2MF Young Musicians Platform Competition - Second Round

The Two Moors Festival can now announce the winners for this year's Young Musicians Platform Competition. After much deliberation, as the standard was exceptionally high, the four young musicians playing in the 2011 Festival will be Polly Bartlett (recorder), Molly Lopresti-Richards (marimba), Oliver Kelham (tenor) and Ruth Harrison (flute).

2MF mascot - Schubert the Sheep

The Young Musicians Platform Winners lunchtime concert will be on 21st October in Ashburton.

Please remember that tickets are not on sale until July/August.

To request a brochure click here.

Two Moors Quartet Residency

The Two Moors Festival Residencies were set up in order to give busy professional musicians the opportunity to rehearse undisturbed in peace and quiet. The Residencies offer the perfect environment in which to work towards an important concert, a recording or on the formation of a new chamber group. Musicians can make use of the lovely acoustics in the gallery at Barkham and enjoy the idyllic surrounding countryside as inspiration. They are also given food, wine and accommodation in return for a concert at the end of the rehearsal period. This year’s series is a collaboration between wind and strings, which over the course of the next six months will evolve into a performance of the chamber version of Mahler’s Fourth Symphony during the October Two Moors Festival.

Two Moors Quartet rehearsing

The 2011 Residencies went off with a bang with the Two Moors Quartet (led by Alan Uren) who arrived in Devon last week for an intensive five days of rehearsals. The four musicians were utterly spoilt with the incredible weather and spent their time alternating between rehearsing in the Gallery and walking in the countryside around Exmoor. On Friday evening, the quartet gave the most moving and intimate performance of music by Haydn, Beethoven and Smetana, which left the audience spellbound.

(From Left-Right) Yusuke Kinoshita, Ben Birtle, Kay Stephen and Alan Uren

The second residency takes place in the beginning of August with the concert on 12th August at Barkham. The Two Moors Piano and Wind Quintet will delight audiences with Mozart, Poulenc and Françaix. For tickets, email: adie.exmoor@btinternet.com

2MF Young Musicians Platform Competition - First Round

Last weekend, the the Two Moors Festival hosted the first round of its annual Young Musicians Platform competition. There were four judges on the panel, 2MF Artistic Director Penny Adie, ex-BBC 3 presenter Stephanie Hughes, pianist Suling King and oboist Caroline Adie. On top of these four was a jovial bunch of loyal Festival supporters who listened attentively over the two days of auditions.


Two Moors Festival judges

The 2MF Young Musicians Platform Competition is rather unusual. Bearing in mind that most musicians of any age and standard dread competitions, the Festival has considered what might be most constructive for keen instrumentalists and singers aged 18 and under. In normal circumstances, we force ourselves to slog our guts out in front of an unsmiling panel of terrifying judges, and having poured our hearts into Beethoven or Rachmaninoff, we receive polite silence for our endeavours. Therefore it must have come as a pleasant surprise to the youngsters travelling from across the South West to take part in the 2MF Platform Competition, that they received a hearty applause at the end of each piece. This is not to mention the slab of chocolate also rewarded to everyone for braving the competition platform so eagerly.

The standard for the first round of auditions was high and we look forward to hearing those who made it through to the second round perform in May.

 

For more information or to apply for next year's competition click here.

Snapshots of 2MF 2010



2MF concertgoers



Without a shadow of a doubt, this year's Two Moors Festival was a resounding success! A sensational gathering of incredible musicians with a few Festival firsts rolled in as well. Artistic Director, Penny Adie, included poetry reading before each concert to highlight links between art and nature. We also had our first ever musical discussion in Woods Restaurant, Dulverton, headed by Festival Trustee Des Belam, titled: "Why is modern music so tuneless?" It is not often that members of the public can come together with complete strangers and discuss such a controversial, yet relevent, topic. It was such a hit that one couple are now considering setting up a regular get-together in their area in order to explore other important musical subjects.



Greig Canning



Other memorable events included the walk up Dunkery Beacon accompanied by bagpipe player Greig Canning, accordionist Ksenija Sidorova stunned the audience with her virtuoso playing, not to mention the incredible performance of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf which involved two schools (Chagford and North Molton) acting out the parts of ducks, cats, wolves and hunters. Of course, even with these wonderful concerts, we cannot forget the beautiful surroundings a lovely churches where events take place - the Festival would not be the same without them.

I can't wait to see what's in store for 2011!



St Pancras' Church, Widecombe-in-the-Moor





A rather moorish Festival

It is hard to imagine that the 2010 Two Moors Festival is about to get under way. The year has flown by with remarkable rapidity, with the excitement building since the brochure came out four months ago. We have an absolute feast to look forward to beginning with our opening Choral Concert in Exeter Cathedral this Thursday (30th September). For Beethoven fans (I count myself one) this concert is going to satisfy your taste buds as the programme is his Choral Fantasy and Ninth Symphony. What a way to kick start the Festival's tenth year anniversary celebrations!

Other Festival highlights include: the New London Chamber ensemble in Dulverton on 3rd October, the sensational Aronowitz Ensemble performing Brahms and Dvorak in Ashburton on the 5th October, an interesting introduction into the world of the Alphorn (6th October/Widecombe-in-the-Moor), not to mention Agata Szymczewska - an incredible up and coming violinist - who is coming to Milverton on the 9th October to knock our socks off with Wieniawski and Brahms.

There are 29 events over the ten days and I really don't know how I'm going to resist any of them!

Here's to a successful 2010 Two Moors Festival!

Exhausted Festival Car



It is always on a day when one is driving to catch a train that the bottom of a car will decide to fall off. Last week Heather Uren and I dashed off to direct a school workshop in Chagford for the Peter and the Wolf Family Concert in Wellington on 1st October. It was on our return to drop me off at Tiverton Parkway for the 16.16 train to London Paddington, that the exhaust fell off Heather's car. Inevitably it did so in the middle of a country lane (somewhere outside Killerton) with no one nearby to help two stranded damsels in distress. Not through any stereotypical lack of knowledge of cars, Heather and I were unable to reattach the exhaust and had to phone for help! (It is a rare feat indeed that we had signal - this part of the country is notoriously remote.) We were happily towed to Cullompton, where a spare part was fortunately found and two hours later we were free to drive away - unfortuately missing the train by a large margin.

The car appears safe and sound which is certainly a relief considering the vast area that it will be forced to drive with the Festival looming.

Two Moors Festival August Residency

Last week the Two Moors Quartet descended upon Barkham, Devon for a Two Moors Festival Residency. The group, comprising musicians from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and busy free lancers, made the journey into the heart of Exmoor for five days of rehearsals culminating in a magnificent concert.

The Two Moors Festival Residencies offer an unique opportunity of working undisturbed for those musicians who find organising time and rehearsal space difficult. Residents are given room and board, use of the stunning acoustics in the Gallery at Barkham, freedom to work with a magnificent Bosendorfer piano and strikingly inspirational scenery to explore. In exchange, the musicians who attend a residency are only expected to offer a concert in return.

Two Moors Quartet rehearsing

(Further to their residency, the Two Moors Quartet is also performing in this year's Festival. On the 7th October, they are taking part in a Church Crawl, playing in North Molton and Luccombe Churches with a programme of Delius, Schumann, Bridge and Britten.)