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.)

General booking opens - all hell breaks loose

As I sit here sipping a cup of tea in the warm cosy kitchen in Barkham (the administrative hub of the Two Moors Festival) I spare a thought for Heather Uren who is busily answering the Box Office telephone. Public booking opened today and I don't think she's had a moment to herself all morning. What with the endless booking forms to trawl through and the relentless ringing of the phone, Heather must be slowly going doolally. At least she can never say she was bored!

To see which tickets you would like to book visit http://www.thetwomoorsfestival.com/. I must warn you, concerts are going quickly!

'Music on the Moors' finds a new home

Lord Lieutenant of Devon
opening the garden

You have perhaps been wondering what has happened to the Two Moors Festival's Chelsea Flower Show Garden 'Music on the Moors'. Not to panic. The beautiful garden designed by Christina Williams (which not only won 'Best Courtyard Garden' and a Gold Medal) has happily settled into its new location at the Calvert Trust, near Exmoor. If you happen to be nostalgic for a Chelsea garden then 'Music on the Moors' is situated on a public right of way. Phew. One can't help but feel sorry for the team who had to assemble the garden back in May for the Chelsea Flower Show only to reassemble it two months later! Lucky for them it's here to stay.

'Music on the Moors' at the Calvert Trust, Exmoor

Two Moors Festival welcomes Heather Uren

Heather Uren

As our 2010 Festival Friends only booking opens we gladly welcome Heather Uren into the administrative fray. Not only an incredible cellist and singer, Heather has just received a First from Christ Church, Oxford where she read music, and she now joins the Two Moors Festival in the build up to its October concert series. Definitely jumping straight into the deep-end, Heather is not only our new Box Officer (where she battles with the countless demands and requests for tickets on a daily basis), she is also tackling the beast that is Marketing. Clearly a glutton for punishment, Heather is now in charge of a vast number of Festival brochures which must be distributed throughout the Two Moors area. Lucky Heather!

Request your own brochure to save Heather a trip.

Two Moors Festival Garden Party

Every year in the middle of nowhere in rural Exmoor, the Two Moors Festival plays host to a fundraiser weekend of ad hoc chamber music. Musicians come from far and wide in order to sightread through challenging and beautiful music in sublime surroundings. 2010 saw the first ever sunny Garden Party, which resulted in music performed not only in the gallery at Barkham (the stronghold of the Festival), but also singing in the orchard and small
chamber groups playing on the croquet lawn.

Not always conventional chamber music, amongst the eclectic mix this year was a scratch performance of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, madrigals sung outside in the sun, Zellenka trios for 2 oboes and bassoon and perhaps a highlight of the entire weekend - Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals with the extraordinary replacement of xylophone with the bass oboe.

The musicians are put through their paces as there is no time or patience for rehearsal. In fact even the idea of a run through is scoffed at by the players! The ethos behind the Garden Party is about playing for the sheer hell of it and not about audience satisfaction. Yes people can come and listen (it would not be a fundraiser without punters), but the performers have freedom to make as many mistakes as they like, play only one movement, drink a jug of Pimms whilst bashing through Brahms piano trios, or play a game of scrabble in the sun.

Relaxing after a hard day's work