The Course
Now in its 47th year, this course offers a relaxed, supportive and friendly environment for recorder players of all abilities to make music.
The Northern Recorder Course was founded in 1966 by Dennis Bamforth and Colin Martin and has grown to become one of the foremost recorder courses in the world. Repertoire from the Medieval period to the present day is studied in large groups, one to a part ensembles and in one to one classes. A particular feature of the NRC is the interesting range of music available to be studied, due in no small part to several leading recorder composers being regular NRC participants, often bringing newly composed music to the course.
To get the most out of the course players should be at least Grade 2 standard and able to play at least two sizes of recorder, for example descant and treble or descant and tenor. You are welcome to contact Justine for advice if you are unsure of your playing standard.
The dimensions and acoustics of the playing rooms at Bawtry Hall are excellent. All the playing rooms are located in the same building, thereby minimising walking between sessions. This feature is particularly welcome in inclement weather! Bawtry Hall has free wireless internet access.
Course participants can choose from a variety of residential and non-residential packages to suit their individual requirements - more information can be found on the facilities and enrolling pages. For further details about Bawtry Hall please visit their website at: http://bawtryhall.bawtryhall.com
The Structure of the Course
The course is designed to allow you to tailor the timetable to meet your individual musical interests, whether Baroque, Contemporary or a little bit of everything. Each of the twelve tutors has their own specialist interests and this is reflected in the classes they have chosen to teach. The enclosed timetable outlines the choice of classes available.
Almost all sessions are open to all course participants - simply turn up to the class of your choice and play. Players are welcome to attend different tutor's classes in each session every day, should they wish. For example, you could go to Brian’s The Best of Bach in Session Three on Wednesday and Janice’s Alternative Wind on Saturday. The music list for the course details the music to be studied in each session on each day of the week. All course participants are sent a music list and further information about the classes on offer in January 2012.
Although most of the classes at the NRC are open to all course participants, there are a few classes where you need to sign up in advance. These are classes where numbers need to be limited and for the 2012 course will include:
Classic Recorder Orchestra with Steve Marshall, ‘Harder’ Chamber Recorder Orchestra with Pam Smith, ‘Easier’ Chamber Recorder Orchestra with Helen Hooker: in all three of these orchestras desks are allocated prior to the course to ensure a good balance. Players in these orchestras need to attend the daily rehearsals and to perform in the course concert on the Monday evening. If you would like to play in any of these orchestras please complete the appropriate section on the enrolment form.
Players can also Have a Go at Playing in a Chamber Orchestra with Steve Marshall if you would like to experience the thrill of playing in a one to a part orchestra without having the pressure to perform in the course concert.
Ruth Burbidge will run Trio Sonata Classes for two recorders and continuo. Players need to sign up in advance to ensure there is one player per part.
One to one lessons with Ruth Hayward: sign up for a 30 or 60 minute private lesson with Ruth to improve your recorder technique.
Don’t Shoot the Keyboard Player gives accompanists the opportunity to have a one to one lesson with Rosemary Robinson to learn some tricks of the trade!
Further Information
If you follow the link to the archive pages, we are gathering together material from past courses. You will currently find reviews from previous years, lists of tutors, music lists, and shortly to be added, programmes from concerts. We hope that this will give you a better idea of what happens on the NRC.