FRIENDS OF THE CHELTENHAM MUSIC FESTIVAL
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FRIENDS OF THE CHELTENHAM MUSIC FESTIVAL
April 2018 Vol 38. No1 www.cmfs.org
CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE
The sad loss in February of Gina Wilson, a good friend of the Festival and a hard working committee member, has
cast a shadow over the bright expectations which usually come with the arrival of spring and the Music Festival
Brochure. But Gina would wish us to support and enjoy the Music Festival to the fullest extent possible, and rightly so
in a year when the Festival programme is the culmination of Meurig Bowen’s triumphant decade as its director, and
when we have the opportunity to welcome Alison Balsom as the new Artistic Director. Those of us who have already
had the privilege of meeting Alison have been delighted with the enthusiasm, liveliness and abundance of ideas that
she will be bringing to the role. In 2019, the Festival will enter its eighth decade and we can be confident that its
reputation for excellence of performance, imaginative programming, and creating opportunities for young composers
and musicians will continue to be widely admired.
This Society has an important role in helping such achievements continue. After all, our
key purpose is - ‘to promote and further the work of the Cheltenham Music Festival.’ We
achieve this through a combination of ensuring good audiences, and providing funds to
enable the Festival to continue as a platform for new compositions, young musicians and
an outstanding education programme. I am pleased to report that we have again used our
funds effectively and, as we did last year, we have enabled the Festival to gain substantial
extra funds through the annual Big Give Christmas Challenge. This was done by the
simple act of pledging in advance our financial support for the 2018 festival. Our policy,
of always holding sufficient funds in reserve to guarantee two years support to the
Festival, enabled us to make that commitment whatever the outcome of the membership renewals in January 2018.
However we can only take advantage of such future opportunities if the current members remain committed to the
Society and also persuade their music loving friends to join us.
I hope that Friends will have ideas for building our membership and fund raising capability and our Annual General
Meeting on Tuesday 10th July will be the time for such suggested actions to be expressed and discussed. Please come
along to the meeting and the preceding Friends’ lunch, details of which will be found with this Newsletter.
The AGM is also the date on which I shall come to the end of my time as your Chairman. It has been an enormous
privilege to occupy this role for the last four years and I have appreciated very much the support given to events and
other Society activities in my time. Although it is coincidental that I am stepping down at the same time as a new
Artistic Director becomes fully engaged, it is probably appropriate that the Society comes under the leadership of
someone with a younger, fresher approach, thus ensuring the CMFS continues to deliver its aims. Graham Lockwood
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Statement regarding the response of Cheltenham Music Festival Society to the coming General Data
Protection Regulation
I am sure that most Friends have become aware from May 2018 there are new regulations relating to the way
societies such as ours handles personal data. Your Committee has considered these and issues the following
statement setting out our response.
1. We will only keep personal data on current members of the society. This consists of names and
addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses (when supplied).
2. Such data will only be used to provide members with information relevant to the purposes of the
Society. This will include newsletters, notice of events and information about the running of the Society.
We shall do this on the assumption that by becoming and remaining a member of the Society you have
given your consent to receiving such membership communications.
3. When your membership is renewed, or new members are welcomed, we shall reiterate our commitment
to limit the personal data we collect from you to keep in our membership records and explain the way we
intend to use the data. If any member wishes, at any time, to see what personal data we hold about them, or
wishes to seek removal or correction of any data held in our records they may do so by contacting the
Membership Secretary, whose contact details are given in the box at the end of this newsletter..
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GINA WILSON
Many Friends will have heard the sad news that Gina Wilson died on 4 February. Over several
years Gina dedicated much of her time and considerable energies to helping the societies and
committees that enrich the cultural life of Cheltenham. Her many roles included being Chair of
the Friends of the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, a Trustee of the Holst Birthplace Trust and,
of course, being a committee member of the CMFS for almost three years. This Society and our
community owe her a great deal of gratitude. She will be much missed.
Photo: Jill Bacon
Music was important to Gina so it is most appropriate that a special Memorial Concert is being
arranged to celebrate her life. The programme will include piano music including Chopin, Scarlatti & Rachmaninoff,
and songs by Purcell, Schumann & the local composer Venables. Everyone who knew Gina will be welcome to attend
the event for which there will be no entry charge but a retiring collection to help two local charities. The concert will
be held at: PITTVILLE PUMP ROOM at 4.00 p.m. on Sunday 22 April 2018
_____________________________________________________________________
Festival People: Welcomes and Farewells
The 2017 / 18 year has seen the Cheltenham Music Festival experience a number of significant personnel changes.
As our Chairman tells us in his message, he will shortly be standing down. And as members will know by now our
Festival Director for the last ten years, Meurig Bowen, has left us to take up new challenges
in Wales. Meurig’s role as Festival Director has been divided, and will now be shared
between an Artistic Director and a Music Festival Manager. In December came the exciting
announcement that Alison Balsom OBE had been appointed as Artistic Director. Many of us
will know Alison primarily as a brilliant trumpet virtuoso, but she also has a “strong
commitment to bringing classical music to the widest possible audience and to supporting
young talent as well as a belief in the importance of good musical education” (Alison
Balsom: cheltenhamfestivals.com).
Meurig & Rachel Bowen Camilla King joined the team in June 2017 as Music Festival Manager, and will be working
together with Alison on this and future Cheltenham Music Festivals. In addition, there is a
new Head of Marketing, Samantha (Sam) Skillings who is responsible for both the Box Office and the Marketing
teams, and a number of others.
Putting the Cheltenham Music Festival together: How do they do it?
Editor’s note: Putting together an annual Music Festival at a consistently high standard is inevitably a complicated
and challenging undertaking. As a concert goer, sliding into my seat to enjoy the performances, I confess to having
had only the vaguest ideas about how it all comes together….and I thought it might interest other Friends to know a
little more about the “nuts and bolts,” the hard work - and the workers - behind the scenes who make it all possible.
For this edition of the Newsletter, I interviewed the Music Festival Manager, Camilla King. Here’s some of what I
learned, much edited for space. In subsequent Newsletters I hope to talk with other key members of the team.
The Music Festival year has a number of phases. Throughout, Camilla and the rest of the team will work closely with
the Artistic Director to help bring Alison’s concepts to fruition. As each Festival ends, the staff (after a celebratory
lunch!) begin 6 - 8 weeks of what they call “washup,” paying all the invoices, sending back unsold CDs, finishing off
all the 101 things that need doing, such as reporting to Foundations and Sponsors who supported the Festival. There is
a small team debrief almost right away, and a fuller away day debrief involving more people a couple of months later.
Even during this summer period the Artistic Director and the team will begin to programme some key events for the
next Festival, but autumn sees an intense three month flurry of activity. Camilla described programming as being like
a complicated jigsaw puzzle, where you get the edge pieces (key artists and themes) in place first, and then have to
make sure everything fits together. This involves working with each artist’s manager, balancing expenditures like
artists fees against possible ticket sales and monies that can be raised through approaches to Sponsors, Foundations,
Trusts etc.. Fundraising to support the four Festivals involves a good many staff members and, with her classical
music background, Camilla works very closely with them throughout the year, identifying projects that will be
suitable for funding and writing quite a lot of the funding applications. Fundraising knowledge is essential in all the
arts, but most especially in classical music; Camilla acquired her skills in earlier roles with a small opera company and
with charities.
Post Christmas it’s about finalising negotiations with artists and putting together the Brochure.
There can be nail-biting moments right up to the Brochure deadline about whether this or that
event has got funding, or if a date previously agreed suddenly becomes too difficult for an
artist. Camilla works very closely with the Operations co-ordinator making detailed plans for
the Box Office about each venue, so that when tickets go on sale people know if space is
needed for a sound desk, where the wheel chair seats will be, etc.. Once the Brochure is out,
work on the Programme Book begins. This year we have a music journalist who will compile
programme notes and a designer, but Camilla will “project manage” the process. There are lots
of details to be checked with artists such as rehearsal times, piano-tuning, lighting requirements
or whether a choral group will need staging.
During the Festival Camilla goes round the venues, meeting the artists and the volunteers, checking that things are
running smoothly and sorting them out if there are problems. She was full of praise for the Volunteers (and the
Volunteer co-ordinator), noting that they are all young, mostly music students, who commit to working long hours for
the duration of the Festival and occasionally have to deal with (my words here not hers! Ed.) sometimes crabby
people. They’re brilliant, she says, and we try to make sure they feel appreciated and have a good experience. And as
the Festival ends, the cycle begins again………
Camilla’s path to her present job could be said to have begun when she was a girl chorister in the Norwich Cathedral
choir. Since university she has worked in artist management, as general factotum for a small touring opera company,
Casting Administrator for the English National Opera while also running their young singers programme, and did
fundraising for a charity. She studied flute at Kings College London but choral singing remains a joy and a great stress
reliever. Which, between the job and being recently a single Mum to two small boys, one suspects she needs!
Although when asked how she coped with pressure she noted that, having worked for a number of arts organisations,
small and large, Cheltenham Festival is a fantastically supportive place to work, saying it helps that everyone is really,
really good at what they do and having great colleagues makes a huge difference.
Asked how she saw the challenges and opportunities for the future she says that Alison has some really exciting plans
for 2019 and Camilla looks forward to working with her to realise them. In other words – watch this space! More
generally, classical music everywhere faces similar challenges – how to develop new audiences while retaining
existing supporters. Friends will remember Meurig’s innovative work in this area. This is a complex subject and
conversations are ongoing about how we might build on the already excellent work done by the education team,
among others. A new person joined the team recently to work on social marketing and is already, she says, doing some
great stuff. Ed: I am most grateful to Camilla for taking time from her busy schedule to help me learn more about the inner
workings of the Music Festival and I enjoyed our conversation enormously.
Farewell to Meurig Bowen:
After ten very successful years we are sad to lose Meurig Bowen as the
Director of the Cheltenham Music Festival. Cheltenham Music Festival
members & friends wanted to convey our thanks to Meurig personally and
to wish him well for the future. So on December 1st 2017 at Chapel Arts the
Cheltenham Festival organised a party. There was wine, there were nibbles,
there was even song! The Chairman of the Music Festival, Edward Gillespie
made a speech warmly thanking Meurig for his achievements over the years.
Meurig replied, promising to stay in touch with music in Cheltenham - his
wife Rachel continues to teach locally and the family home is still here.
UPCOMING EVENTS: SOME DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Cheltenham Music Festival Society Events:
A reminder that on April 15th at 3pm in St Andrew’s Church we are hosting a Keyboard Extravaganza - a
recital of organ and piano music to celebrate spring. Followed, of course, by tea! Tickets are still available
from Jennifer Stapleton, or on the door, but it will help the catering team if you let Jennifer know that you plan
to attend.
CMFS Annual General Meeting and lunch: The AGM and Lunch will take place in the New Club on July
10th 2018. Details, nomination forms and information concerning the lunch are attached to this Newsletter.
Sunday 28th October 2018 at 3.00pm. Recital for voice and harp at Chapel Arts.
Counter tenor Patrick Craig, who sings with the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir and the Tallis Scholars, will be
performing with Frances Kelly on the Baroque harp. Further details in the next Newsletter.
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Holst Birthplace Trust : Friday 18th May, 7.30 p.m. at Christ Church Harwood Hall, Malvern Road
Cheltenham, GL50 2JH. “The Three Choirs Festival – Centuries of social change through the eyes of
performers” A talk by Alexis Paterson, Chief Executive, The Three Choirs Festival.
Ticket prices: £12 (adult) £10 (Holst Birthplace Trust member) & £5 (student/child).
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Cheltenham Opera Society:
Monday April 16th 2018 at 7.30pm. St Andrews’s Church, Montpellier Street.
10th Annual Recital of the Cheltenham Opera Society. Arias and duets by Mozart, Puccini and Verdi. Tickets
£15 which includes wine and birthday cake. Tickets from the Wilson or on the door. CMFS members are
invited to attend.
Tickets have been obtained for War and peace |(Prokofiev) by WNO in Cardiff at 3.00pm, Saturday
September 29th 2018. Earlier in September (date tbc) Simon Rees will give a talk about the opera to
Cheltenham Opera Society at St Andrew’s Church, Montpellier Street. CMFS members are welcome, free of
charge.
Tickets have been reserved for La Cenerentola (Rossini) by WNO in Birmingham at 7.15pm, Thursday 15th
November 2018 and for Un Ballo in Maschera (Verdi) by WNO in Cardiff at 3.00pm, Saturday 16th February
2019.
To get on the mailing list for opera trips send your address, phone number and e-mail address to Robert
Padgett, 14 Century Court, Montpellier Grove, Cheltenham, GL50 2XR. 01242 571 802,
robertpadgett@btinternet.com.
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Cheltenham College: To celebrate the recent refurbishment of the organ there are a series of free lunchtime
recitals in the College Chapel on the first Tuesday of every month this year except August from 1.15 – 2p.m.
On May 1st Andrew Millington, former Director of Music at Exeter cathedral, will play music by Howells &
Elgar. For details and information about later recitals contact the Music Department at 01242 265 656 or email
info@cheltenhamcollege.org, or the Visit Cheltenham website at www.visitcheltenham.com
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Cheltenham Music Festival Society Committee
(Charity No 281044)
Chairman:
Mr Graham Lockwood. Tel: 01242 524 814; chairman@cmfsoc.org.uk
Honorary Secretary:
Mrs Mary Mackenzie. Tel: 01386 710 517; secretary@cmfsoc.org.uk
Rivendell, Hill Lane, Elmley Castle, Pershore WR10 3HU
Honorary Treasurer & Membership Secretary.
Mrs Jennifer Stapleton. Tel: 01242 692 764; treasurer@cmfsoc.org.uk
Newsletter Editor:
Mrs Frances Gabriel. Tel 01242 234 766. newsletter @cmfsoc.org.uk
Committee members Ex Officio Website Manager
Mr Andrew Auster: 01242 248 873 Mr Philip Stapleton 01242 692 764
Dr Anne Dunn: 01242 580 337
Mr Norman Fyfe: 01242 526 651
Mr Alan Haylock: 01242 526 651
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