Wind Quintet Workshop

The Endcliffe Orchestra organised a Wind Quintet Workshop on the weekend of 22nd to 23rd March 2003.  Five amateur wind quintets from the Sheffield area participated in the workshop that was led by all five members of the Galliard Ensemble (pictured).  The event was coordinated by members of the Peak Wind Quintet - an amateur quintet whose members are drawn from the Endcliffe Orchestra - and was motivated by:

This was the first workshop organised by the Endcliffe Orchestra and was intended to be a small-scale event to test the level of interest in providing opportunities for amateur players to learn from professional players in an informal and invigorating atmosphere.

It was hoped that, if the first event was successful, the approach can be developed in subsequent years to include a wider variety of amateur groups, e.g. string ensembles . This would then promote Sheffield as a centre for amateur music.

Programme

The programme for the weekend was as follows:

Saturday

10.00 - 10.30 Registration and introduction

10.30 - 11.30 Workshop session 1

11.30 - 11.45 Coffee

11.45 - 13.15 Masterclass with University students

13.15 - 14.00 Lunch

14.00 - 15.15 Workshop session 2

15.15 - 15.30 Tea

15.30 - 16.00 Q & A and discussion of quintet repertoire

16.00 - 17.00 Workshop session 3

Sunday

10.00 - 11.15 Workshop session 4

11.15 - 11.30 Coffee

11.30 - 12.45 Workshop session 5 (session for students runs in parallel)

12.45 - 13.45 Lunch

13.45 - 15.45 Informal concert at Broomhill Methodist Church

15.45 - 16.00 Conclusion

Repertoire

The repertoire for the masterclass was:

• ARNOLD Three Shanties
• IBERT Three Pieces for Wind Quintet

On Sunday the Galliard Ensemble performed:

• DANZI Quintet in Bb
• BERIO Opus No. Zoo
• PATTERSON Comedy for Wind

The five amateur quintets prepared the following pieces:

Caccia:

• Gounod Petite Symphonie
• Mozart The Hunt
• Poulenc Novelette in C

Peak:

• Cambini Quintet No. 3 in F major
• Haydn Opus 42 in D minor
• Denes Agay Five Easy Dances

Secondo:

• Faure Dolly Suite no.1 Berceuse
• Beethoven Quintett Op 71 Rondo
• Poulenc Novelette in C
• CPE Bach Andante from six sonatas

Endcliffe:

• Cambini Quintet in Dmin
• Faure Dolly Suite nos. 1, 4, 5, 6
• Grainger No. 40 Lisbon
• Sousa The Liberty Bell

Muskoka:

• Jacob Swansea Town
• Poulenc Novelette in C
• Beethoven

Evaluation

Each participant was asked to complete an evaluation form and the results are summarised below(84% response rate).

Did the workshop meet your expectations?

• "Better than my expectations, the facilities were excellent"
• "Having never participated in such an event before I did not really know what to expect. I found the workshop to be excellent"
• "Yes -  made me play which is what I want to do more of"

Was the format appropriate?

• "It was just right"
• "Perfect"
• "Excellent - for me a little too much playing -my shoulder aches" (a flautist!)

How would you rate the tuition by the Galliard? (all 5 out of max 5 points and one 6!)

• "Very friendly and approachable and gave us excellent advice"
• "The Galliard had a lovely manner and they all had a slightly different approach to tuition which was great"
• "They are not just brilliant performers but natural teachers- well done"

How would you rate the organisation and administration?

• "Many thanks for all your efforts. It was lovely to come to something that had been thought through so fully"

Other comments

• "I had belonged to a wind quintet for several years before this event took place, but we had never had any collective tuition. It really focused our practice in the previous few months. We prepared two works which members of the Galliard Ensemble then helped us ‘fine-tune’ (!). What a privilege it was to work with professionals like them. They helped us to play together more cohesively as an ensemble. Three years on, we’re still together and have occasionally had further group sessions with expert tutors. Our musicianship is gradually improving!"

The Galliard Ensemble

Currently members of the BBC Radio 3's New Generation Artists scheme, the Galliard Ensemble has been fimly placed as one of Britain's leading chamber ensembles. Its energetic, highly entertaining and communicative performace style has wowed audiences both in britain and abroad leading to critical acclaim. Commenting on the Galliard's most recent CD for the Deux Elles label, Michael Oliver wrote in Gramophone Magazine 'pure pleasure... This, in short is wind quintet playing of great distinction... From this admirably recorded disc you also get a very good idea of how enjoyable the Galliard's public concerts must be. Strongly recommended'.

The Galliard Ensemble was founded in 1993 when its members were students at the Royal Academy of Music, and has since won many major awards including the Maisie Lewis Young Artist Award, the BBC Radio 3 Young Artists Forum, and were selected for the Park Lane Group Series and Fresh Series at the Purcell Room. They play regularly in many of Britain's perstigious venues such as Wigmore hall, South Bank Centre and Bridgewater Hall.

The Galliard Ensemble makes appearances at festivals throughout Europe, having performed at the BBC Proms, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Bath, Brighton and Harrogate festivals, as well as the Mafra Festival for the British Council, the Castello Branco and Porto Festivals in Portugal.

The Galliard Ensemble has a strong interest in contemporary composition. In addittion to working with Paul Patterson, Gyorgy Ligeti, Richard Rodney Bennett, they have also worked with Sir Harrison Birtwistle on his quintet 'Five Distances' for their performance at the 1999 BBC Proms.

The Galliard Ensemble is committed to bringing music to a wider audience and has undertaken educational concerts with Live Music Now! and has enjoyed performing many school concerts, family concerts, workshops and demonstrations. The group's repertoirespans a wide range from Mozart and Beethoven to Berio and Schoenberg. Having now recorded several commercial CDs, the group has attracted much critical acclaim. Their recording of Sir Harison Birtwistle's chamber music for winds was selected by the Sunday Times, BBC Music Magazine, Gramophone, and BBC Radio 3 in their critics choices of outstanding releases in 2001.