Brighten up your day after all the rain we’ve been having re- cently with the 2012 edition of Basil’s News. We’ve had another very success- ful year with a bumper Touch of Basil, a great and Songwriters Registered Charity No. 0194937 Prize final and a sell-out Games and Quiz evening. See the articles inside for more information plus details of the causes we’ve supported. A Touch of Basil 2012 Our new group ticket scheme proved to be very popular at last year’s concert, boosting our audience size and intro- ducing new people to the work of the Trust. So we’ve decided to retain it this year along with our earlier start time of 7.00 and hope that you’ll all bring along even more audience members. Philip’s cousin Kay Bromhead, Head of music at Rossett High School in Harro- gate, is bringing some sixth form pupils to perform for us and we will welcome back VOX from Bishop Walsh School in Sutton Coldfield. Old friend Devon Brown will also return, now famous for his appearances with Christian com- poser Roger Jones. Vocalist C.J. Webley, who gave a tremendous performance in John Wllmott School’s production of “The Little Shop of Horrors”,will be , as will post-graduate ex- Conservatoire opera singer Rachel Bowden, albeit in a very different style! More details are on page 2 overleaf. A Touch of Basil 2012

Adrian Boult Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire Saturday 22nd September at 7 pm

This annual celebration concert includes a wide variety of musical styles and genres from classical through to rock music.

Performers include:

Rachel Bowden – Winner of the Ashleyan Opera Prize

“Silhouettes Smiling” by Pete Yelding

VOX - Bishop Walsh School Choir

Sixth Form Pupils from Rossett High School, Harrogate

Josh Tooley – violin Daniel James - piano

Devon Brown C.J. Webley Neil Robinson Kelly Tye – vocalists

Sue Bates – soprano Stephen Davis – tenor Basil’s Bunch

Heart of England Singers – conductor Martin Bates Tickets

In advance: Adults - £8 Children & Students - £6

Group Ticket: Four tickets - £25

On the door: Adults - £9 Children and Students - £6

2 Philip Bates Games and zoomed around the hall looking for Quiz Night 2012 their ‘railway connections’. Fish and chip suppers supplied by Greg- The annual games and quiz night took ory’s were served after this game to place this year on March 10th 2012 help contestants recover and refuel. at Arden Hall in Castle Bromwich. The ever popular ‘Roll Your Coins The evening was very well attended at the Whisky Bottle’ was next, as usual, with all the tickets sold out. which involved rolling money at

Alphabet fun at the Games & Quiz Night The night kicked off with round a whisky bottle to see who could one of the quizzes, kindly organ- get closest and win the whisky. ised by Sue and Stan Gamble, which Round 3 of the quizzes was organ- was challenging and set the pace for ised by Martin Bates who played the night ahead. The Philip Bates film theme tunes for all the contest- Trust’s version of Pictionary was ants to guess their origin. Round the next game, requiring quiz go- 2 of Pictionary followed, with ers to produce scribbles reminiscent the subject being television pro- of flowers in a race against other grammes, and the outcome being teams of eager budding Picassos. many embarrassing scary squiggles. Alan Spier’s quiz round pushed all The last game of the evening was contestants to the limit through the Alphabet Game, the outcome of a picture quiz and naming fa- which was much organised chaos as mous parent/children combos, contestants holding letters of the al- with much head scratching and phabet jostled amongst themselves to beard stroking indicating the spell out the answers to the questions. brain effort being employed. The evening was a roaring success Railway Riot followed with much filled with fun and laughter, thanks pandemonium as contestants to the attendance and kind gener- osity of the contestants Julie Larkin 3 A Touch of Basil 2011 verse as JS Bach and Jimmy Hendrix? And more’s the pity, you might say! Whatever your taste in music you Variety is the spice of life and this would have found something to A Touch of Basil had it in spades, suit your palette in this Philip Bates reflecting the work of The Philip Trust Celebration Concert on Sat- Bates Trust during the last year.The urday 24th Sept 2011. It was the first item was Melissa Underwood’s twelfth such event, an annual occa- piece of verse Anything is Possible, if sion that judging by the reaction of You Think it Worthwhile spoken by a well-filled Adrian Boult Hall, gets David White, words so appropriate better by the year. This is no doubt to the tone of the whole evening. due to the sterling efforts of Martin Next on was a product of one of Bates, who with the help of family the Philip Bates Trust’s work done and friends, manages to assemble in schools, Millie Langton, winner musical turns from genres as broad of Castle Vale’s got Talent 2011.

VOX at A Touch Of Basil 2011 as the world-wide-web. How many She sang Somewhere over the Rainbow; concerts at the Birmingham Con- not only did this Dorothy have a servatoire feature composers as di- gift but also the mettle, singing it 4 unaccompanied. After this, Chris bination of Baritone, Viola, , Davis presented a complete con- 2 and Percussion, and trast as a solo percussionist, belting conducted by the . I was out his own composition Fire Stamp. most impressed by how Betteridge wove together the contrasting tex- The Heart of England Singers then tures of voice and instruments, and took to the stage for a major contri- by its inherent drama. Interestingly bution. Under their director Martin Betteridge described this aspect of Bates they delivered three excerpts the piece as one of paranoia with from The Armed Man, A Mass for ‘relentless, repetitive figures which Peace from , dedicated never settle’……‘meandering and in 2001 to victims of Kosovo. In questioning vocal lines which often the chanting of the choir are at odds with the ensemble; the captured a degree of menace, aided vocalist is never content’. Taking the by the chords of Margaret Croucher baritone line, Matthew Stone ably on piano, although I did miss the at- conveyed this sense of unrest, de- mospheric orchestration of Jenkins. livering such perceptive words from Whitman as the opening Where am The following Agnes Dei was both I? and the closing And Those Appear lyrical and beautiful with the sopra- that Perplex Me. Betteridge is a young nos particularly in fine voice. Cellist man who hopefully has a future Luke Mowbray joined in for the fa- ahead of him on the music scene. miliar strains of Benedictus; this is one of the most effecting scores of the Steve Davis’ rendition of The Carol 21st century, despite possible over- Singers by Thomas Sterndale Ben- exposure on one popular music sta- nett then brought some light relief tion. The Singers showed their ver- with a song to lyrics by Charles satility of repertoire with Queen’s Haynes. It concerned a group of No-one But You, a eulogy to Freddie mates who ventured out in me- Mercury, with soloist Amy Farrell. dieval times to earn a bit of cash as Christmas Waits, but the only One major annual prize donated by copper they got was a uniformed the Philip Bates Trust is open to as- one who put them behind bars. piring composers and songwriters. Winner of the 2010 competition was The second artist to perform his own Michael Betteridge with his Poems of work came next – Isaac Cartwright Walt Whitman, an absorbing work. on guitar, complete with some high- It was scored for the unusual com- ly sophisticated electronic gear that 5 seemed to be operated by his foot. VOX – Bishop Walsh School Choir Although he had entitled the piece led by Christy del Strother with Mi- Reticent, I found it quite the opposite chael Baker on piano brought the first – communicative and demonstra- half to a close with a couple of ar- tive. There was, as you might expect, rangements of Grammy Award win- a repetitive aspect but the build- ners – Kings of Leon (Use Somebody) up in intensity was intoxicating. and Bruno Mars (Just the Way You Are).

Such is the pull of this charity that the violinist for JS Bach’s Partita No 1 in B Minor came from Germany to take part; Jonathan Styles opened the second half. The Tom Walker Trio then played some serious rock. This wasn’t the usual type of sound heard in the Adrian Boult Hall, as the beat reverberating around the auditorium testified. I wondered what the once eminent conductor would have made of this combo: Tom Walker Trio (lead guitar/vo- cals) Carl Sylvester (bass guitar) and Chris Emery (drums). Thankfully devoid of flashing lights, I thought their Hoochie Coochie Man (Willie Singer: Francesca Costigan Dixon) and Little Wing (Jimi Hen- drix) were very good and extremely The Bates family were responsible well received by the 400+ audience. for the next item, another premier with Martin as composer and ac- Follow that, they say, well the Mill- companist, wife Susan and daughter man Family Folk Band certainly did. Rachel providing the vocals. It had The guitar chords of Steve Millman been written in celebration of Ra- offered a stark contrast to the pre- chel’s new arrival (Little Niecy Beth) vious act, but the feet around me the verses composed from three continued to tap. Led by Katherine different perspectives of the family Mann on /whistle, along with – Philip, great-grandma and Rachel. family members Emma, Rob and Andrew, their traditional Irish jigs 6 and reels made for some very easy Sue Bates and White Cliffs of Dover listening. Basil’s Bunch, a group (Kent). The audience joined the formed to retain the memory of Entire Company to bring the even- Philip, then gave us their version ing to a rousing finale with When of a couple of pop numbers – after I’m Sixty-Four (Lennon-McCartney). only a few hours rehearsal that day. With such an assortment of mu- Three more Trust prizewinners fol- sic and a veritable heap of talents lowed. Michael Hogg by virtue of on display we had come full circle the Philip Bates Performance Prize with David White’s words, Anything 2010, Bishop Vesey’s Grammar is Possible, if You Think it Worthwhile. School, played his own arrange- The Philip Bates Trust contribute ment of Let’s Be Happy by Giora to many worthwhile causes and Feidman; there was a crispness to this was a very worthwhile evening. his saxophone playing together with Geoff Read some pleasing phrasing. With music co-ordinator Trevor Evans, the five Heartlands Hospital members of JHELL, a second repre- Holiday Music sentative of Castle Vale’s Got Talent 2011, sang a popular medley; their Thanks to a grant from the Phil- happy, lively style was infectious. ip Bates Trust, the Arts Team at Heartlands Hospital was able Francesca Costigan had taken the to fund a music and art pro- Ashleyan Opera Prize 2011 at the ject on the children’s unit dur- Conservatoire and she began with ing the school holidays in 2011. Dvořak’s Song to the Moon from Rusalka. She showed sure techni- Children were treated to activ- cal control, beautiful timbre and a ity days around the theme of a clear understanding of the text, giv- journey into outer space. Activi- ing a breath-taking performance. I ties included making puppets and did not think her second number, masks, playing musical instruments Je Veux Vivre from Gounod’s Romeo and composing music to accom- et Juliette suited her quite so well. pany dramatic voyages to the plan- ets. A captain’s log was kept to re- The Heart of England Singers re- cord the thoughts of all involved. turned with a red, white and blue Chris Morrell, Play Specialist said trilogy: Red Sails in the Sunset (Wil- “The whole musical space expe- liams) The Bluebird (Stanford) with rience has been wonderful. The 7 children and the parents really en- to experiment on and some per- joyed it. Fantastic distraction!” cussion instruments. The violin- One patient, aged 12, wrote in the ist approached the children in turn captain’s log: “It was really fun. I’d like and played a melody, encourag- to do it again also I really like the mu- ing them to interact and use one sic, the rocket and making the bugs”. of the instruments to play along- side her. But one little boy with a The music programme at the head injury just wanted her to sit with him and play soothing music. The guitarist worked in another area with two older teenage boys, showing them various chords and encouraging them to try these out for themselves on his guitar. Space Music at Heartlands Hospital They both seemed really interested.

Heart of England NHS Trust aims to provide patients with activi- ties which takes their mind off the reason for being in hospital and gives them an opportunity to ex- press themselves and be creative. Esther Jackson, Project Co-Ordinator

Holiday Music: A Personal Children collaborating with musicians Perspective One young boy was very excited by On the afternoon we visited Heart- everything that was going on in the lands Hospital there were two mu- “space” room and wanted to show sicians in attendance, a violinist us around and point out everything and a guitarist. The main room was of note, including the art work. decorated with gauzy material and We came away feeling humbled by there were revolving light effects to the experience and certain that this give a sense of other-worldliness. project was a resounding success. One young disabled girl was obvi- Sue Bates ously fascinated by the lights. There was a keyboard for the youngsters 8 National Children’s As well as creating a safe, stimulating Orchestra Members environment in which to explore and enhance their skills and passions, Two young musicians who had gained their friendly residential courses places with the National Children’s also help to broaden the social Orchestra made applications to the development of young musicians. Philip Bates Trust this year. They were Brendan Connellan, 8, The NCO is in fact not just one national orchestra but five – the main orchestra, under 13,12 and 11 orchestras and a training orchestra. Its mission is to identify, nurture and showcase musical excellence in children through orchestral training and to be the leading training ground for professional musicians. Sarah Brienza and Sarah Brienza, 13, . Established in 1978, the NCO has Both these young musicians have gone from strength to strength, reached a standard in their playing building up an international far in advance of what is normally reputation and performing in a wide expected for their age and our variety of concert venues, from the financial support has helped them Royal Albert Hall in London to the attend the courses held by the Forbidden City Concert Hall in orchestra during school holidays. Beijing, and recently played for the Queen in Westminster Hall during The National Children’s Orchestra the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. of Great Britain provides young people with a world-class foundation Droitwich clarinettist Sarah Brienza for orchestral performance and was one of the youngsters chosen to musicianship. They bring together play for the Queen, members of the hundreds of 7-13 year olds from Royal family and 700 guests on June across the country and offer them a 5th 2012. Before the event Sarah said life-changing experience – meeting she felt very excited. “It will be the like-minded young people and being biggest experience of my life so far guided by top professional musicians. and a memory I will never forget” Sue Bates

9 Ashleyan Opera Prize 2012 by Rossini and Ya Lyublyu Vas from Eugene Onegin by Tchaikowsky. On the evening of the 17th April His performance was sound and en- 2012 I headed into Birmingham to thusiastic but he never quite seemed attend the Ashleyan Opera Prize to relax into it and unfortunately held at The Birmingham Conserv- this affected how it came across. atoire. The adjudicator, Jeremy Yu Ning, soprano, had again pre- White, had come for the occasion pared her performances well and from London where he had been there were some very delicate and performing at Covent Garden. sensitive moments in them but she There was a good attendance and the seemed nervous and a little un- audience was attentive and supportive. comfortable which affected how Firstly Kirsten Barker, soprano, she sang at times as well as it being produced a well-prepared, confi- a slight distraction from the audi- dent performance and she looked ence’s point of view. Caro Nome fabulous. She was accurate but per- from Rigoletto and The Bell Song haps could have provided more from Lakme were her chosen arias. contrasts in dynamics and in her Sophie Pullen was a focused and portrayal of character, especially in self-aware performer with a high view of a varied programme from quality performance which put her Mozart to Gounod and Britten. in the top two in the final reckon- This was followed by Urszula ing. The steady pace that she chose Bock, whose mezzo-soprano voice to take in Berlioz’s Me Voilà Seule was rich in tone. She passionately Comme Autrefois demonstrated con- communicated the gritty dark- fidence and a personalisation of ness and humour of the character the work. It was most enjoyable. in her performance of Walton’s I She captivated you with her ab- was a Constant, Faithful Wife from solute focus on the performance. The Bear and also sang Amour! The final competitor was Rachel Viens Aider ma Faiblesse from Sam- Bowden and it was a performance son and Delilah by Saint-Saëns. to make you sit up and take note. Chung-Chi Lin, tenor, was the only Her use of voice was matched by male voice in the final of the opera a convincing and witty portrayal of prize this year. He performed Si ri- the characters and I certainly could trova io giuro from La Cenerentola not look away, it was totally gripping. In addition, her choice of repertoire 10 Ashleyan Opera Prize contenders: Urszula Bock, Kirsten Barker, Sophie Pullen and Rachel Bowden was very unusual and well suited to went through the performances and her and she clearly loved creating gave constructive criticism to all her performance. She performed competitors based upon his experi- Adieu Notre Petite Table from Manon ence as an opera singer and from his by Massenet and Adelaide’s Aria professional point of view. This was from The Enchanted Pig by Dove. very interesting and if used could be extremely helpful for the future vocal When I spoke to Rachel at the end development of the competitors. It it made sense when she explained was a thoroughly enjoyable evening that she had been singing with Bir- with many super performances and mingham Opera, as they often work a very worthy winner, who seemed on productions of lesser known extremely pleased with the outcome. and adventurous operatic works. Rachel Bates After the competition, Jeremy White 11 The Philip Bates Prize 2011: Tom Coult and Pete Yelding Come Out on Top We live in a competitive world, plays. Bird has a vivid imagination and for good or ill the arts indus- with lines such as ‘Would your lips try is not exempt from the scram- spout watercress if I kept them in a ble for success. With futures de- damp shed?’ and Coult’s music was pending on their outcome, results equally inspired. Three members of contests such as the Turner of his Opera Viscera group were Prize (for art) can be controversial. employed, a soprano supported by The field has nu- flute and cello. The two instruments merous vocal and instrumental produced some weird and won- competitions – the Cardiff Singer derful sounds, although I thought of the World and the BBC Young his creation might have been even Musician of the Year to name but more effective with the addition- two renowned events; both have al texture of a third instrument. seen the victors go on to greater Four songs followed, written by An- things. However, competitions drew Hopper for fellow student Phil- for aspiring composers are rather lippa Cairns. Based upon the fasci- rare. This is why the Philip Bates nating verse of Philip Larkin, Home is Prize awarded for composition is so Sad, As Bad as a Mile, Send no Money such a welcome annual occasion. and Water had been taken from his The proceedings were introduced collection The Whitsun Weddings. So- by Michael Wolters, a composer prano Cairns coped admirably with and member of the research staff Hopper’s challenging line, and I liked at Birmingham Conservatoire, fo- the way the composer varied his use cusing on structural and performa- of the four instrumentalists (vio- tive approaches. First up of the la, cello, alto sax and clarinet) with seven entrants was Tom Coult some delightful ensemble writing. with Seven Face Pictures, a setting Ben Graves was next with He Bids of Caroline Bird’s Facial and dedi- His Beloved Be At Peace, a setting of cated to the young Yorkshire poet. a poem of the same name by W B Although only 22, Coult already has Yeats, with words that comment on an impressive list of compositions the ephemerality of love and life. to his name, many with intrigu- There was an instant and dramatic ing titles as his extensive personal impact from the opening bars. Graves web site at www.tomcoult.com dis- seemed to get it just right with a roll- 12 Tom Coult and Pete Yelding ing piano, staccato violin and pizzi- I was less impressed by his use of cato cello, precise yet exciting mu- three as accompaniment. Also sic benefiting under the control of the use of props by Jackson to open conductor Dan Watson. As soprano and close his piece were I thought Roma Loukes entered to delicate over-elaborated and having created tremolo, she painted an evocative a situation, this was not sustained. picture of the ‘long manes’ of Yeats’ Fifth on the bill was Gavin Dale ‘shadowy horses’. With contrasting performing his own A Letter is Not dynamics and some poignant cello Enough (Come Home). Another con- lines, Graves maintained a tension testant who had written his own to the last, the final chords and si- verse, it concerned the effects on lence affectively held by Watson. a woman coming home to find Reviled Did I Live, Said I, As Evil I a letter telling her that her loved Did Believe was memorable for the one had been killed in the war. vocal Fach (voice type) of tenor Composed to a designated format as Craig Jackson who gave a superb part of his ‘A’ level project, there was rendition of it. But the evening more than a touch of Elton John in was a competition for composers, both Dale’s style and presentation. not singers, and whilst Luke Ive- But since it was very well done, it son had written his own perceptive mattered little. The solo flute also libretto of a tormented mind that added to the general mood of Dale’s ‘woke his own mother, the last ever message. I liked it enormously! sleeper’ and a haunting vocal line, 13 The time it took to set up the instru- Richard Stenton. In this later version ments and players for the contribu- it further embraced a second vocal, tion of Pete Yelding signalled that piano, clarinet and viola, a combina- the Conservatoire Recital Hall was tion that had been thoughtfully put in for something different. With together. I thought there was an im- a combo comprising composer pelling nature to the repetitive word- on vocals and electric guitar, plus less refrain from the soprano that backing from amplified viola, sax, began the piece and while Herring piano, clarinet and full , it only used five lines they were highly was. Studying composition at the effective with a magical final couplet: Conservatoire Yelding (get him on “He draws a question mark next to Facebook) gave a ‘three song set’ his open mouth. Straight lines are all – apparently a common phenom- that come out of his open heart.” enon at shady open-mic nights ac- cording to the programme notes. Before the results were announced, a group fittingly played a short piece He promised a juxtaposition of by Philip Bates in whose name the his aesthetic preferences: ‘On the Trust was formed. Who won the one hand I like delicate sounds and three prizes that were on offer? Trus- sensitive subject matter, but on the tees Martin and Susan Bates decided other I like rough sounds and crude the first one, going for Tom Coult. subject matter’. His lyrics for Sil- The second judge was contem- houettes Smiling, An Interlude About porary music composer Laurence Tissue (no prizes for guessing what Crane who opted for Pete Yelding as the tissue was for?) and 10 Years of his winner. The audience also voted Fire did in turn deliver sensitivity, for Yelding – no surprise there in vulgarity and anger. Ten out of ten view of his reception. For what it’s for originality and appeal to the pre- worth, my vote in the interval ballot dominantly young audience present, went to Ben Graves, simply because but did his music deliver the delicacy his music generated an atmosphere promised in the first two numbers? in keeping with the lines of Yeats. The final contribution was a joint The Philip Bates Prize grows. effort. Josh Herring had originally Come along, ladies. Let’s have composed Steady Hands as a song something from you next year! with banjo accompaniment. This was then modified to include the Geoff Read pre-recorded electronic sounds of

14 Puppet Animation in Treasurer’s Report. Brighton This year has been another profit- From time to time the Philip Bates able one for the trust. The Trust Trust supports arts projects other has supported various applica- than those involving music, and a tions for funding, we meet twice a puppet animation project in Brighton year at St Peter Church, Tile Cross, particularly ticked all the right boxes. Birmingham, to discuss appli- One of the advantages of this pro- cations that have been received. ject to us was that a great impact was In February we received 10 applica- achieved at minimal cost. Brighton tions from all over England, even though in the guidelines for ap- plying to the trust it is stated that we particularly welcome applica- tions from individuals and organi- sations within the West Midlands or from organisations undertak- Puppets in the making ing activities in the West Midlands. University student Lucinda Abel or- ganised and led the project, which in- The successful applicants were Sa- aged 13, towards mu- volved a group of Year 9 school pu- rah Brienza, sic courses for the clarinet in Droit- pils making puppets and telling local wich, Worcestershire; Brendan stories through animation and film. Connellan, aged 8, Ardingly, West Celebrating Brighton’s unique and Sussex, towards music fees to sup- diverse seafront culture and apply- port his career and aspiration to ing the Olympic value of excellence become a professional horn player; to the process and craftsmanship and Lucinda Abel, aged 20, Bright- of creating puppets, they explored on, to support the community arts and shared a new perspective on our project in an exhibition celebrating sense of place in the world in 2012. local stories from Brighton’s popu- The final film and puppets were lar seafront with puppets to music. on display as part of the Bright- In July we received 14 applications on Fringe Festival and Youth some of which were obviously a Arts Festival in May 2012 for a round robin and not applicable to large number of people to enjoy. our mission statement so they were Sue Bates not considered. The successful ap- 15 plicants were: Performances Bir- your continued support to the mingham, THSH, The Town Hall trust, as without it we couldn’t and The Symphony Hall for support continue these good works in towards the Jazz Summer School, a memory of Philip. Karen Moulton project aiming to develop the musi- cal ability of 50 young people from Birmingham; MF Community Mu- A New Addition sic, Birmingham, this is charity run Congratulations to Julie and by Georgina Farrow and Clare Mur- Kieran Larkin on the birth of phy to provide music workshops for their son, Jack who was born on people isolated in hospital, both on 20h November 2011 at Heartlands paediatric and adult wards; and Put- Hospital, weighing in at 6 lb 15 oz. ting Carers First, our contribution will be used to enable young carers to attend an African Drumming workshop in Stoke-on-Trent. We all must not forget that many carers are extremely young, some only aged 5. I would like to thank you all for Just for Fun: Music Word Search

ALLEGRO PITCH ALTO QUAVER BAND REST BASS SONATA SOPRANO CADENZA STAVE CELLO SYMPHONY CHOIR CHORD TEMPO CLARINET TENOR CONDUCTOR TONE CYMBAL TREBLE DRUM TRIANGLE GUITAR KEY TRUMPET LARGO TUNE MICROPHONE VIOLA MINIM WALTZ OCTAVE XYLOPHONE ORCHESTRA ZITHER 16