Flutewise Rules!

As promised here is a quick review of our amazing course at the Purcell School. It was our first time at this prestigious venue and we all had an amazing time. I hope I get all of this right – do correct me if I’m wrong.

32 young flute players agd from 9 to 18 were booked into this course and we arrived on Tuesday 11 August. I was the first to arrive to organise the bed rooms and set up everything. Abbie and Gareth arrived next, closely followed by the rest or the resident staff, Stephen, Sandy, Chris and Louise. After everyone arrived and we said good bye to all the parents, Louise played some warm up games for everyone to get to know each other. After this we went over the very imporant course rules plus the extra rules the school imposed before everyone looked around the building and found their bedrooms. I was delighted that everyone was happy with their room mates. It was then time to discover what the food was like – it was excellent! After dinner we did some flute choir with Stephen then scale classes in small groups. Then it was time for bed.

We were up early for an excellent cooked breakfast next morning which was followed by a warm up session, flute choir, scale classes, small ensembles and workshops on pieces course memebrs had brought along.  Patrick from Top Wind came with a huge display of instruments, music and accessories which everyone enjoyed. He very kindly gave everyone a Top Wind/Flutewise Live! T shirt. After lunch we decided it would be a good idea to make Patrick work even harder and he rehearsed and conducted a set of variations on ‘Happy Birthday’ as it was Amy’s 18th birthday. Her mum had brought along a fabulous cake.

Happy Birthday Amy

The ‘Happy Birthday’ piece had been arranged for Flutewise by Duncan Ried to celebrate the 50th birthday of James Galway. That was 20 years ago and it had been hidden in a cupboard for all that time.

Top Wind's Patrick working hard

I had something very exciting planned for the evening but unfortunately there was a big hold up on the M25 so everything was delayed. I had booked Philippe Barnes and his band to come and do a Ceilidh. When I first started Flutewise we used to hold our courses at Corsica Hall in Seaford and we always had a Ceilidh. Philippe was one of my students and so he ‘grew up’ with Flutewise and it was a great joy for me – and I also think him – to have him back at Flutewise in the role of a professional musician. While the band set up we took everyone for a walk around the school grounds. Their faces when we finaly let them into the hall was a divine moment for me and made all of the hardwork of the course worthwhile. What followed was the most brilliant evening. It ended with everyone very, very hot, tired and extremely happy – and everyone probably learnt loads.

The Ceilidh

Thursday came and I had even more excitement in store. After our usual warm up, flute choir and scales class our next guest turned up. It was Andy Findon with the most amazing selection of instruments including the ‘Ford’ advert instruments. Andy’s talk was fascinating and really desrves a big right up – Stephen, are you up for this?

Andy Findon with a Ford instrument

We played rounders in the afternoon – was it Argentinian version? I think it involved dancing a tango!

Ashlin from just Flutes came along with a great selection of flutes and music. I think one course member was very happy that she came as she chose a beautiful new flute. After this it was back to work with more ensembles and work with Chris on the piano followed by an informal concert. We enjoyed a wide range of pieces played by our very talented course members.

After dinner I encouarged the older students to encourage the younger ones to wrtie something for me for Flutewise – all I can say is ‘well done girls’. Abbie had prepared a fabulous quiz for us in the evening which kept us all busy and very happy.

So Friday arrived much too quickly and we spent the morning preparing the concert alongside polishing up the small ensemble pieces so we could play them to everyone. For the concert for parents Louise had taught us a beautiful song; Stephen had worked us hard on Zig Zag Zoo and Sandy had asked Alison, Vicki and Amy to take charge of his Celtic piece and teach it to everyone. This was very special and the girls did really well. I’ll let you know about the small ensembles later.

The concert was wonderful but it was quite sad saying good bye to everyone.