Local Bocal March 2024

Dear Double Reeders, we have already had a couple of events. Good to see so many participants.

The QUIZNIC on 4th Feb was as usual a lot of fun with Josie as the Quiz Mistress and the rest of us clutching at straws. Extravagant prizes were taken home by the winning tables. An extra feature this time was a Music Jumble Sale thanks for the idea, Maarten Ryder) and we raised a good sum of money for ADRSSA to enable us to present other events during the year. Thanks to Josie and Tom Hawkes for the use of their beautiful garden and to whoever organised the weather. Download Flyer.

The FUTURE PLANNING SPECIAL MEETING was a attended by a small but interested group. Thanks to them and to those of you who couldn’t attend but sent suggestions. We have taken some ideas on board but it seems that, in general, people are content with what we provide and we shall continue. We rely on you to let us know if someone relevant is visiting Adelaide and could be incorporated into our events such as:

JANE DOWNER who is from Adelaide, studied oboe at the Conservatorium under Jiri Tancibudek and now lives in Oxford UK. Her group Austral Harmony travels widely and she is an expert on Baroque Music especially for Double Reeds. She will be in Adelaide soon and has sent a list of the concerts they will be performing here. Unfortunately, her schedule and ours do not coincide happily enough for us to present an event but it’d be wonderful if you could support her by attending a concert or two. I have attached her flyer.

TEACHERS, please encourage your students to add their names to our mailing list so they will get information about sessions we are running or events they may wish to attend. We rely on you to let us know who your students are so that they can be included in our plans. We are thinking to have more sessions devoted to technical matters of interpretation and instrument maintenance and these could be very useful. It seems the performance practice events are popular as well as the Big Blows and of course the St John’s Concert. After our next committee meeting we shall let you know the dates of the various activities we have planned.

Sadly (for us, but not him) our committee member Charles Klein has left us to go and live in Belgium. We shall miss him tremendously and hope he settles into the musical community there as well as he has here. We had a farewell party for him on Sunday 17th March that was attended by many of his Double Reed friends.

Best wishes,
Caryl, Josie, Tim, Josh.