Booking Open for 2023-24 Season
We are very excited to welcome you to Jackdaws 2023-24 Season, whether you’ve visited us before or have only just discovered us. Our weekend courses are known for their high-quality content with a welcoming atmosphere and delicious home-cooked meals, all set against a backdrop of beautiful rural Great Elm in the Vallis Vale area of outstanding natural beauty.
Moving forward with the new season…
Following on from the last few years of uncertainty and difficulty we are happy to say there are currently no requirements for any Covid mitigation in place, we will of course review this if the Government guidance changes.
It has been clear however that keeping the number a little smaller on solo study courses was popular with both participants and course leaders, so we have maintained this on most of this type of course. Ensemble and some instrumental courses where the players form small ensembles have different capacity according to the aims of the course and the course leaders preference.
This leads to an intensive and personalised experience and we are thrilled with the feedback that we have had from courses in the past season.
“I’ve never seen such a huge improvement in such a short time, not just in my performance but also in my confidence.”
“I had two major breakthroughs and came home from the course inspired and well-motivated to do lots of practise”
“I am grateful for having had such a wonderful opportunity”
“I’m coming back for more!”
“I can’t imagine there could be a more supportive and encouraging environment for learning”
“I look forward to coming to Jackdaws again soon – beautiful and inspiring location, excellent food and very friendly people!”
“Set in wonderful grounds, the facilities were great.”
“Jackdaws is a truly special place.”
“This was the best course I’ve been on by a long way”
Remember: your booking is not guaranteed until you have paid your deposit. The easiest way to do this is to pay online via PayPal – no need for an account, simply check out as a Guest.
Let’s take a look at some of the seasons highlights:
Singers are spoiled for choice with several great new courses to try out this season including: Music Theatre Weekend with Paul Knight, Singing with Style and Confidence with Adrian Thompson, The Singer and The Song with Veronica Veysey- Campbell and John Flinders, Breathing Life into Text with Owain Browne, and Art Songs from the African Diaspora with Michael Harper.
Alongside many of our wonderful regular courses featuring a wide selection of repertoire, technical and language-based approaches there is song for all to sing.
There are many new piano courses to try out this year. Stephen Marquiss is back to help release the pianist within and new themes from James Lisney – Romantics, and Julian Jacobson – Let’s get Classical, will no doubt be popular.
And we have an incredibly exciting completely NEW course and course leader – Multiple Pianists, Multiple Hands and Multiple Pianos – An Extravagant Piano Extravaganza with Anthony Williams which promises playing in ensembles for pianists of all levels.
We have an immensely exciting new ensemble course for Viol players led by two of the wonderful members of Fretwork, Joanna Levine and Jon Rees coming to Jackdaws for the first time.
And we are delighted that Madeleine Mitchell is coming back to lead the violin weekend after quite a long break.
Our beloved Guitar Ensemble Weekend led by the Eden Stell Duo returns to its larger capacity which means an exciting orchestral time for guitarists, and at the other end of the year new courses lead Sophie Rivlin brings new energy to Strings and Things.
And don’t forget The Klezmer weekend for our string players to get involved in which was absolutely fabulous last year.
Our Wind courses encompass dedicated weekends for Recorders, Clarinets, Oboes and Bassoons with opportunities to play solo and in ensembles. Be sure to take a look at our Ensemble Courses for other opportunities to play in groups.
We are very excited to be offering a new ensemble course for Viols: Viol Consorts with members of Fretwork.
And the return of the Klezmer weekend which was a massive hit last year welcomes players of all instruments to join in the experience of playing this incredible community music of celebration.
One of the busiest weekend of our Ensemble calendar is undoubtedly the Chamber Music Weekend, led by Stephen Gutman. We are also delighted that William Lyons and Richard Thomas give extra opportunities to make music as an ensemble by running two weekends of their early music ensemble weekend The City Musick (February & September 2024).
Along with the ever popular Stylish Baroque, there are some wonderful opportunities for making music with others.