Dear Denis,

This edition of the SCGS Newsletter has a report of the Society's March meeting, Nina Rideout's review of our Turner Sims concert on 2 April, a video of the performance of Timespan and news about the next few events in our 2022 calendar.

It's a bumper edition at the start of our aniversary year!

The Editorial Team

We finally dragged members back to their seats from the lively conversations they were having (a measure, I think, of the excitement created by our joint endeavour on Timespan) so we could start the solo section of the meeting.

This was kicked off by Penny Candlin who played a lovely reflective piece by Eduardo Martin called El Vacio de Tu Ausencia (The void of your absence).

Following Penny were four players who had written or arranged their own pieces, which might be a record for one meeting.

First of these was Chris Stubbings, and it was nice to hear his own work Staying Awake with some great jazz/blues inflections. Although he played from memory Chris assured me that it wasn’t improvised and that he has the music available if anyone would like to see it.

Next up was Peter Whalley who played his own arrangement of the song Sea Fever by John Ireland, which he had played the previous week at a university event where he is doing a Batchelor of Music degree.

Martin Slater next played his own familiar Rustic Rondo from 1978. This is a composition that is on the web site for anyone who would like to try its jaunty lilting melody.

Martin Slater next played his own familiar Rustic Rondo from 1978. This is a composition that is on the web site for anyone who would like to try its jaunty lilting melody.

Finally in the “DIY” section came Christiane Charlton who played her own arrangement of a hauntingly beautiful Ukrainian folk song called One Moonlit Night. It was very well arranged and played and. given what is going on in that country, it was very moving. Slava Ukraini !!

Chris Thompson then took the floor for a performance of Tango Final by Piazzolla from the Gary Ryan book of Tangos. Chris says, "This was long delayed from the November 2021 composers night (from which I was absent). But that meant that I could play it on my brand new guitar, an instrument built by Oren Myers. Judging by the response people seemed to like its sound, leaving me very happy! "

And finally came Tim Rushworth, playing a Flamenco piece by Paco Pena called La Alacazaba, or The Fortress (from the guitar tab, no less). This is in the form of a Verdiales, which Tim says is like a Malaguena. And as an added bonus he had some castanets playing along on his magic iPad. Very impressive playing.

And here's a small gallery of still images grabbed from the video footage of the evening's performances...

We have a very full programme of events in 2022, our anniversary year. You can download it all on a one-page summary ....

Or read the full works on our website...