performers, so let's hope they are all assiduously practising now! The Reading classes are also well subscribed and, as a "practitioner", I am especially looking forward to the talk on Vegetarianism to be given by one performer!

Finally there will be no short of Drama  at this year's Festival, with several of the acting classes looking very popular.

                                     AND THERE WILL BE UKULELES!!!!

Coming up to the Entry Closing Date

The closing date for paper entries was last Saturday. Just 6 more days to the on-line entry closing date (10th January).

The volunteers are winding up their computers and polishing their printers, ready to process the entries and work out how they can possibly create a Program schedule to fit them all in over those three glorious weekends, starting on 26th February.

We currently have just over 150 entries and we are expecting at least another 1400, so, many more to come. Don't miss out; get your entry in today by going to our dedicated on-line system.

It is very good to see that, so far, we have competitors from far and wide, including Rugby, Durham, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Not quite international yet, but we are getting there!!

ADC

BBC Ten Pieces Champions

The British and International Federation of Festivals, to which we are affiliated, has announced that it has been accepted by the BBC as one of their BBC Ten Pieces Champions, operating at a national level from September 2015.

In 2014/15 over half of UK Primary Schools took part in the Ten Pieces initiative and in a previous blog post we recorded the excellent concert held in Ripon Cathedral. The scheme has been so successful that BBC Learning has decided to extend it to include UK Secondary schools in 2015/16. As a BBC Ten Pieces Champion the Federation will be able to encourage schools to perform their work at its festivals.

It remains to be seen how this will affect our festival but it is an interesting development in the performing arts field.


EVENTS DIARY LISTING

The 2016 Festival dates are now listed in The North Yorkshire Music & Arts Events Diary which can also be found via the St Cecilia Orchestra website. When the entry system closes (10 January 2016 for the on-line system and 1 January 2016 for paper entries) and the Program is finalised, more information will be added to these listings. They are an excellent way to find out what is happening  in our local area.

ADC

Regional Championships

Following the earlier item about the Regional Championships, we are very happy to learn that HCFMSD winner cellist Maria Marshall has been successful there this afternoon, winning the Music section. Excellent news. Well done Maria.

ADC

2016 Festival Syllabus

The Syllabus for the 2016 Festival is now available on-line at http://hcfmsd.com/Syllabus.html. This will be the 80th consecutive staging of the festival - a real milestone!

The Syllabus contains the details of over 200 classes including a new Virtuoso Class for which the Elizabeth Hopkins Trophy will be awarded for the first time. This class will require performers to play two different pieces on different instruments from different disciplines, with the first piece being at Grade 8 or above standard and the second at Grade 6 or above.

Otherwise and as usual the Syllabus covers  the whole gamut of the performing arts, with opportunities for the very young and those not so young to have a go. We had over 3000 performances this year and we hope to emulate that in 2016.

Entries can be made both on paper and on-line from early October and the details can be found at the above link under "Entry forms". Don't forget that paper entries must be in by 2 January 2016 with those made on-line having until 15 January to be submitted.

The Festival is all about the performers so if you know someone who might be interested encourage them to enter.

On a different topic we have been informed that Jamie Locke will unfortunately be unable to perform at the Regional Championships now, due to unforeseen circumstances.

ADC