Activities of the

Orchestra Italiana di Flauti Dolci

Report of the

First International Meeting and Course
of Recorder Ensemble Music in Lucca.

The Course took place in Lucca, a beautiful Tuscan town which is about 70 km from Florence, from 17th to 21st of April 2003. The teachers were Celestino Dionisi and Rachel Gregory.

Celestino Dionisi has been teaching amateurs for 20++ years at Urbino's Summer School, and in many other Courses and Seminars. He founded the Italian Recorder Orchestra in year 2000, a growing group of amateurs and professional musicians, meeting regularly, and giving concerts in many Italian Venues.

Rachel Gregory has been teaching for more than twenty years at Dolmetsch Summer School, Northern Recorder Course (in Chester - UK), etc. and is an adjudicator at many Festivals and Recorder meetings in the UK.

The idea behind our course was to blend the best of the two different national ways of teaching Recorder music to amateurs, and to reunite players from the Italian- and English-speaking areas. In fact we ended up using three different languages, as we also had a good many course members from our German-speaking Sud-Tyrol.

We chose Lucca as the venue of the Course for many reasons. This fine Tuscan city is very easily reached by car, train or plane and is situated in a lovely valley, close to many well-loved resorts of the Tuscan Riviera.
The city itself is a miniature gem, and at the moment is largely unspoilt by mass tourist business. Therefore it is much quieter than many other better-known Tuscan cities, and is also moderately priced, and with a wide range of accomodations to suit most budgets and purses. Food in Lucca is incredibly nice, and very addictive.

Florence, Pisa and other charming places are very easily reached from Lucca, even on a day-trip basis, and due to gentle hills and slopes, the place is a paradise for those having a bycicle, or hiring one locally.

The Course's timetable is in fact designed to concentrate most of the teaching during the morning, leaving lots of time in the afternoon for optional musical activities or sight-seeing.

The Course was met with considerable success and public approval, in spite of its being a first edition, or a pilot edition if you wish. We are determined to improve all aspects of this newborn festival over the next few years ( we hope.... ).

Therefore we are meaning to organize a second edition next year, provided that a sufficient number of members enrol, of course. In particular we would be highly honoured to welcome course members from all those Countries , in Northern Europe and elsewhere in the world, which started with amateur recorder playing long before Italy, and have been for many years a constant source of ideas, and a steady help for our musical growth.

We are planning start a Web site for our Recorder Orchestra as soon as possible, covering also the future editions of our Course. This will probably take a few more months, as we are a non-profit organization after all, and most members are trying to reconcile this great and very addictive hobby with their long days at work.

In the meanwhile I will be pleased to assist those needing information about our activities.

Paolo Faeti, e-mail: pavolo59@yahoo.it

 

 

Celestino Dionisi, conducting at the final Concert of the Course in Lucca

Rachel Gregory conducting, at the same Concert