Chair Chris Buttery cjbuttery@aol.com
Secretary Mrs Mavis Meadows 33 Hazelhurst Road Kings Heath Birmingham B14 7PH
Tel. 0121 443 1981.
We normally meet on the first Saturday afternoon of each month except August. The dates of our meetings in 2022 are
January 8th (Note that this is not the first Saturday in January)
February 5th March 5th April 2nd May 7th June 4th July 2nd
Farewells
At our meeting on 4th June we said goodbye to Caroline Jones, who has stepped down from her position as our Musical Director after seven years of expert and inspiring leadership. As a token of our appreciation, the branch presented Caroline with a rose, appropriately named Caroline Victoria. The photo below shows Caroline accepting our gift.
As always, Caroline’s selection of music was varied and thoughtful. We played Geminiani’s Concerto Grosso Op3, No 2. Some madrigals by Ghibel and Marg Hall’s Something Old, Something New,
We began our afternoon with Alex Ayres’ arrangement of the Dona Nobis Pacem section of J S Bach’s Mass in B minor. This moving piece was played as a tribute to Dick Russell and Robert Hoffman, both long-term and highly respected members of our branch, who died recently. Our final performance of this piece was followed by a deep silence as we remembered the departed.
Dick’s playing of recorders and other early instruments was always expert and appropriate. He made many arrangements of vocal pieces which gave us all great pleasure. Dick was a helpful and clear conductor.
Robert’s careful and accurate record keeping was a vital part of the administration of our branch and his confident and skilful playing was a feature of many of our Saturday afternoon meetings. Like Dick, Robert was a member of the Corydon Players
Robert Hoffman playing at Birmingham Museum in 2016
Both these fine musicians will be long remembered and sorely missed.
Chris Buttery
(Chair, Birmingham SRP)