News

Dear CGO Members and friends,
I last wrote just before Christmas and thought it about time I did an update.
The first thing that’s been on my mind is the fact that we ought to have had an AGM by now. Our last one was held on 19th January 2020 and that was a postponed one from the previous September. As Covid has largely brought things to a standstill I was hoping we could delay the AGM to later this year after the vaccine rollout has taken full effect. If anyone has an objection to this can they send me an email. I suppose we could do an AGM by Zoom if people think it urgent that we hold it. Please let me know what you think.
Now some things coming up:
1) Classical Minds this year will be by Zoom and will happen on the 9th-11th April (details from Valerie are at the end of this email). Note that online applications by 10th March get a discount.
2) Valerie’s Concert Today – This from Valerie:
“Video is up and ready for Saturday’s online concert via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNTUbgh6EAI It’s this Saturday, 6th of March at 7pm (UK time). When you click on the link, you’ll note that YouTube automatically sets the time for your zone. For example, if you live in Boston, you’ll see that the Premiere starts at 2pm. We’ll be able to chat together while the concert is happening. What if you cannot be there at the Premiere? That’s ok, the link will be available for you when you’re free. The concert is under 20 minutes: Milonga segunda by Thierry Tisserand, Stairway to Heaven by Led, Zeppelin, arr. Ayeroff (solo by Hartzell), El Testamento de Amelia arr. Llobet, It Takes Two from Wanderlust by Valérie Hartzell
I joined Patreon. Due to Covid all the concerts and touring has stopped (& it probably won’t be safe for a while). I also would like to spend more time writing music, record more online concerts, record my CD projects & now, I am recording videos for Bergmann Edition. There are several packages from £2 to £45. By supporting me, this would benefit you and I to bring more music to the community. www.patreon.com/valeriehartzell
I’ll “see” you on Saturday! Thank you! Valérie”
Next I have to explain why the Greensleeves video failed to appear. Sadly the uptake wasn’t sufficient to make it worthwhile, it would have been a trio rather than an orchestra.
So that’s all for now. I’m hoping for better times ahead. Stay well and enjoy your guitar playing.
Mike Addlesee
—
Here’s the info on the festival: *”Classical Minds” Guitar Festival is on Zoom! *_The dates are 9-11 of April, 2021._ The festival is open to all levels and ages. Anyone in the world (within reason) can join us internationally. £75 total which includes 1 lesson & without performing in masterclass. If you turn in your online application <classicalmindsfestival.org/application> by the 10th of March, we will negate £5 off the total tuition.
We have an international festival with flamenco Texas guitarist, Jeremy Garcia <jeremygarcia.net/bio.html> joining us in England. Along with Jeremy we have Daniela Rossi <www.danielarossiguitarist.com/> (Argentinian guitarist living in Cambridge), Eleanor Kelly <www.eleanorguitar.com/> (Liverpool) for whom I have written a piece which will be premiered at CM, Mathew James <www.facebook.com/mathewjamesguitar/> (Cambridge) and myself <www.valeriehartzell.co.uk/> (American/French guitarist living in England). Intermediate/Advanced players are welcome to perform in the masterclass which is only £15 for one class (participants observe). Our Exhibition <classicalmindsfestival.org/our-2021-exhibitors> is full and we are excited to include guitar builders, a composer and a publishing company to our presentation. All the lecture recitals, the exhibition, and the evening concerts will be on YouTube.  All other events will be on Zoom.
Attached is the schedule and when you sign up to the festival, you will be able to attend all events. Let me know if you have any questions. Valérie Hartzell, Artistic Director classicalmindsfestival.org <classicalmindsfestival.org> www.valeriehartzell.co.uk <www.valeriehartzell.co.uk>

2021LessZoomySchedule.pdf

Dear CGO members and potential members of CGO,
Our last Virtual CGO piece seems to have been well received on YouTube (67 views so far) and Facebook (92 people reached & 23 engagements).
Valerie is keen that we press on with another piece.
This time it is an arrangement of Greensleeves by Mark Cruz.
Mike Lloyd has kindly added the recordings for each part and the score to the members section of the website, under ‘audio’ and ‘scores’ respectively, and is under Anon as composer.
Let me know if you need to be reminded of the access details to the members section.
Valerie writes:
“Hi Everyone,
Here is our next project.
1) Practise with metronome, crotchet = 120. 2) Practise while listening to your part which I recorded while listening to the metronome. 3) When you record the video, make sure you tune to a tuner 1st. Leave a few seconds of dead air before you start playing and at the end.     [Michael adds “Could you give a single handclap at the very start of your video to aid in the synchronisation of audio and video, it really makes my job editing the video a lot easier, thanks.”] 4) I give you 2 bars of counting before starting. That should help with the start. 5) Dynamics written in the score on each part. No slowing down or breath marks. We’re keeping simple. Please have this to Michael by December 15th. Happy practising!
Parts ==== CGO Members: Guitar 1: Mat, Mike A, Antonio Guitar 2: Colin, Mike L, Valerie Guitar 3: Anne, Lily, Huw, David
Potential members/Friends of CGO (no pressure, only if you’re up for the challenge): Guitar 1: Aran Guitar 2: Caroline Guitar 3: Mike B, Adil
Thanks everyone! x”
Please let me know if you can’t find the time to take part, or would like to be removed from the mailing list. Michael Addlesee CGO Chairman

I’ve had to fix a few audio/video sync issues with the video.
For some as yet unknown reason, when the DaVinci Resolve editing software loads .MP4 files the audio and video can get anywhere from +9 to -4 frames out of sync.
I’ve also tidied up the harmonics at the end of the piece.
Once I’ve got permission from everyone who took part the video will go Public on YouTube with URL: https://youtu.be/3zHR9JOyZlE
The high resolution version (4K DCI) of the video still available for download from Dropbox at:https://www.dropbox.com/s/nfwpne782e2dq7z/Virtual%20CGO%20plays%20La%20Valse%20Des%20Brumes%20by%20Thierry%20Tisserand.mov?dl=0
Michael

Here is my first cut of our first ‘Virtual’ CGO video.
I have put it on YouTube as ‘Unlisted’ which means only people who have this link, https://youtu.be/wemz1cRbBqQ , can see it. It won’t be found in any search results by the general public on YouTube.
However if Valerie thinks the quality is good enough, and no one has any objections, we could choose to make it ‘Public’ at a later date.
Michael
P.S.
There’s a high resolution version (4K DCI) of the video also available for download from Dropbox at:
www.dropbox.com/s/nfwpne782e2dq7z/Virtual%20CGO%20plays%20La%20Valse%20Des%20Brumes%20by%20Thierry%20Tisserand.mov?dl=0
Michael

Dear CGO Members & some potential new members,
Sunday 13th September was to be the day on which we recommenced rehearsals at Foxton Village Hall, but as I pointed out in my last group email (on 26/8/20) that plan had to be abandoned. This was of course due to Covid and the need of some of our members to shield. The recent increase in the number of cases is also not looking too promising.
So in that last email I mentioned some options of what we could do until rehearsals do restart. The feedback received was positive on the idea of recording a virtual orchestra piece. So we’re going to get into this, gently at first, with the Thierry Tisserand piece called “La valse des brumes”. It’s actually a trio but should be an easy introduction to doing virtual recordings. The plan is that Valerie will shortly be recording herself playing each of the parts and I will distribute these so that you can listen (with headphones) and play along yourselves while you make your own video recordings. Then I will attempt to stitch all the videos together.
If all goes well we can publish the edited video on the CGO YouTube Channel and then try something a bit more complicated.
Our Zoom sessions seem to have faded, but I will be present for an impromptu Zoom meeting at 3pm (N.B. We used to do 2pm but that seemed a bit too close to Sunday lunch time so hopefully 3pm is better) Sunday 13th for anyone who fancies a chat, and perhaps a guitar solo or two. I’ll keep it short, just 45 minutes is I think the free meeting time limit.
CGO Zoom videoconference details:
us04web.zoom.us/j/3177567251?pwd=N0VxbVM0NityTWU1bS9SaXV0ZDEyQT09 ;  meeting 317 756 7251 ;   password CGO@Zoom1
Michael

Dear CGO members,
I hope everyone is keeping well and giving their guitar some regular exercise.
Valerie wrote with an update (Note to Mike Lloyd – Could you add the attached score & parts .PDF to the Website please). She says:
“I hope you are all staying safe. I miss seeing you at rehearsals. Apologies for not being at our recent Zoom meetings. I spend my life online (as I imagine, many of you are doing too) so on weekends I unplug. I will join in at some point for a meeting, no worries.
In the meantime, I’m hoping I can encourage you to pick up your guitar and get ready for when we will meet in person. Perhaps knowing our plan for the Manchester concert would help? Our 2 concerts are not canceled, only rescheduled. It’s up to you how you want to learn the pieces. Perhaps learn 2 pieces the 1st month and add 1 each month? Every time you add a piece, play through the parts you learned the months before so you don’t lose out on your work. There’s good news! You already know many of the pieces and have practised them numerous times pre-Covid. So, that rep should be all about dusting it off and working on upping the tempi.
LA VALSE DES BRUMES by Thierrry Tisserand. He contacted me after he found out I was posting his music on YouTube. He dedicated this piece to me which is sweet. We could learn the 1st one and it would be a lovely way to start the programme. It’s not hard and we could get it under our fingers quickly. I think we’ll need to do that in order to be properly prepared for our concerts. Manchester: I’m performing a 25 min solo programme so that will take the pressure off of CGO. For the Moolight Mandolin, we are sharing a concert so again, that takes loads of pressure. We are not doing a full concert next year which will be great easing back into the performance seat.
BRUMES: Guitar 1: Mat, Tom, Mike A, Antonio Guitar 2: Colin, Mike L, Hannah, Hans Guitar 3: Anne, Lily, Huw, David
Programme: Start after my solo, we’ll do a short set before interval 1) La Valse de Brumes 2) Concertino III (all 3 mvts) 3) Tico Tico Interval
1) Dulcinea 2) Two Themes 3) Touch her Lips 4) Villanesca 5) Wilde Mountain Thyme 6) Fairy Pools 7) L’elephant
Encore: Cantilena
We need to time this, to be fair. We may have too much in the 1st half. Might have to move Tico to 2nd half and end with that. We’ll know more closer to the date but I think that’s enough music. To do the 2nd Granados and the Schubert we will need more people.
Please stay safe and drop us a note (🎶), we would love to hear how you are all managing during the lockdown. I’ve been teaching, recording solo videos, doing the Brouwer Etude challenge, the Tisserand challenge (my student challenged me to learn his music during lockdown), collaborated w/a virtual guitar orchestra and with an artist who’s doing a lecture at the Guitar Foundation of America. Plus, we take advantage of nice weather with rambling in the middle of nowhere w/hubby (who is shielding me & teaching online) with our 15 & 1/2 yr old pup Jodie. Next up, notating on Finale 2 of my compositions and writing more music. Looking forward to hearing from you all. Lots of hugs,
Valérie”
Michael

LA-VALSE-DES-BRUMES-DES-SOUVENIRS-COND.-ET-P.S..pdf

Dear CGO Members,
Mike Lloyd has now set up our own Zoom Personal Meeting ID which is:3177567251
The password is: CGO@Zoom1
These can be entered into the Zoom App if you already have it loaded on your machine.
But if you want to get in via a browser you can simply click on this link:
us04web.zoom.us/j/3177567251?pwd=N0VxbVM0NityTWU1bS9SaXV0ZDEyQT09
This information can be reused for all our zoom meetings (until such time as we decide to change the password).
Michael

Dear CGO Members,
We had a very nice Zoom meeting on the 19th April. Apologies to those who didn’t get the email with the link in time. I’m posting a bit earlier this time around. Also I’m giving two links, one for 2pm and another for 3pm in case we carry on for a bit. Short coffee/tea break interval between the two.
Zoom Meeting(s) for Sunday May 3rd:
2pm us02web.zoom.us/j/83270278359?pwd=bkFzVGIzb2k5bmxSaTlMU20vak51UT09
3pm us02web.zoom.us/j/85058029091?pwd=dFBqZzgzd3c5Q2pZeU5BLzNCZHV6dz09
Now at the last meeting Valerie talked a about two new pieces to add to our repertoire. These were tried out at Classical Minds weekend and judged to be hits. Mike Lloyd has put the music up on the CGO website in the usual place. Here are the part allocations.
Cantilena (K. Jenkins):
1: Colin and Michael 2: Tom, Mike 3: Antonio, Huw 4: Lily, Hans, Hannah 5: Mat, Anne, David
Concertino III (P. van der Staak [Note to Mike Lloyd – not “Valk” Mike, that was a TV detective back in the 1970s!]): Soloist: Mat 1: Michael, Antonio 2: Colin, Hannah, Hans 3: Tom, Lily, Anne 4:  Huw, David, Mike
And now I must get back to the Bach Bouree that I plan to play on Sunday. Still only at half the proper tempo! Michael

Dear CGO members,
After consultation with the committee and following the government advice it is my sad duty to inform you that we are going to have to suspend CGO activities while the coronavirus outbreak continues.
I have spoken to Chris Dumigan (Manchester concert) and Hugh Boyde (Mandolins concert) and we concluded that both of the concerts, currently scheduled for June and July, will have to be postponed. Please don’t forget to cancel any hotel booking you may have made for Manchester.
I do not know when we will be able to resume normal activities, but I’m hoping that things will have resolved by the start of the autumn term. It may only be when a vaccine is available. We will just have to wait and see how things develop.
Please keep practising, it’s a good pressure release valve for daily life. I’m going to set myself some goals to motivate me as Ray Burley suggested at the Classical Minds weekend, which was a great success by the way. I’m sure Valerie would be pleased to advise on homework that could be done. She is now conducting private lessons via internet video link so please consider that if you think that would be helpful for you.
Existing payment for rehearsals will be carried forward to when we restart.
Stay safe,
Michael