.jpg "Performing for Hitchin 2024")
Instrumentalists and singers are invited to rehearse alongside professional musicians and to perform with them in local Hitchin care homes, sharing music and conversation with audiences no longer able to access the concert hall themselves.
ABILITY: CONFIDENT, SKILFUL
Resident: £572 Non-Resident: £435 (25% off for under 27s) Code: 26/302
Members priority booking opens at 9am on Tuesday 17 June.
General booking opens at 9am on Friday 11 July.
For details on how to become a Member to take advantage of early booking, see here.
This course runs from 5.30pm on Monday 19 January to 4.00pm on Thursday 22 January 2026.
What is the course about?
Everyone Matters, in collaboration with Benslow Music, has established a network of nursing homes in and around Hitchin that love us to visit them with live music-making. Care home residents who are too infirm to get out to a theatre or concert hall are offered an interlude of musical entertainment and a chance to chat over refreshments It's a little moment of fun that can make a big difference.
Clarinettist Margaret Archibald has been leading concerts of this kind since she was invited to set up this aspect of the London Mozart Players’ work in 1989, cellist Julia Desbruslais was one of the first members of the orchestra to embrace this work. The two have collaborated ever since and both have been recognised nationally for their advocacy of music in the wider community.
This course is open to all instrumentalists and singers. Participants are welcome to bring multiple instruments should they wish. The repertoire will be chosen to suit the line-up, and course members share with the tutors the rewarding experience of devising a programme that offers audiences the highest standard of performance that we can achieve in an intensive rehearsal process.
Tutor website: www.everyone-matters.co.uk
What will we cover?
Intensive rehearsal of a programme chosen in discussion with course participants; informal discussion of the benefits to performers and audience of concerts in care homes and day centres etc; platform experience over several concerts in a range of settings.
What will we accomplish? By the end of this course you will be able to…
Support fellow musicians in sometimes awkward situations; approach performance with a very open mind.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
Confident, Skilful. Conversation with our audiences is a very important part of each event.
How will the course be taught, and will any preparation be required?
Margaret Archibald will contact course members in advance to start the conversation as to what repertoire will be suitable for each to play or sing. The course is entirely practical, with the emphasis on gaining skills in efficient rehearsal and an outgoing performance style through taking part.
Will music be provided in advance of the course?
The tutors will provide much of the music but welcome input from course members, suggestions as to suitable pieces and offers of sets of parts.
Is there anything I need to bring?
Bring changes of smart casual clothes for the performances and take care to choose cool ones to cope with the high temperatures usually found in generously-heated nursing homes.