Annual Conference 2011

The 84th Annual General Meeting and our 24th Annual Conference Weekend (8th - 10th April 2011) will be held in the Shropshire Town of Shrewsbury at the Albrighton Hall Hotel. Set amidst glorious countryside near to the Welsh Borders, Shrewsbury is one of England's finest medieval market towns boasting over 600 listed buildings including the Castle, now a regimental museum and the world-famous Shrewsbury Abbey, home of the fictional Brother Cadfael. Charles Darwin was born and educated in Shrewsbury and all around you will find reminders of his association with the town. The River Severn forms a loop around the town centre offering gentle riverside walks.

Here is your opportunity to experience an eventful piece of history, enjoy good food, entertainment and some exciting retail therapy with shopping in Shrewsbury by attending the NAC Conference.

The Albrighton Hall Hotel is a luxurious 4 Star Hotel situated 2 miles outside Shrewsbury Town Centre. The Hotel itself is an 18th century manor house with a lake and 15 acres of grounds. The hotel has modern rooms, each with internet access and satellite TV. The Oak Room Restaurant has elegant lunch and dinner menus, and the Terrace Bar is the place to relax. The spa has an indoor heated pool, and facilities for our conference are first class with a series of 9 meeting rooms easily accommodating the NAC Conference.

A full and packed conference awaits consisting of Trade Stand Exhibitors offering products and services from the choral world, seminars and workshops each offering a different topic and theme.

Headlining this year's workshops and seminars will be none other than Douglas Coombes. Douglas was Assistant Music Adviser to Norfolk LEA for 5 years. Has worked at the BBC, working on education programmes such as Singing Together and Time and Tune. Writing scripts and arranging for many of the country's leading musicians.

Douglas has often arranged large concerts for children in many of the countries leading concert halls and cathedrals. One of the biggest children's choirs he conducted was one of 4,900 which was in Everton FC's stadium. Douglas often works in the USA and one highlight was the first performance of his Requiem, written and first performed by the chorus and orchestra of The Mastersingers of Philadelphia in Daylesford Abbey (a Norbertine abbey) in 1997. I have worked in South Korea twice, was trilled to see the DVD of the first performance in Russia at the St. Petersburgh Conservatoire of my Te Deum. The conductor was South Korean, the singers were Russian (singing in English) and the brass and percussion players were from various countries.

In 1988 Douglas formed The New English Concert Orchestra, a professional orchestra, they have given many concerts and over the past 12 years we have played since they started for the Battle Proms in the grounds of various stately homes - Burghley House, Hatfield House, Blenheim Palace, Highclere Castle. Althorpe etc. In these concerts there are also 193 cannons and mortars, The Napoleonic Association, Fireworks and in the last couple of years a spitfire.

Over the past 8 years Douglas has also conducted large concerts for Barnardos, with children's choirs from 400 to over 1000 in such places as the Royal Albert Hall, Ely Cathedral, Leeds Town Hall, Royal Festival Hall etc. Douglas has two choirs - a mixed choir and a women's choir, both over 50 strong. These are his hobbies! Douglas founded the women's choir in 1978 and over the years they have done 9 Easter tours of the USA. We have sung in New York, at the United Nations, Washington, Chicago, Charlestown and many other places and always receive a great reception.

Since it started in 2002, I have been the music director of the BBC Songs of Praise School Choir of the Year. The 2009 competition went out around Easter. Working with these choirs is demanding but always rewarding and great fun. There is so much more and Douglas is looking forward to being the Headline speaker/presenter at the Associations conference in 2011.

Other seminar presenters/workshop presenters include Gwyn Arch - Gwyn studied English at Cambridge University where he played for both the Cambridge and Oxford University jazz bands. He began his teaching career as Head of English in a large secondary school, whilst studying composition in his spare time at Trinity College London. Gwyn subsequently became Director of Music at Bulmershe College of Higher Education, Reading. Under his direction the choir represented the UK seven times in the International rounds of the BBC competition Let the Peoples Sing. Gwyn is also a very successful arranger and publisher of choral music for all voices and many of his pieces can be found in choir libraries around the world.

Dr. Liz Garnett is also appearing to address delegates and will be taking two individual seminars - Liz studied music at the Universities of Bristol (BA Hons, 1st class) and Southampton (PhD, 1995). She then taught at Colchester Institute's School of Music and Performance Arts for four years, before moving to Birmingham Conservatoire, where she was Head of Postgraduate Studies until 2009. Her teaching experience is varied in subject area, delivery style and level, from lectures in Musical Philosophies to practical workshops on Playing by Ear and one-to-one tutorials in Professional Development for Musicians.

As a student, she studied piano with Christopher Northam (gaining an LRAM in piano teaching) and singing with Glynn Davenport, Duncan Robertson and Molly Petrie. She started conducting as an undergraduate, attending the Choral Conducting course at the Canford Summer School of Music at age 19, then went on to conduct the Southampton University Light Opera Society as a postgraduate.

She became involved in barbershop music after the completion of her PhD, and it became the subject of her first book. She is one of the UK's most prominent arrangers and performance coaches, having coached seven of the last eight British women's quartet champions, and arranged for groups from the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Germany and Holland. She certified as a Music Category judge in 2000, and served as LABBS Music Category Director from 2006-2009. She has adjudicated in both barbershop and 'mainstream' choral classes at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and the Sligo International Choral Festival, and is the founder-director of a female close-harmony choir called Magenta.

There will be a series of other seminars and workshops covering Practical Singing, Developing Music from the Inside, Developing the Ensemble. As well as all this there is also the massed concert on the Saturday night which resident delegates receive guaranteed concert tickets, hosted by the Midlands North NAC Group specially for the National Conference weekend where some of the areas finest choirs will come together and entertain and enthral you all. The concert is sure to be a sell out when tickets go on sale in January 2011 to the general public.

All in all I think you will agree that the National Conference Weekend is going to be a fun packed busy weekend, a chance to meet new faces, catch up with old friends, sing and learn and hopefully take back the wisdom and expertise given to you throughout the weekend's seminars and workshops. So as you can see the National Conference weekend is sure to appeal to everyone, places are strictly limited and well worth an early reply to ensure your booking is in time.

Please download the booking form and post it together with your NON - REFUNDABLE deposit to James Ferrabbee, Conference Co-ordinator & General Secretary to secure your places today!!

James Ferrabbee

Conference Co-ordinator

National Association of Choirs