The Branch had 36 members, 1 fewer than the previous season (4 new members, 5 non-renewals). We met on 35 Monday evenings from September to June for combined playing. One-to-a-part groups met on alternate evenings.

Our Christmas Evening was on Monday 10 December when we played to an audience of family and friends in Augustine Church. We were joined by members of the Edinburgh Community Education Evening Class conducted by Margaret Hall. The collection of £123.05 was sent to the Multiple Sclerosis Society (Scotland).

We welcomed, as guest conductors, Stuart Forrester on 29 October, Sandy Howie on 4 February and Margaret Hall on 4 March.

The National Recorder Festival took place on 6 and 7 April at Tormead School, Guildford. On 7 April, Eileen Finlayson attended the Society’s Annual Conference as the Edinburgh Branch’s delegate. The meeting was chaired by Andrew Short.
The deaths were noted of Bill England (Manchester) and Ron Jackson (Mid-Herts).
The Conference endorsed the Committee’s nominations of Colin Touchin as Musical Adviser and Robert Harrison (who is stepping down as the Society’s auditor after 27 years) as Honorary Life Member.
The Chairman and Officers were re-elected unopposed. Mary Tyers had taken over as Competition Administrator in place of Patricia Davis.
Norma Herdson (East Berks) and Peter Sturgeon (Nottingham) were elected unopposed to serve on the Committee for three years, replacing Dennis Bloodworth (South London) and Petrina Lodge (Cambridge).
Membership remained stable with 15 branches having gains totalling 45 members, 19 branches reporting losses totalling 36 members, while eight were unchanged in numbers. Eight branches had still to submit their returns.
The Society made a surplus of £103 for the year ended 31 August 2001 compared to £2,812 for the previous year and the Central Fund stood at £23,279. A deficit of £3,000 was predicted in the year to 31 August 2002 due to the increasing cost of the magazine, committee expenses and conductor’s visits. The central subscriptions were therefore increased by £2.00 to £14.00 per member, £21.00 per family and £10.00 per student member.
The Walter Bergmann Fund made a surplus of £1,835 and the Fund’s reserves stood at £41,046. Individual grants totalled £3,907 and a £600 prize was given to the Yamaha-ERTA Ensemble Competition.
Future Festivals will be as follows: 26/27 April 2003, William Hulme’s Grammar School, Manchester; 16/17 April 2004, St Swithun’s School, Winchester; 2005, East Berkshire; 2006, Cumbria.
Douglas Haston (Aberdeen) said he was willing to place branches’ music libraries on a database suitable for the web.

On 20 April Jim Carey was Newcastle Branch’s guest conductor.

On 11 May we welcomed Petrina Lodge as our visiting conductor. We had an enjoyable afternoon’s playing with our visitors from other branches. The collection of £34.27 was sent to the Walter Bergmann Fund.

Members attended Special Playing Days in Aberdeen (18 May), Hawick (19 May) and Glasgow (25 May).

Our Summer Evening was on 17 June, when we played in Augustine Church to an audience of family and friends. Guest performers were Justin Wilman and Isobel Clarke, recorder students at St Mary’s School of Music, who played pieces by van Eyck and Quantz. The collection of £93 was sent to NCH (Scotland).

On 4 August, eight members of the branch played a programme of early music at the Early Music Forum of Scotland’s performance day in the Chapel Royal, Stirling Castle.

The Scottish Recorder Festival, to have taken place on 14 September 2002, has been postponed until next year.

The branch was the recipient of a bequest of four Moeck recorders, of which three are a Renaissance set, left by the late Dorothy Gillett, widow of Eric Gillett, former Musical Director of the Branch. These will be made available for borrowing by members of the branch. We also received a generous donation of music from the family of the late Colin O’Riordan which will be added to the branch library.

As always we must thank our conductors James Carey and Henriette Bos and our guest conductors for making our weekly meetings so enjoyable and successful.

E. Finlayson
September 2002

Last updated 12 November 2012