Dr. Stephen Varcoe, Patron  
Milford Friends Bulletin
January, 2013  
  
Editorial
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have enjoyed the Christmas and New Year Celebrations.
 
Following your kind appreciation of the Winter Newsletter and increasing Milford activity, we have decided to experiment with a series of Bulletins. This will enable us to inform you more regularly of Milford business and events, rather than presenting large volumes of detail less regularly.
 
Collectively, the Bulletins will continue to focus on such areas as:
- Performances
- Musical Publications (including Sibelius transcriptions)
- Broadcasts
- Recordings
- Discussions
- Articles
- Links with Professional Bodies and Educational Establishments
- Books
- the two Milford Websites.

Please do get in touch with me about:
- any Milford matters
- if you have any composer you feel should be included under ‘Milford and His Contemporaries’
- musical or historical articles
- any relevant musical aspect which you feel we should be promoting
- news of individual members of our Milford Friends circle.

Thank you for all your continued support and encouragement.
Peter
 
Performance
National Milford Day
Following our decision to introduce an annual ‘National Milford Day’, we are now suggesting the following ideas:
- that Robin’s birthday should be known annually by us all as ‘Robin Milford Day’
- that Robin’s birthday should thus be annually celebrated by us all through the performance of some Milford piece(s) at an event which should take place during the week of the 22nd January and not just the weekend nearest to Robin’s birthday (22nd January), as suggested in December

We appreciate that we are now well into January but we urge you, most strongly, to try and arrange for some Milford piece(s) to be performed (even if only casually set into an arranged programme) during the week at a (i) concert/recital, (ii) in a music lesson, (iii) as a voluntary during a church service, or (iv) simply in the privacy of your home.

If you are able to perform any of Robin’s works this year, please do contact Peter and let him have the details. Please remember that every performance of Robin’s music, no matter how small, contributes to his promotion and celebration.

We know that a number of our organists have played some of Robin’s music at services over Christmas. Please send me details of where, when and the works performed.

We, of course, appreciate that ‘Robin Milford Day’ may not take off until 2014 but do, please, perform some Milford music during the 2013 celebration.
 
Ludlow Song Festival
We are delighted to report that Robin’s song The Glance will be performed at this year’s Ludlow Festival on Friday afternoon, 31st May. We are most grateful to Jim Page, Iain Burnside and Finzi Friends for including Robin this year. Finzi Friends promote an excellent and exciting series of concerts, recitals and talks on twentieth century British Music each year. Please vist http://www.finzifriends.org.uk/events.htm for more information.
 
Recordings
Violin Concerto
We are delighted to report that there are now definite arrangements in place to record Robin’s Violin Concerto. Further details will be announced in the near future.

Musical Publications (including Sibelius transcriptions)
Milford Chamber Music
Dr. Kate Romano (Director of Doctoral Programmes at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama) is currently investigating Robin’s Chamber Music with a view to perform and, possibly, record some of the works with the Goldfield Ensemble (please see www.goldfieldensemble.co.uk) . Kate is a founder member of the Ensemble. Their current projects concern lesser-known early twentieth century British composers, including Howells, Bliss, Gibbs, Stanford, Parry and Bax.

The Goldfield Enesmble is currently discussing a residency at the new home of the ACE Foundation. ‘The British Landscape’ is one of the themes which they will employ in project.

Kate, has written, “with your kind help and the Milford repertoire I have, I am able to build some attractive programmes. These works will be performed as part of the Goldfield Ensemble 'Landscape' project to celebrate our new Residency at Bury Farm in collaboration with the ACE Foundation. ... The concert hall - small, yet beautiful - is still being built and will be completed later in 2013. Pending funding, the residency concerts will take place 2014 ...”  

Dr. Romano has also offered to assist David in transcribing Milford works to Sibelius and editing appropriate works. In addition to the Goldfield Ensemble, it is hoped that the Guildhall School of Music and Drama may also be involved with this work in terms of: financial assistance and research potential within the ‘Research Excellence Framework’ (REF).  

The Trustees.
January, 2013