MINEHEAD AND EXMOOR FESTIVAL SOCIETY

Chairman’s report to AGM – Wed 16^th January 2008

Firstly I need to thank all those involved in last year’s Festival – Committee (most of whom do far more than their designated roles) and co-opted Geoff Dibble and Ann Hankin both of whom I hope will be elected onto the committee for this year. We’ve had a new Secretary (Rosemary Gaitskell) who actually volunteered! Many thanks to Keith Jones for all his Secretarial work.

Also thanks to those non-committee people who do so much to help – Ian Melhuish, Margaret Kliffen and Pam Almond who has been involved for nearly 25 years. [We have a gift for you Pam.] More will probably be said later but we couldn’t run the Festival without all those local people who host members of the Orchestra – many thanks to all of them.

To the organisation – we produced a new style brochure – principally done by a student from Imperial College. I hope you approved. Also we produced all the concert programmes in house. We hope to do that again this year.

Our website is developing – thanks to Crispin Hodges. Have a look at it. www.mineheadfestival.com)

We reviewed the seating plan for Dunster. We used Regal chairs and lights; so now we have no association with College. They have not been helpful recently. Mark Stuart again lent us his van and himself to ferry all the equipment to Dunster.

Ticket prices went up to £12 – I think without complaint – it’s still a very good deal. All tickets were dealt with at the Regal. Ann Hankin did much of that and will look after the booking office this coming year.

Those who become involved are amazed that things seem to just happen. There’s an awful lot of experience to call on but I felt without becoming too formal we needed a planning sheet for the week – that proved useful particularly with our links with the Regal.

The committee are proposing a 7.30pm start for all orchestral concerts. That’s come from the orchestra members as well – I hope you approve. Most other things in Minehead start at 7.30.

Now to the Orchestra – some were sadly not available this year because the dates fell in school term time. That shouldn’t be a problem this year.

Because of breaking the set at the Regal from Saturday, rehearsals on Sunday were afternoon and evening which was not satisfactory. We provided no Tuesday lunch – that was from experience of poor take-up prior to Dulverton.

We had two Leaders – Maya Magub on Monday and Tuesday and Gonzalo Acosta on Thursday and Saturday. They are well known to us – and we made them work doubly hard by asking them to be soloists as well.

I suspect the Treasurer will mention this but some of our Music stands are getting very tired and so we’re buying some new ones for this year.

New owners of the Brit (where we have the Festival Club) hosted our usual families and the Quiz + Barbeque. There are new owners again so let’s hope they will do the same.

Our Maestro Richard Dickins was in his 26^th season last year and therefore will reach his 30^th in 2011. I hope we will do something special then. I have felt for a little while that he thanks everyone on the last night but no one thanks him. The Chairman always used to and I would like to resurrect that. By the way his CD of English music with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Raphael Wallfisch has received rave reviews – I think the term is it is attracting critical acclaim.

There were some programme changes from original suggestions at last years AGM so when you hear some suggestions later that might not be quite the final programme.

I thought the Festival praise was one of the best ever. Also the Young Artist was excellent and we mustn’t forget Keith Jones’s accompaniment.

The Matthews Introit had a mixed reception but it’s good to try new things

The Wednesday Chamber concert seems to be a fixture now – long may it continue. The Viviani Trumpet + Organ (with Keith Halstead) was nearly different as John Hackett brought the wrong music onto the stage. Dvorak serenade for wind was well received.

Something different was the Guitar Concerto on Thursday and it was great to have the Hummel Trumpet Concerto played by a previous orchestra member.

There was much praise for the Shostakovich. I would have swapped the Thursday and Saturday programmes. Some of the orchestra agreed – Shostakovich would have made a great finish.

We must thank one of Richard’s friends Trevor Bacon for the excellent programme notes.

Thanks to all the sponsors for help with the Finances – I’ve no doubt the Treasurer will mention that as well.

I am an ARTlife Director and Crispin is a committee member. We have attended most meetings and apart from not understanding the ‘council speak’ it is good for us as a society to be involved. As we all know there is a cash crisis with the Council and so I expect an inevitable cut in the overall money for the Arts to be reflected in any grant we might apply for.

There was the possibility of us fronting an appeal to buy a top quality concert Piano for Minehead. That might still be on the cards – I know the Arts Society would be very interested. You may well hear more from Keith Jones.

We’re all looking forward to this year - the Winter concert on Sunday 3^rd Feb 3pm – please come and bring your friends and then the main Festival orchestra week which is July 27^th – Aug 2^nd.

Thank you for your continued support.

David Yates January 2008.

******************************************