The Clarinet Summer School 2008

Saturday 19th – Wednesday 23rd July 2008
Liverpool Hope University College, Everton Campus, Liverpool

A retrospective by Andrew Roberts

The Clarinet Summer School 2008 course was both enjoyable and worthwhile with one of the highest numbers of students we have had to date. It was brilliant meeting and working with all the new and old friends, some of whom have attended for the last 8 years. We all enjoyed discussing and sharing new ideas.

The success of the course was due to the dedicated and fascinating work that all of the tutors brought to it. I am very grateful to them all and particularly to Tony Pay for taking the time out from his busy schedule to offer so much help to us all, despite his painful back problem, from which I am sure we will all wish him a speedy recovery.

Kevin Murphy has been a regular member of the course for a couple of years and his enthusiasm and cheerful approach has been gratefully received, especially by me!

Thanks again to John Wilson who always brings an enormous wealth of experience to the course and clearly enjoys helping us all to develop as performers, a real gift. Sharon Richards is always a pleasure to work made a welcome return to the course as she was one of the first accompanists in the early years.

Janet Crossley was a student on the very first course and has been involved with every successive course, she deserves a medal! Thanks go to Janet and Caroline Wheeler for their excellent work with the Intermediate course, and helping out with the Advanced course.

It is highly unusual for a course like this to have the experience an knowledge of a qualified recording engineer on hand, especially one who doubles so well as a bar man, and an undercover clarinet player. Thom Harrison was a great help behind the scenes for which I am most grateful.

My good friend Dr Chris Mimnagh has supported this course from its first year in the belief that musicians can be helped to avoid injury with a little knowledge and practice, something we should all be grateful for. We are grateful for him giving up his valuable time, and for providing us with a good deal of entertainment.

There is one person without whom the course would not have happened. Wolfgang Lohff has much valuable advice and practical help to offer to us all. He is also the major financial sponsor who enables the course to happen and a huge personal support for me, all my thanks go to him.

It was a pleasure to work with the helpful and cheery people behind the scenes in the kitchen and security lodge at Hope University, a big thank you is due to them.

It only remains for me to thank the most important people on the course, you the students! It is always a delight for me to meet friends old and new and this year seemed to me to have a great blend of people who got on well This makes a course like this very successful and enjoyable, so my thanks to you all, it was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you will all keep in touch.

You can view more photos of the course at Picasaweb.

Do please keep checking on this website for new articles, instruments on offer, how to book the repair service, and of course details of the next course!

Andrew Roberts