Of particular note was the violin recital he gave on the Tuesday evening which included the Schubert D minor Sonata which we had last played together nearly thirty years ago. At the groups concert he took part in Schubert's Trout Quintet and the few rehearsals we had of this work demonstrated what a fine and knowledgeable chamber music player he is.
Borodin's Choral Dances from the opera Prince Igor was last performed at Musicamp in 1971 in a never-to-be-forgotten final concert in the Redcliffe Club. This year's version, conducted by Guy Cary in the Courtauld Hall was again a memorable occasion.
Spencer Pitfield was the guest conductor in 2000. From Day One he achieved a wonderful rapport with all the musicampers with his seemingly boundless energy, enthusiasm and sincere musicianship, and inspired all of us to give of our best at both the Groups and the final Concerts. The First Orchestra played Suite No 1 of Handel's Water Music, the first movement of Haydn's London Symphony and Mussorgsky's Great Gate of Kiev from Pictures at an Exhibition. A newcomer to Musicamp was Eric Wetherall (and his dog Monty), who conducted the Second Orchestra. Eric is Director of Music at Falcon College. Cabby Stirling conducted the String Orchestra ands Spencer the Wind Band, whose performance of Weber's Concertino (with Spencer as soloist and Paul Bourdillon conductor) was memorable. Brian Foakes made his debut as conductor of the Jazz Band. The marimba groups were organised by Silas Kamarizeni and played between items in the final Concert, which this year was held at the new Music School hall at Prince Edward School. The Musicamp Choir, conducted by Guy Cary, chose three contrasting items; a Welsh song, The Merchant from George Dyson's The Canterbury Pilgrims and Verdi's Grand March from Aida.
The final concert was dedicated to the memory of Dorothy Sibson, who was a long serving member of Musicamp and who died earlier this year. At the AGM Beverley Hargrove was elected Chairman, and mention must be made of the outgoing committee, under the leadership of Colbert Mpofu who worked tirelessly to make sure this Musicamp was a success-with a fuel crisis, increased fees and other restraints this was no easy matter!
Final Thoughts
Reading through what I have written I am conscious of some omissions which I must hastily rectify. When chairman Paul Bourdillon had to leave for the states to complete his Masters Degree he asked Bridget Morris to take over from him. This she did and worked tirelessly on our behalf for two years before she, too, with pressure of work and so many other commitments, proposed Colbert Mpofu as the chairman in 1998.
Memory and not lack of appreciation meant that I forgot to mention Beverley Hargrove, who has been our secretary for a number of years. She had all the high tech at her disposal and so the air was blue with e-mail, fax messages, word processors-the lot! All this is a very far cry from the Committee in the sixties, gathering round a table in the Common Room at Marist Brothers copying instrumental parts (with fountain pens) and trying hard (at least some of us were..) to remember what key signature you wrote in when transposing an Eb saxophone part for a Bb clarinet. Musicamp thanks you, Beverley, for your unflappability, your breath-taking efficiency-frightening at times! - and above all for your great dedication to everything connected with Musicamp.
There have been so many changes on the Musicamp Committee over the years that I'm going to turn to the minutes held on 8th June 1997 and take them from there. Chris Billin, who took over from Dorothy Sibson as treasurer and without whose financial expertise (I was going to write wizardry but that has undertones which I do not imply) has been largely responsible for keeping the financial position of Musicamp in a very healthy position. While Musicampers take it for granted, I suspect, that all is financially well, the Committee does not and we know and appreciate all that Chris does for us.
Jenny Palmer is the next one on my list and who has looked after some of our guest conductors, given the Committee your kind hospitality and have helped us move on from year to year. Carol Smith is another committee member who, in her quiet way, has contributed to the success of Musicamp. Cabby Stirling quietly mentioned the "Scale" project and equally quietly raised $5000. We all remember you with gratitude leading the first orchestra, popping into my hand the piano part of the Trout Quintet and wouldn't take "No" for an answer! Then there is Keith Nicholas, whom most of us remember behind the bar serving innumerable Castle beers or gin and tonics to thirsty instrumentalists, playing that invaluable bassoon, complete with that rosy smile and "What can I get for you?". I also remember Philip Mahlahla who, at committee meeting, always had something relevant and important to contribute.
Postlude
The Story of Musicamp serves a dual purpose:
it does have a proud and enviable history., and it is a convenient record
to future committee members to see which conductors we have had, works performed,
our various venues and so on. We must keep a list of all these if a continuing
history is to be written. The present economic climate in this country is
inevitably going to mean a hike in the fee structure. Can we survive this?
There is a certain irony in all of this when I consider out first Musicamp
(in tents) at five pounds per head and our present set-up with imported conductors
and trip to Harare for the Final Concert when, in 1964, we drove down a farm
road to the Fort Rixon Club! Musicamp then had a slot for illustrated talks
on composers, and how many now have heard, or even heard of, Strauss's Till
Eulenspiegel? The scene has indeed changed, but the appreciation of music,
in its widest and fullest sense, has not. Whither the next Musicamp? I just
don't know.
