Newsletter #19 March 2017 – Strings Attached

Welcome to our nineteenth newsletter – designed to keep you informed about our activities, as well as other local chamber music events.

2016/17 COFFEE CONCERT SERIES AT ACCA COMES TO AN END

The concert on 26 February featured the young Castalian Quartet who thrilled us with the freshness and clarity of their playing. For reviews of the concert see https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk and find them under ‘Latest Posts’.

The final concert in the current series is on Sunday 19 March at 11.00 am in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA). It will be given by Trio Wanderer, a group at the other end of the spectrum from the Castalian; they are old enough to have studied under the Amadeus Quartet and have amassed more awards and recorded more CDs than imaginable. Despite the English/German sounding name, they are French. As well as Dvorak and Suk, they will play Schubert’s second piano trio in E flat. By chance, the Kungsbacka Piano Trio will play Schubert’s B flat trio two days before (17 March) at the Nicholas Yonge Society concert in Lewes (see www.nyslewes.org.uk) . So that’s two of the greatest works for piano trio played by two of Europe’s greatest Piano Trios in the same weekend. The Trio Wanderer’s programme:

Dvorak Piano Trio No.4 in E minor op. 90 (the Dumky)
Suk Elegie for piano, violin and cello op. 23
Schubert Piano Trio No. 2 in E Flat D.929

Enormously informative programme notes by Chris Darwin can be found on www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk .

PRACTICALITIES

The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA), formerly the Gardner Centre, is at the University of Sussex at Falmer. Parking is free. There are excellent public transport links:

by train from Brighton or Lewes, or
by bus: No. 25 from Hove and Brighton; or Nos 28 and 29 from Brighton or, coming the other way, from Tunbridge Wells via Uckfield and Lewes.

To find the Attenborough Centre once you reach the University consult the map on www.attenboroughcentre.com (click on “Visit us”). The nearest parking is at the Sports Centre.

Disabled Access: Do not be put off by the barrier to ACCA. Drive up to it, press the buzzer, and explain to the staff member that you need to drive up to the main entrance with a passenger who is unable to walk there. Occasionally it might be possible for a disabled driver to park immediately outside the venue. You can ask the staff member about this but, because emergency vehicles must have access to the turning circle, it might not be possible.

Ticket prices for the concert are £18.50 (concessions £16).
Tickets are available from the Brighton Dome Box Office on 01273 709709 or https://brightondome.org and from the Attenborough Centre on 01273 678822 or https://www.attenboroughcentre.com .

Tickets for those aged 8 – 25 are free as part of the Cavatina Scheme. They can only be booked by visiting or phoning either box office. The ACCA box office will be open on the morning of the concert. The young person need not be present at the time of booking. Under 14s must be accompanied by a paying adult.

THE 2017/18 COFFEE CONCERT SERIES

The dates, for your diary, are as follows:

Sunday 29 October 2017 Sunday 26 November 2017
Sunday 17 December 2017 Sunday 28 January 2018
Sunday 25 February 2018 Sunday 25 March 2018

All will be at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA). We await details of performers and programmes. For the avoidance of doubt, we’d like to make it clear that we are only at ACCA temporarily during the refurbishment of the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange. We fully expect to return there for the 2018/19 season.

THE AGM

The Annual General Meeting was held on 2 March. A new committee member, Norman Jacobs, was elected and welcomed to the meeting. Strings Attached’s future plans were discussed as follows:

The possibility of raising funds through sponsorship for extending the coffee concert season through additional concerts in September and/or April.
Exploiting the fact that the coffee concerts are temporarily being held at the Attenborough Centre on the University of Sussex campus to build strong links with the student community there in the hope that some will also attend concerts when they return to the Corn Exchange.
The need to develop our involvement with social media as a means to attract a younger audience.
There will be no annual survey of members this year as responses are becoming very predictable. Instead, more general comments about the 2016/17 season and Strings Attached in general will be sought through a newsletter.
The need to ensure that coffee concert audiences are fully aware that the move to the Attenborough Centre is temporary and to take steps to ensure that the transfer back to the Corn Exchange is as seamless as possible. * To consider further revision to the Strings Attached website to make it more attractive.

FACEBOOK

Strings Attached now has a Facebook page (@Stringsattachedchambermusic). You can reach it using the button at the bottom of this newsletter or on the Strings Attached website. There’s lots of interesting stuff there, including a sketch of how the new Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre will look from the outside. We plan to keep the page up to date with news which is likely to be of interest to Strings Attached members who are Facebook users.

MEMBERSHIP

If you haven’t renewed your membership for 2016/17, you can do so by downloading a membership form from https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk/friends . Alternatively, you can renew at the next concert. Your membership will then last until 31 July 2018. If you have renewed but haven’t received a membership card (needed for the free interval drinks) either email Christine Moon on c.e.moon@btinternet.com or collect one from the membership desk at the next concert. If you aren’t sure whether or not you have renewed, email membership@stringsattachedmusic.org.uk .

OTHER CHAMBER MUSIC EVENTS

The next concert run by the Nicholas Yonge Society in Lewes is on 17 March, featuring the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, as mentioned above. Tickets are available on https://www.nyslewes.org.uk or on the door. A pre-concert talk will be held at 6.30pm. The talk is free to students of the University of the Third Age who have signed up for the course. For the rest of us it’s £1 a time. Details of concerts at Brighton churches (St Nicholas’, St Luke’s, and the Chapel Royal) and those organised by music societies in Seaford and Steyning, and the Chichester Chamber Concerts can all be accessed via the Strings Attached chamber music calendar. Go to https://www.stringsattachedmusic.org.uk and choose ‘calendar’ from the top of the page.