Flutes en Vacances Student Summer Music Course

This is the Summer School to try – Play All Day – we don’t stop! 

• 5 nights / 6 days of intensive, enjoyable and rewarding tuition and music-making for Flutes, Clarinets, Saxophones and Friends.
• 10 – 12  places only for 2023.
• We offer a place to any flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, recorder or bassoon player.
• Beginner grades to diploma level – anyone keen to play
• The course is very small for maximum attention – we accept only 10-12 students, so be sure to book early.
• Ages 10  to 18 – in 3 different groups with a bespoke programme created to suit your exact playing needs.
• Twice-daily performance opportunities

Find out more

About the course

The UK Student Summer Music School with Julie and Nick includes all woodwind players from beginners to advanced plus friends on classical guitar, violin and cello. The course is small, friendly with carefully structured tuition to give maximum attention to each student. Flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, recorder, classical guitar, violin and cello players are invited. Auxiliary instruments (piccolo, tenor, baritone saxophones etc) are welcome as are instrument-playing siblings.

International students are also very welcome to combine music-making with English practice. The tutors also speak French, Italian and Spanish. To date, we have welcomed students from Spain, Italy, Malaysia, USA, Portugal, Turkey, Russia, Bulgaria, Thailand, France, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Bahrain as well as the UK.

Supervised recreation time is always built into the full daily teaching timetable. The course is small. relaxed and friendly with full pastoral care and good home cooking all set in the expansive and beautiful grounds of Earls Hall. We aim to enthuse and motivate our students and can guarantee a year’s improvement in just a few days!

Course content

For entry-level / beginner grade students to intermediate players we offer Individual tuition, coached ensembles, sight-reading, rhythm and counting, tone, technique, aural, scales, piano accompaniment, exam assistance and help with polishing a performance for everyone.

For more advanced students, we include all items from the above list and also Masterclasses, sessions on conducting and directing ensembles, musical appreciation, memory tips, transposition and developing key sense, programme selection, platform presentation and confidence, and understanding the basic principles and pedagogy of how to teach your instrument.

There will be an optional solo competition (3 levels) for which you should bring a well-prepared piece of music to demonstrate your playing at its best.

Repertoire list for solo work and individual tuition

• Entry Level/ Beginner Grade Students – Please bring any solo piece that you are working on with your teacher. Remember the piano part if there is one. You may prefer to choose something from your tutor book, which is fine.
• Intermediate Level Students – Please bring an exam or test piece that you have worked on with your teacher. Remember the piano part if there is one.
• Advanced Students – Please bring a movement from any Sonata or set exam piece or well-known repertoire piece for your instrument with piano part, if it is accompanied.

Repertoire for mixed ensembles

• We provide all of the music, but do bring something of your own, if you would particularly like to try it out. The repertoire to be coached includes music by Bach, Handel, Telemann  Mozart, Schubert, Devienne, Dvorak and Elgar + opera, ballet, contemporary popular music and music theatre/show tunes. Every student will perform their ensembles at the final concert.

Group combinations

Typical group combinations in the past have been: Flute ensemble, Clarinet ensemble, Saxophone group SATB, Flute or Recorder and Guitar, Flute with Clarinet, Flute and Oboe, Flute, Violin and Cello, Two flutes with bassoon, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet and Bassoon, Recorder with Cello, Flute and Violin and a Tutti group with one of Nick’s special arrangements. We have a library of over 300 titles and the parts can be adapted for any combination of instruments so that everyone gets the chance to play in different ensembles.

Venue

Earls Hall is originally a 17th-century house with a Georgian frontage and magnificent gardens set in the rural tranquillity of the sprawling village of Cockfield with its one Church, one school and one village shop. The house has a music room with antique grand piano, dining room, large sitting room and recreation room with table tennis table, two kitchens and plenty of bedrooms with 3 full bathrooms and an extra downstairs cloakroom. The gardens are ours for the duration of the stay and we can enjoy the fresh produce from the vegetable areas.  “Shabby chic” in style and everyone loves it – unspoilt and welcoming.