This is an archive of news articles from April 2008. Current news articles can be found here and an archive index can be found here. Information in this archive may no longer be valid.

• SATURDAY MORNING WORKSHOPS FOR YOUNG ORGANISTS
  News Item added: 28th April
  

  pipe up!

  Saturday 26th April, pipe-up! was officially launched at St. Mary's Church Dorchester. Five young organist attended the induction session with tutors Robert Fielding and Dr. Richard Godfrey. John Lock, Organist and Church Warden at St. Mary's talked to the group about the organ in St. Mary's and said: 'We welcome you to the church and hope that you will find the tuition and practice facility of help to you in the future. Our hope is that you will enjoy making music on a fine instrument and gain the enthusiasm to study it in greater depth. The Church has decided to make our facilities for organ practice and tuition available without charge in order to encourage young people to learn to play the organ and to support the Diocesan initiative which Robert Fielding has started.'

  All five participants brought music to play on the fine three-manual Peter Collins organ in the church. They all played really well and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of hearing all the different sounds this instrument can make. Robert Fielding, the project director said: 'We were thrilled to see five young musicians making themselves immediately at home on the instrument and getting the same buzz that inspires us all to play this wonderful instrument'.

  The pupils come from Weymouth College, Manor Park First School, Lytchett Minster School, Blandford School and Thomas Hardye School and range between the ages of and 9 and 18. They will now attend workshops on Saturday mornings at St. Mary's during school term time and will be taught by Robert Fielding, Richard Godfrey and David Bruce- Payne. It is planned to establish other workshops throughout the Diocese.

  For further details about the scheme, contact the Diocesan Music Adviser:
  Robert Fielding
  fieldings4@btopenworld.com
  01722 741154
  0787 944 3060
  www.churchmusictraining.com

  pipe down vb (intr.,adv.) Sl. to stop talking, making a noise, etc
  
  

• Buxton Festival
  News Item added: 28th April
  

  RECORD SALES FOR BUXTON FESTIVAL DURING PRIORITY BOOKING

  Ticket sales for Buxton Festival 2008 look set to smash last year's record thanks to a 20 per cent rise during the priority booking period.

  Between March 7 and April 3 £38,0318.10 was spent by the Friends and Patrons of Buxton Festival on tickets for this 30th anniversary year.

  The Festival's chief executive Glyn Foley said: 'We've been thrilled to see how many tickets have been sold so far - they are well above the record sales of 2007. 'We have extended the Festival by two days to keep up with demand, so it looks like we're in for a bumper year.'

  Booking will open to all, by telephone and internet, on Friday April 18.

  Andrew Bingham, Executive Councillor for Social and Community Development for High Peak Borough Council said: 'It is great news and a tremendous achievement that the Festival has increased their sales by this amount.
  'The Buxton Festival is now well known across the country and its success brings benefits to the economy for the whole of the High Peak as visitors flock to the area when this popular event takes place.
  'As attendances continue to rise, so do the benefits, and as a Council we aim to support the Festival in any way we can.
  'My congratulations go out to the Festival for this year's programme and these fantastic sales figures.'

  Last year the Festival contributed in excess of three million pounds to the local economy - with an extra two days in 2008 this figure promises to rise.

  The Festival now has 34 corporate partners including Manchester Airport Group; University of Derby, Buxton; The Old Hall Hotel; Royal Bank of Scotland; Longcliffe; Tarmac and Buxton Water.

  It also has long-standing relationships with much smaller local businesses including Buxton Violin Shop; Columbine; Simply Thai; Project X and Number 6.

  Buxton has built its reputation to become the UK's foremost festival for rarely performed opera. It now draws audiences from all over the country and overseas for works they cannot see elsewhere.

  In 2007 the Festival won the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Opera after staging a highly-acclaimed production of Donizetti's Roberto Devereux.

  Competitors included Opera North's hotly-tipped Peter Grimes and the Classical Opera Company's Marriage of Figaro.

  To mark its 30th anniversary the Festival is producing three of its own opera for the first time. And not a moment too soon - two nights of opera sold out before telephone and internet booking opened.

  The morning literary series introduced by Roy Hattersley during his chairmanship has added another popular string to the Festival's bow. This year 19 of the greatest minds in politics, journalism and literature will present their work to festival audiences - Menzies Campbell, Joanne Harris, Lynne Truss, Douglas Hurd and General Sir Mike Jackson, to name but a few.

  The Festival's eclectic range of concerts and recitals has also been expanded for 2008, with a new world music series to be enjoyed in an informal atmosphere later in the evening. Sitar players from India, drummers from Japan and a lively Cuban band complete with dancers feature in this exciting new line-up.

  Box Office: 0845 1272190
  Online sales: www.buxtonfestival.co.uk