Reviews
Moonlight Mandolin Orchestra Summer School
A
t the tail end of June, Cambridge based Moonlight
Mandolin Orchestra retreated to the nearby idyll of
Cottenham for their 2014 Summer School. It was a chance
to relax, play music, drink wine and have a lot of fun. As
mandola #4 this was my first and, to be honest I was a bit
apprehensive. I joined the Moonlights a while back to learn
how to play proper scores in an ensemble. Now I’m pleased
to have moved from outright illiterate to ‘Janet and John’.
Would I cope? Anne Moller kindly allowed her lovely home to
be recast as Hogwarts, with string plucker magicians turning
up bulging with mandolins, cellos, guitars, mandolas and
even a mandocello. Nobody was quite sure what to expect,
but the ever patient maestra Anna Langley had been busy
with prep and arrived clutching a stash of immaculately
printed tutorial notes stuffed with
Mozart canons, tips on ensemble
playing, Italian music terms and a 5
part Thomas Arne air to feast on.
Being rather used to taking things
away to study I found playing from
fresh scores every 5 minutes initially
daunting but eventually quite a
thrill. We started on the canons; 11
participants cramm