Events
Events planned for MT 2024 include but are not limited to:
4 and 5 Oct (Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, -1st Week): Workshops for 2nd and 3rd year students alongside the Betts Orientation Weekend for freshers
14 Oct (Monday,1st Week): Start-of-term drinks reception
28 Oct (Monday, 3rd Week): ‘Playing the Fauré Requiem’ (workshop with Richard Gowers)
11 Nov (Monday, 5th Week): ‘Adapting piano reductions to the organ’ (details TBA)
14 Nov (Thursday of 5th Week): Lecture on Pierre Cochereau, the trailblazing French improviser, to mark the centenary of his birth; this will be followed by a gala recital with David Briggs who will be playing his transcriptions of Cochereau’s improvisations.
25 Nov (Monday of 7th Week): End-of-term social night
Looking further ahead, we will be going to Paris from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 March 2025, not least to see Notre Dame Cathedral and hear the restored Cavaillé-Coll organ, following the re-opening of the building on 7 December 2024.
Over the years, the Betts Centre has offered many masterclasses, given by some of the world's finest organ performers and teachers, including Guy Bovet, Ewald Kooiman, James Lancelot, Jennifer Bate, Magnus Williamson, David Briggs, Pieter van Dijk, Nigel Allcoat, Marie-Claire Alain, Gillian Weir, Naji Hakim, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet, Edward Higginbottom, Hans Fagius, Peter Williams, Liuwe Tamminga, David Goode, Thomas Trotter, David Ponsford, Martin Baker, Anne Page and Ann-Elise Smoot.
Other workshops have included tuition in specific topics, from psalm accompanying and effective hymn playing to Baroque dance and its relationship to the music of François Couperin.
