Copernicus Music Festival

• The Copernicus Music Festival (CMF) organised by K12 Conductors in Education (K12) will be the first time that students from all the UK music conservatoires have come together to train and perform in the UK. They will be joined by 29 students from the Krakow Academy of Music, Poland, with whom K12 has close links. The festival will be hosted by Trinity College of Music and Blackheath Halls and will include public master-classes, school workshops, four concerts and a public debate on European music education.
• 2009 is POLSKA! YEAR, designated by Poland’s Adam Mickiewicz Institute (AMI) as a showcase of Polish art and culture in the UK. The AMI is backing the festival, as is its UK partner, the Polish Cultural Institute (PCI). Meanwhile K12 is working with the British Polish Chamber of Commerce to advertise the festival. Further coverage is being sought through the Polish press, the Polish social centres and the Polish radio stations, Polskie Radio Londyn and Radio Orla, as well as through other Polish organisations listed below.
• 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. K12 are working closely with www.astronomy2009.co.uk and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to celebrate the great Polish astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, and have devised a suitably stellar programme featuring Holst’s The Planets. The highly acclaimed Aurora Orchestra will visit and perform contemporary Polish repertoire alongside dancers from the Laban Centre, who will show-case new choreography on space-exploration themes. Each concert will be introduced by a professional astronomer talking about Copernicus, Space-Exploration and more.
• CMF is working with Trinity College’s Education Department in local schools, prior to giving them a dedicated and interactive Schools Concert. Meanwhile… through the week the 150 degree-level music students will form a symphony orchestra and choir for Holst’s The Planets and for Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, trained by leading British conductor, Howard Williams and Polish conductor, Rafal Delekta. In addition, eight student conductors from Poland and UK will train under internationally-renowned professors, Colin Metters and Peter Stark (of Maestro fame). All eight students will conduct a concert of Mozart and Beethoven symphonies in Holy Trinity Church, South Kensington. This concert will be preceded by a Public Debate on Music Education in Europe, at which panellists will include Richard Morris, CEO of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM).
• PR and Marketing is coordinated centrally by Trinity College of Music. PR and Marketing contacts are included in the Sponsorship Page below.
• K12 (President, Sir Mark Elder) is made up of 12 conductors who were invited by the Polish Government to a music festival in Krakow in 2006. K12 organises collaborations between conservatoires across Europe, provides training for music students at all levels and stimulates community dialogue about music education. 2007 saw a highly successful K12 project in Krakow with string players from most of the UK conservatoires collaborating with the Krakow Academy. The project included master-classes, concerts and a broadcast on Polish National Radio. The Chairman of K12 is William Carslake - contact details below. 

Festival Highlights:

Sunday 29 Mar                        1830 Advent Carol Service at St Alfege’s Church, Greenwich

An opportunity for all participants to sing with the community and meet their host families

Tues 1 Dec             1930 Concert at Blackheath Halls:

Aurora Orchestra with Emma Abbate (piano), Evva Mizerska (cello)

and dancers from Laban:

                                    -Gorecki, Kleines Requiem fur eine Polka

-New Choreography to 20^th century Polish Masterpieces for Cello and Piano 

-Penderecki, Sextet (London premiere)

Conductor, Nicholas Collon

Wed 2 Dec             Private Sponsors’ Reception at the Stone House, Lewisham, courtesy of Jonathan and Yvonne Horsfall-Turner  

Fri 4 Dec                        1400 Schools Concert at Blackheath Halls

                                    -Holst, The Planets (extracts)

An interactive performance of extracts from The Planets, conducted by Howard Williams. This is the culmination of the Festival’s work in local schools with Trinity College’s Education Department

                                    1800 Grand Festival Reception at Blackheath Halls

                                    Reception by invitation, including speeches and prize-giving 

1930 International Student Symphony Orchestra and Choir Concert at             Blackheath Halls

                                      -Holst, The Planets

                                    -Szymanowski, Stabat Mater

                                    Conductors, Howard Williams and Rafal Delekta

Sat 5 Dec                         1700 European Music Education - a Public Debate at Holy Trinity

                                    Church, South Kensington

-Why is universal music education absent in some European countries when it is fundamental in others? What can Europe learn from Venezuala? What are the European success stories? These and more, and the audience’s questions, will be put to a panel of experts including Richard Morris, CEO of ABRSM and Bob Pepper, a champion of Venezuala’s El Sistema system here in the UK.

1930 International Conducting Masterclass Students performing with the K12 Chamber Orchestra at Holy Trinity Church, South Kensington

-Mozart, Symphony no. 36, the ‘Linz’

-Beethoven, Symphony no. 4

Tickets sold by Blackheath Halls Box Office: £10 (£7conc); all UK music students enter for £2.

Public Conducting Master-Classes and Orchestral Rehearsals, admission free, will take place throughout the festival in Trinity College of Music. More details on request.