Greetings fellow plucker and strummers of the BGS (plus any other guitar enthusiasts, web trolls or other enthusiasts who have may have stumbled on this site by mistake whilst searching for dating sites, medical cures or social networks of pure or impure motivations- I know which one our Chair would be looking for!! :)
What you will see here is a compilation of two issues ...and it won't make a great deal of difference as the BGS activities haven't changed in that much in the last two months. In September, we were struggling with the rhythmic complexities of Levesque's Note Bene and in October we still find ourselves struggling- but perhaps not as much. Our trusty ensemble leader John Mann has done a sterling effort in preparing us for the Beckenham Festival and to be fair to him, he does his best to mask his pain when we all get excited and try to speed things up....which inevitably results in ensemble 'Note Bene' becoming ensemble 'Mr Bean'! Still it should be alright on the night.....well we live in hope!
On the other hand, we are doing much better with Peter Nuthall's Monky Business. We appear to have captured the dynamics rather well. Monky Business is a great little ensemble full of humor and fun- a bit like our meetings at the BGS!! Which may explain why it works so well- getting up to Monkey Business is something that we excel at the Bromley Guitar Society. And we may need a sense of humor after our Beckenham Festival performance.
For those of you interested, we will be arriving (in a tumbril) for our Beckenham Festival performance on the 8th of November at 6pm for a quick practice (probably in the carpark judging by the lack of practice rooms) at Marian Vian Primary School. The scheduled performance is 7pm!
Actually we have had a rather busy time of things. We now have an Executive elected to 2014-15, which mainly consists of the same old faces, plus the welcome addition of Katie Hughes and David Wheeler. We had our first exec meeting and there are some changes that we will be implementing over the next 12 months. The first change you will see will be a revamp of this blog site. Over the next few months we will move the site across to a new platform which will make the preparation and delivery of the newsletters much more streamlined with hard copy deliveries being replaced with electronic delivery.
And we are planning for another concert later on 2015....so watch this space.
At our October Meeting we had a great round of solo performances from our members. I am indebted to Tessa Protheroe for keeping track of the performance program which are listed below:
1. Two ensemble pieces Sally Gardens (Trad) and Lo yisa Goi (Hebrew Traditional) reprised again by Colin Baker, Marion Davis and Shirley Russell
2. L'encouragement (Sor) performed by Vince Chittenden and Larisa Lieberman
3. Nocturne Number 3 (John Powell) performed (or murdered!!) by your correspondent
4. Aria and Variations (Frescobaldi) performed by John Mann.
On the September evening meeting the following performances
1. Two ensemble pieces Sally Gardens (Trad) and Lo yisa Goi (Hebrew Traditional) performed again by Colin Baker, Marion Davis and Shirley Russell
2. Alpen Tanz (David Cottam) performed by Marion Davis
3. Rondoletto (N.Coste) performed by Tom Rimmer
4. Prelude N 5 (Villa Lobos) performed by John Mann
I hope the notation for the September performances are correct. If not the blame goes to the Chair!!
We have been really fortunate and encouraged by the strong turnout of members for each of the Saturday meetings despite the fact that the meetings often coincide with mealtimes and other pursuits and attractions often occurring on a Saturday night. The conviviality of the meetings are part of the reason for this...and Trevor's catering is the other reason. Trevor has been a stalwart supporter of the society for as long as your correspondent can remember. His cheerful support, rendering of Irish songs of somewhat risqué note and supply of the tea and provisions- not to mention his home made cakes and biscuits is a vital part of the success of these meetings. Trevor- we do thank you!!
See you at the next meeting in November- the Beckenham Post Mortem!! :)
Andrew
CARLOS BONELL LIVE IN CONCERT:
When: 7th November, 7.30
Where: Bolivar Hall, London
Booking info below.
The Classical Tour with Carlo's' arrangements of Shostakovitch Waltz, Tchaikovsky
Spanish Dance, Purcell Music from The Fairy Queen, + Barrios Julia Florida,
Danza Paraguaya and more.
Paper tickets available on request, in advance and at the door. £12
(discounts for booking of 10 tickets or more)
Or internet purchase at
http://www.carlosbonell.com/buytickets.html