North West Early Music Forum Chairman’s Report 2016/2017
1) Workshops
NWEMF has had a very successful year again, with ten Saturday workshops held since the last AGM in March 2016, one per month except for July & August (and December, but this was compensated for by two in November). The Fort Belan Viol Weekend run by Clive Tolley and which NWEMF supports also took place. I won’t go into details of all the workshops, but two deserve special mention:
– The June workshop directed by Stephen Rice was dedicated to Jim Marshall, a long-standing NWEMF member who died last year. The costs were subsidised by a bequest from Jim’s estate, and Jill Mitchell kindly gave a short speech in memoriam.
– At the November workshop directed by Morris Davies, in the Chapel of Liverpool Hope University, Morris was presented with Life Membership of NWEMF in recognition of his long service to Early Music in the NWEMF region, particularly his fifty years in charge of the Renaissance Music Group (now renamed the Liverpool Renaissance Singers) which he founded and from which he has only recently retired from conducting.
Plans for the next three workshops are well in hand: recorders with Grace Barton in April, 13C & 14C motets & Machaut Mass with Elizabeth Gutteridge in May, and, for our 40th Anniversary event, Monteverdi Vespers with Justin Doyle in June.
Subsequent provisional bookings are: Rogier with Sally Dunkley in September, Bach with Philip Duffy in October, and Russian Orthodox with Ivan Moody in November. Details of all these can be found in the current Newsletter.
2) Membership and Bookings
At last year’s AGM, the issue of non-members attending workshops but not joining NWEMF and so not getting information about future workshops was raised. To address this we have instituted a new fee structure to try and encourage people to join. Subs have been reduced to £10 p.a. so that the £5 discount on workshop fees that membership confers means that you only have to attend two workshops to recover the cost of membership. This seems to be working.
Late booking for workshops was also raised as a problem last year. It is very difficult to organise a workshop if you don’t know until the day before how many attendees there will be. Some workshops had even been on the point of being cancelled owing to apparent lack of interest. To address this we have 8 instigated a £5 incentive to book before the closing date, which is generally two weeks ahead of the workshop. This can be seen as either an early-bird discount or late booking penalty. This also seems to be working.
3) Committee changes
Gill Lowden, our long-serving Membership Secretary asked to be relieved of her duties during the year. The Committee has thanked her on behalf of all members for all her hard work over the years. Neither an invitation in the Newsletter nor personal lobbying produced any offers to take on the role of Membership Secretary so Bob Foster, already on the Committee, has agreed to taking it on Membership Secretary. John Huthnance has agreed to take on Bob’s previous duties as “compiler of the Diary of Events”, which fit quite well with John’s other duties as the Newsletter editor. Bob will continue to circulate publicity as appropriate (but not indiscriminately).
Mark Flinn also resigned from the Committee during the year, having already stepped down as Chairman the previous year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark (F) for all the work he put into running NWEMF particularly during his stint as Chairman. He is a difficult act to follow.
4) Website
David Allen is responsible for the NWEMF website and changes thereto. Note that the website includes a page for buying and selling items relating to Early Music (e.g. scores and instruments) which members can use. Any feedback on the website is welcomed by David. In David’s absence Bob Foster will provide cover. David notes that there is also a NWEMF Facebook page.
5) Thanks
Finally, I would like thank all the Members of the Committee for all their work on your behalf during the year and also for helping me get through my first year as Chairman. They have all been a pleasure to work with and NWEMF is lucky to have such a team.
Chair Mark Bertinat
AGM held on 18 March 2017
Report published in the April 2017 Newsletter
