February Salon Tuesday and March St David's Ball
at
The Georgian Group
February and March have been busy as usual at The Georgian Group. There have been various trips, lectures and events and last week started with a Salon Tuesday and ended with the Young Georgian St David's Day Ball.
For the Salon Tuesday I was joined by brilliant Canadian harpsichordist Katie De La Matter, who also acted as a superb coach before the concert. Sadly the soprano friend of mine who was due to sing was struck down with the dreaded lurgy, so I had to sing the entire thing! This was a good challenge though as it meant dusting off a piece by Pelham Humfrey and another by Henry Lawes to add to the programme of Handel, Bach and Purcell.
We had a great crowd and my voice managed to hold-out despite my moving fifty chairs up two flights of stairs, carrying wine and generally hosting the thing...a one man concert hall!!
This was the seventh Salon Tuesday and soprano Sarah Gabriel and I are looking forward to our recital on Tuesday 7th May, which will be in full Georgian Dress...!
The Library at The Georgian Group
Our Georgian Townhouse 'Welsh Assembly' for St David's Day was a great success and, for the first time, we used the library of the Georgian Group as well as the large Drawing Rooms above. This was lovely because it is considerably warmer than those lofty apartments on the piano nobile and has a more intimate atmosphere. Sophie Edmonds and I decked the place out in Welsh items, including a large crop of leeks...
Our first guest was a fluent Welsh speaker and seemed mildly amused by our Welsh labels on the canapes and food, then came a young Georgian lady, followed by another, then some Regency dandies and a very beautiful lady dragon...I was St George, but I didn't fancy my chances with this stunning scaly beauty!!
Guests feasted on champagne, canapes, Welsh Pies (no horse!) and cheeses and we 'Polonaised' up the stairs to the Drawing Rooms, where there was a 'Leek Duel'...I won the first round and then was thoroughly beaten by an American guest dressed as Colonel Gadaffi...not sure whether he'd misread the dresscode or had come to the wrong party...
The Georgian Group has a strong Welsh contingent and has a caseworker there to look after the huge architectural heritage of the Principality, ranging from tiny farmer's bothies to great Georgian stage-set like creations such at Gwrych Castle.
Cake for the Tenth Anniversary of The Young Georgians made by Zuleika Parkin
Diolch!!
For more information on the Georgian Group please see:
www.georgiangroup.org.uk
All images and text in this blog are under the copyright ownership of Oliver Gerrish
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