Well, what a festival! Yet again, we are so grateful for everyone who was involved in this year’s festival – there are so many volunteers and people behind the scenes that it would just not be possible to carry on without.
Of course, the standard of music this year was as exemplary as ever with so many wonderful comments from audience members.
We must rest for a few days before planning 2018 – keep an eye out for news announcing next year’s programme!
Thank you!
Build up!
I can’t be the only Artistic Director to be so consumed by the build-up to an arts event that no matter how hard you try, sleep seems to be a bit thin on the ground. Not that it matters because you can make up for it afterwards – and I certainly do in spade-loads. A bath armed with a good book is a luxury, as is sitting in front of the fire glued to Bake Off (with supper perched on knees), not to mention walking the dog and seeing one’s friends. These are all lacking currently but would one have it differently? No of course not; this is all part and parcel of what running a festival is about and particularly the Two Moors that is unlike any other in Britain.
There is a wonderful passion attached to this event. This has been present from the outset when my late husband, John and I set it up as an antidote following the devastation caused by Foot and Mouth disease. Since then it has blossomed into a national festival of which – and I am not afraid to say – he and I were (and I am) justifiably proud. It is our dedication and commitment that have manifested themselves and has spread to our audience members who come year on year showing their devotion to the type of concert that is offered to them. The Trustees have also shown their love of the organization and but for them and their sheer hard work, the festival would not be where it is today. It’s worth bearing in mind that all members of the Board are busy people who give up inordinate amounts of time to keep it afloat; who put forward ideas to make sure it continues to develop, offer opinions on whether it steers along the right course and to use their influence on broadening our horizons.
With only two weeks to go before kick-off, keeping an eye on ticket sales is very important (they are currently most encouraging) and it’s always interesting to see the surprises along the way. Some concerts that you least expect to, sell overnight while others you think are going to have a capacity audience, don’t fare well at all. Strange how the public mind works! Inevitably there are one or two who whinge at the prices. They don’t realise that their seat would cost in the region of £85 were there no sponsorship. They never stop to think that the cost of going to a football match would work out to be far more expensive!
Almost the last thing on the ‘must do’ list before opening night is to galvanise the press into action. The amount of work this entails is vast. Social media comes into its own these days and if you don’t do it, you’re really sunk. One Tweet can, when spread, reach thousands of people. Even if no one purchases a ticket, the profile enhancement is worth ££££££s. Both the national and regional press have to be bombarded with articles in hopes they will be printed near the front of the paper rather than alongside, say, the motoring section. BBC Radio 3, and our super media partner, Classic FM, are great at mentioning the festival on air and of course, we spread flyers to any shop of pub that will have them.
So it’s a case of wait and see and hope that this year’s music-making will give a thrill to those listening as it has previously. It will be wonderful if does then I can have my longed-for bath!!
Penny Adie
September 2017
To get to know some of our wonderful artists a little better ahead of this year’s Two Moors Festival, we have invited some of them to share the answers to a few short questions so we can learn
more!
First up we have Oliver and Owen from O Duo Percussion….
Have you ever visited the Two Moors area before?
Oliver: Yes, to play for the festival (twice)
Owen: Yes! We’ve played at the festival on a few occasions now…..I’ve also been on the edge of Exmoor to an excellent pub for recreational purposes!
What did you want to be when growing up?
Oliver: When I was quite young, a doctor! Then later, a musician….
Owen: From the age of 14, a percussionist! I didn’t really think about it before then or at least I can’t remember!
Who’s your inspiration?
Oliver: Probably my Grandad, who came from a really poor, working-class family in Dundee and became Principal Cellist of the LPO!
Owen: In music, no-one really…. But I try and put into perspective being a musician, by thinking of those of have trickier/life threatening jobs, like my brother in the army.
Ambition or talent: which matters more to success for you?
Oliver: Both
Owen: Has to be both! Whilst I’m a believer in anyone can do it, I think you need that something extra to go up a level, that doesn’t mean to make a career. But, I think the best musicians have both
What is the greatest achievement of your life so far?
Oliver: Musically, I guess playing most of the UK’s biggest concert halls with O Duo, after forming the duo at College.
Owen: Deep! Making a career (ie. Paying the mortgage, buying a house, and being able to pay for the family to live!) out of being a musician.
What are you looking forward to most when performing at this year’s Two Moors Festival?
Oliver: Being in a beautiful part of the country….
Owen: Being in one of the finest parts of the country, with great audiences.
O Duo Percussion
Owen Gunnell marimba
Oliver Cox marimba
Performance: 11:00 am Tue, 17 Oct 2017
Venue: St Pancras Church, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, TQ13 7TA
We are so pleased to announce our four winners for this year’s Two Moors Festival Young Musicians’ Platform:
Matilda Wale, aged 16, Voice, from New College, Swindon
Ellen O’Brien, aged 17, French Horn, from The Castle School, Thornbury
Poppy Freya McGhee, aged 12, Violin, Hugh Sexey Middle School, Wedmore
Joseph Pritchard, aged 17, Cello, from Yehudi Menuhin School, Surrey
The standard this year was exceptionally high so huge congratulations to everyone who took part. We look forward to seeing these wonderful performers at this year’s festival and for all the upcoming young artists, keep an eye out for the opening of the 2018 competition later this year!
Have you got any photos of Devon you’ve taken and would like to share? We’d love to see them, so post them in the comments below.Having our Two Moors Festival headquarters down in the very heart of the Devon countryside, we often find ourselves out and about in wellies – they’re the most practical option when you live in a valley, surrounded by nothing but fields, after all.
We were perusing Twitter the other day and came across an interesting hashtag – #UniInMyWellies – and, seeing that it was being run by local business Mole Valley Farmers, decided that it warranted further investigation.
As we discovered, it’s a contest going on at the moment between two universities to roadtest some of the wellies on offer at Mole Valley to find out which ones are the best, most hardy ones for farmers and other country dwellers.
We caught up with one of the testers, D’Arcie Rice, to find out more – and to find out just how she’s gone about putting her wellies through their paces.
2MF: What have you done to test your wellies?
2MF: Is any welly throwing involved?
2MF: Tell us more about your course.
2MF: What do you hope to do in the future?
DR: In the future I am not entirely certain what I’d like to do; however as long as it involves food or farming then I will be happy and I am sure as time goes on I will find a sector within the food/agriculture industry that I would like to go into. But for the moment I have more than two years left on my degree.
In pictures:
We’d just like to wish the patron of the Two Moors Festival, HRH The Countess of Wessex, a very happy 50th birthday. As Penny wrote yesterday, she’s always so supportive of the work the festival does and we couldn’t hope for a better patron.
Here’s hoping she has a lovely birthday, surrounded by friends and family, with lots of lovely cake and presents.
And here’s Two Moors artistic director and fundraiser Penny and John Adie, having what looks like a great time with the Countess:
Strange as it may seem, there is a very small lull in the festival proceedings. It won’t last, however and I shall regret having said that! Sometimes, writers block hits the creative programming and I find it’s better to move on to another aspect – such as writing a blog! I might find it even more productive to tackle some decorating. Our living room will look very smart once done! I don’t know what other festival artistic directors do in their spare time – it would be interesting to hear.
I’m sure many of you will know already that the festival’s Patron, HRH The Countess of Wessex celebrates her 50th birthday this week. This is so exciting for her and we all hope that she has a wonderful time. She is marvelously supportive of the festival and we couldn’t be more fortunate to have such a generous and kind-hearted person looking after us. We are always astonished by how much she fits in on a visit to Devon. On the last occasion, she included four engagements in one day; the first, we believe, in Bristol and the last in Exeter for the festival’s production of ‘Noye’s Fludde’.
With travel time from her home near Guildford to take into account, it was a long day with a punishing schedule. Anyone who says that the Royal Family lead an easy life should think again, for we know hard the Countess works – always smiling, always chatting to people and having the ability to make each person feel special.
It’s hard to believe that we are embarking on the festival’s 15th anniversary. Little did we know that a one-off classical music event would be here all these years later. It’s probably a good thing that we didn’t have a clue about the pitfalls that lay ahead. We simply had to keep going – there was something magnetic about the project that drove us to continue.
We were, and are still, deeply passionate about the festival and are, I hope, only too well aware that the moment this dwindles is the time to stop and hand over to someone else. For this year though, there are lots of lovely concerts in store, or at least we think they will be to everyone’s approval. There are certainly concerts that are different, and maybe an event that has never been previously done by anyone. Time will tell..
One interesting thing has happened this week and that is the arrival of concert brochures on the electronic doorstep. These are for concerts within the south-west. There is so much happening down here that it is no cultural desert any more. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Milverton Concert Society, Tamsin Waley-Cohen’s Honeymead Festival, East Devon Choral Society, not to mention Artavian Baroque in Barnstaple are all producing musical offerings over the next three months of the highest calibre.
It is possible, I am sure, to be out every night of the week soaking up music of every conceivable genre. From Renaissance to Messiaen, there really is something to satisfy every musical taste these days!
Happy New Year to all readers of this blog and let’s hope more and more of you will be tempted to read them as the year goes on.
It seems a very long time has passed since my last feature and much has happened, not least Christmas. Mind you, that was a lot of fun with many carols sung, mince pies consumed and with our kitchen filled with two very little people bringing bibs and bottles with them, not to say the odd accompanying adult who had napkins, nibbles and vast quantities of plonk instead.
As far as the festival is concerned, life went on – to a certain extent – with the concerts in Tiverton Parkway’s Ticket Office giving rise to a spring in the step of travellers passing by. For those who don’t know, these events take place at one of First Great Western’s smartest stations and very popular they are too! The last event to take place was given by a brilliant pair of young flautists, Emma Halnan and Katy Ovens, whose splendid mix of ‘O come all ye faithfuls’ with Mozart and Bach was beautifully played with flair and polish.
Writing Christmas cards takes forever longer these days with many festival supporters to include. Some people would criticise us for continuing to send real cards in the post but we would rather do so because money goes to charity and perhaps more importantly in our case, every stamp we purchase helps to keep our local post office in business. Woe betide the day if it were to close, since the nearest GPO would then be nine miles away!
So what will the new year bring, I wonder? The first thing to remember is to change the date on everything to 2015. I still find 2014 creeps into some written text which is rather a bore. For my husband (who does all the fundraising for the festival), life doesn’t alter since he was, is and will be making applications to trusts for the rest of time. He has become very good at it and has certainly won a medal for his expertise on VAT. My first action however, is to draft the text for the Newsletter that goes out to the Friends of the Festival in a month’s time. I hope I haven’t made it too long.
From then on, it’s sorting out the programme content for October. This, for me, is an exciting thing to do as not only does it mean I can be as creative as the budget will allow but also it’s so unpredictable that whatever ideas I have at the outset, usually end up by being completely different. By the time I have accepted change of dates for some artists, or forgotten that the piano won’t get into a church venue or having to say no to a potentially super recital because the fee structure doesn’t work out or because the repertoire doesn’t fit the bill, I could give up but something seems to keep me hard at it – maybe a strong G&T helps.
So that’s where we stand at the moment. Will it become more exciting? Yes, probably…
Joy to the world! If you love UK classical music festivals, then you need to get yourself some of our really rather delightful Christmas cards to send to all your friends and family this year.
These were really popular at this year’s Two Moors Festival back in October so get in there quick if you’d like some for yourself as they’re selling like hot cakes.
The absolutely beautiful photograph was captured by the talented Stan Hill and the cards come in a pack of ten for just £4 – a bargain if ever there was one.
Postage is £3.50 on orders up to 20 and £4.50 for anything above that. Give us a call on (01643) 831 370 if you’d like to put in an order and we hope you have a really lovely Christmas and a wonderful new year.
To find out more about the work that the Two Moors Festival does across the south-west of the UK, visit our website today.
Official Two Moors Festival Blog 