Our Baroque course is offered in collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music (AAM). Laurence Cummings, our course director, is the Music Director at AAM and all of our instrument tutors are principals of their sections at AAM. They all work both as teachers and performers. (Find out more about our tutors.)
Weldon/Purcell The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island
Shakespeare’s play The Tempest is the inspiration for this year’s Summer School, once again in collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music. We will perform the semi-opera The Tempest, or The Enchanted Island, composed almost certainly by John Weldon and that includes songs by Henry Purcell. An outstanding example of post-Restoration theatre, this work has not had the prominence in the repertoire that it deserves, partly as a result of uncertainty over the composer’s identity!
We will interleave the songs and dances that Weldon and Purcell have left us with other music by Purcell and his contemporaries including Locke’s Music from the Tempest. If you want to sing a solo, just bring your favourite Purcell songs and we will endeavour to include some of them. We will also perform Purcell’s anthems ‘Thou knowst Lord’ and ‘Rejoice in the Lord alway’, sometimes called the Bell Anthem, as well as the Rondeau from Abdelazar.
Following on from the success of last year’s staged production of Campra’s L’Europe Galante, this year’s course gives us a rare opportunity to focus once more on the glorious musical epoch that followed the Restoration of the monarchy after years of a culturally starved Commonwealth. We will closely examine instrumental and vocal treatises to allow students to perform this beautiful and eloquent musical language with greater authority.
The Tempest is a commentary on the transitoriness of life, and allows for melancholy airs as well as uplifting dances to entertain us with the magic of The Enchanted Island, where our protagonists have been marooned following a dramatic shipwreck.
Students will have the opportunity to work with a dynamic faculty including an inspirational dance specialist whose research and expertise is inspiring musicians to look afresh at the dance music which is at the heart of the Baroque repertoire. Learn more about baroque dance.
Our 2025 Summer School will be devoted to preparing and exploring The Tempest, as well as giving opportunities to discover other treasures of the 17th and 18th centuries. We will be working towards a final performance of The Tempest, involving all course participants, choreographed and staged by Mary Collins and directed by Laurence Cummings. This will be a public performance in a Cambridge venue.
Each day we will offer instrumental classes in sectionals, choral and orchestral sessions, with opportunities for smaller ensemble and individual sessions. The vocal allocations will be organised on arrival. Please indicate on application if you are interested in singing a solo and include a short sound clip of your singing, and if you want to nominate a choice of possible Purcell songs for inclusion in the final performance, please feel free to do so.
During the week there will be opportunity to perform in informal concerts. Repertoire for these will be chosen and approved by tutors, to include music from all classes.
A typical day’s schedule might be:
- 09.00 – physical warm-up taken by Mary Collins, including an introduction to baroque dance and stagecraft for everyone
- 09.45 – sectional/vocal/dance classes
- 11.00 – coffee
- 11.30 – sectional/vocal/dance classes
- 13.00 – lunch break
- 14.00 – self-organised chamber music, dance/ free time/ tutor organised chamber music/ LC vocal open masterclasses
- 16.00 – tea
- 16.30 – tutti session
- 18.30 – dinner
- 19.30 – informal students’ concerts
- Later – Benslow Music’s bar is open
Tuition will incorporate historically informed techniques and style. Mary Collins will also be available to coach instrumentalists on their dance movements to show how studying dance steps can enhance your musical performance. A selection of music for many combinations of instruments and voices will be provided; you are also invited to bring your own sets of parts and scores.
Participants should arrive in time for the welcome at 4pm on Sunday 20 July. The course ends with breakfast on Sunday 27 July. On the final evening, course members will participate in a public representation of The Tempest at a venue in Cambridge.
Is the Baroque course for me?
Applications are invited from dancers, proficient singers and confident players of gut-strung Baroque instruments (violin, viola and cello), with Baroque bows (some instruments and bows may be available to hire), bass viol, violone, recorder, baroque flute, oboe, bassoon, lute family and harpsichord/organ (suitable keyboard instruments are provided). Pitch: A=415.
Players should have a good mastery of instrumental technique, but not necessarily any experience of Baroque playing. However, the wind players need to be fluent and confident on their Baroque instruments, able to sight-read solos with confidence. Continuo players should have a good knowledge of figured bass.
Singers should be experienced and fluent sight-readers; they may be encouraged to take solo parts as well as singing in ensembles.
Pre-existing groups are welcome to apply together, and may bring prepared music for coaching in some of the chamber music sessions. Non-singing/playing observers are welcome if we have space.
Venue
Our 2025 course will be held at Benslow Music, Hitchin, just a 30-minute train ride from Cambridge or London. An ideal base for exploring some of England’s most beautiful countryside, the historic town of Hitchin with its fine parish church is a destination in itself. There is also plenty of free parking.
Benslow Music has ten designated rehearsal and practice rooms, including two halls suitable for larger ensembles and public events. They possess a fine Goble harpsichord modelled on a 1727 Christian Zell original as well as virginals, a spinet and a restored Broadwood square piano dating from the 1820s.
Benslow Music provides a wide range of comfortable bedrooms with ensuite or shared bathroom facilities, enviable catering and all sorts of rehearsal and practice rooms. The beautiful gardens provide an inviting space in which to relax and regather energies between sessions. Additionally, all summer school participants will be able to make use of Benslow Music’s extensive music library during their course. Find out more about accommodation on Benslow Music’s website.
Fees and bursaries
Find all information on fees and on how to pay the deposit.
The Selene Webb (née Mills) Memorial Bursary Fund supports those whose financial situation would prevent them from attending our courses without assistance, particularly music students and those setting out on a career in music. Find out more on how to apply for a bursary.
In collaboration with the Academy of Ancient Music.
