AAS0910

The new brochure for the Abbotsholme Arts Society has finally landed. While the website has yet to be updated, and the information has been available since before the Festival (ie, I could have easily listed it all here before now), below are scans of the full brochure detailing this season's events. For those that care about such things, the colour is Pantone 209 and is actually the last of a sequence of colours I chose back in 2005 leading up to this season.
This year's artists include Alina Ibragimova and Cedric Tiberghien performing the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas over three concerts, Stephen Hough with a programme linked to the year, the Schubert Ensemble, the Jerusalem Quartet, the inimitable Spiers & Boden doing an acoustic set, and the 2009 Gordon Clark Scholar Linda Barlund. Tickets for all events are available by calling the number detailed under General Information below.

death of an institution?

there were rumours floating around, and the website has been down for a little while, but having just had the opportunity to walk past, it really does seem that James Redshaw, Lichfield's independent bookshop has finally died. There is a notice in the window stating that due to the economic downturn, James Redshaw Ltd ceased trading on 30 June 2009. A few years ago it was bought out by S&J Music, a wonderful little music shop, and just over a year ago both shops moved from Dam Street to a larger premise in Bird Street. This was not one of those bookshops in which you could spend a blissful afternoon browsing the shelves and having a sneaky read, but they did pride themselves on being able to track down pretty much anything and get it in very quickly. James Redshaw was also a very strong and loyal supporter of local authors, something that will surely be missed now that they are gone.
Lichfield Festival took over the running of the Lichfield Literary Dinner in 2006, after James Redshaw had been running it incredibly successfully for 30 years. This year's Literary Dinner takes place on Friday 9 October as part of Lichfield Literature and will feature Kate Adie speaking.

dreamfighter mark two

later on today up in Scotland, Dreamfighter gets its second outing as part of this year's Aberdeen International Youth Festival. Performed twice (5.30 and 7.30), and with the same team as the premiere here in Lichfield (Scottish Ensemble, composer Tim Sutton conducting and Hannah Conway narrating), the choir this time round will be the NYCoS Girls Choir.

still not a plinthian

I've just checked and I have missed out on a place for One & Other on the Fourth Plinth for the third month in a row, no doubt along with thousands of others. While this in itself is not a problem, missing out does give me the chance to highlight two one-hour slots coming up that have a connection to the Lichfield Festival.
Hannah Spencer, an ex-Festival runner and now Creative Arts graduate will be up sometime in what remains of this week. More about her here.
Stephen Snoddy, Festival Board member and Director of New Art Gallery Walsall will be up 1-2pm Friday 28 August. More about him here.
The chances of getting a place were pretty good when I applied, but since this thing went live at the start of July, the chances of getting a place have been decreasing everyday. We'll see what October holds...

weird

I have been through something like this on several occasions but it is still a weird experience seeing your job advertised. It went up yesterday providing interested people with three weeks to send in their application.