For whom The music Week programme and daily schedule

Where With whom Register now

For whom

Singers

• 
  duet
  You are a good sight reader or able to study parts independently.
• You are experienced with ensembles for early music in small ensembles (quartet, quintet).
• You have a trained voice suitable for ensemble and solo singing.
• You are interested in historic performances, tuning systems and ornamentation.

Tonny Visser: 'I like the luxury of having passionate musicians around all the time. There is no need to tire yourself trying to plan dates. You just start playing or singing. For me, La Pellegrina has become the perfect basis for a rich musical life!'

Instrumentalists

The maximum instrumental group size is 20. For instruments we need baroque strings (also viola da gamba), recorder/traverso, baroque oboe and bassoon, baroque trumpet and trombone, harpsichord, organ, theorbo. Conditions for participation:

• You are used to playing 'early' instruments. Modern string players please play on gut strings and with a Baroque bow. It is possible to borrow Baroque bows through La Pellegrina. Winds: pitch 415 Hz.
• You are experienced in playing in small ensembles.

Lea Schuiling: 'Playing in the right style is an important aspect of this course. Those tutors know what they are doing, and it shows.'

Jan Sollewijn Gelpke: 'There aren't a lot of courses for early wind instruments. For me as a brass player, this course is just what I need.'

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The music

Central in this course stands the music of the Imperial Court of Vienna in the early 18^th century. That court worked like a magnet on musical talent. Many Italians found there the occasion for developing their talents. The musical centre Venice in particular donated many gifted musicians, like Antonio Caldara (1670 - 1736). But aso many well-educted Bohemian musicians like František Tůma (1704 – 1774) found a need for their work there. Spider in the web was Johann Joseph Fux (1660 - 1741), composer, theoretician and music pedagogue. He is famous for his Gradus ad Parnassum, the enormously influential standard work about the polyphony of Palestrina. But he himself was a talented and productive composer of delicate sacred music too.

The mornings are devoted to small ensembles. Every participant will join two different ensembles alternating per day. Half of the time the ensembles receive intensive coaching by the tutors; the other halve they work on their own. The ensembles present themselves in a concert. Participants will be informed of their ensemble formations well in advance in order to prepare their parts at home. The course is open to individual participants as well as existing ensembles. There will be time for occasional combinations and musical get-togethers. It is possible to play or sing in any formation from trios onwards, in vocal, instrumental or combined formations.

Part of the afternoon will be used for works in which all participants can participate. Sacred music which sounded at the Viennese court will form the programme. An example: the Stabat Mater by Caldara for soloists, choir and an ensemble consisting of strings, trombones and basso continuo. Instrumental music will sound too, like the Sinfonia in B flat by Fux for a baroque orchestra with oboes and bassoon. This programme will be performed in a public concert in the monastery church in Bechyně

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Week programme and daily schedule

Week programme

• Thursday 12 August about 18.00 arrival in Bechyně
• First rehearsal on Thursday evening
• Monday evening: tutors' concert in the refectory
• Tuesday afternoon: off
• Friday evening: participants' chamber music concert
• Saturday evening: 21 August final concert at at the monastery church
• Sunday morning: departure after breakfast

Daily Schedule

• 8.00 breakfast
• 9.30-12.30 rehearsals in small ensembles
• 13.00 lunch
• 14.30 group rehearsals for tutti works
• 15.45 tea break
• 16.15 tutti rehearsal at the monastery church
• 17.30 drinks & dinner
• Evening off, enough time for playing more chamber music

Petra Jager: 'Lots of people continue to play until long after dinner. I love to wander through the halls of the monastery in the evenings and hear their music behind all those doors.'

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With whom

The tutors of this course are passionate specialists in their musical fields: Dirkjan Horringa, Joanna Huszcza and Marco Vitale.

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Register now

In order to register, please fill out this form and pay a deposit of EUR 150 (which is of course refundable in case you could not be placed).

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