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May 3 - 10, 2006

May in Le Marche! What more glorious way to start your holiday and begin a new summer of music making!

Musical Passages is very pleased to work again with the Bridge Quartet of London, offering our fourth coached workshop for string quartets with these fine performer/teachers. After an amazing week with the Quartet in Tuscany in the Spring of 2005, we return to Italy to a new venue in one of the most beautiful yet unknown regions. I am now living in this wonderful area, which I discovered through music and Italian musicians, having visited Ripatransone for several years with Musical Passges. Happily, it is an area quite easy to reach by plane (to Ancona and Pescara airports, served by RyanAir) or Bologna, Rome, or most other northern Italian cities and good rail service.

The Bridge Quartet (www.bridgequartet.com), well known to concert audiences in the U.K. and throughout Europe, will give a concert during the week, and may be joined by some Italian friends. Work assignments will be given in advance and chosen from requests by the participants, suggestions from the coaches, and according to participants' level of experience. Sought-after chamber music coaches regularly returning to Musical Passages and Dartington International Summer School, the Bridge recently garnered acclaim for their 2005 recording of Frank Bridge´s Viola Quintet and and early string quartet. According to The Strad "A landmark recording with gripping ensemble...Madeleine Mitchell and her luscious-toned friends do each work proud...highly recommendable."

Quartet members will coach us each day in assigned groups, and there will be time for informal playing and sightseeing in this beautiful region. The five major cities of Le Marche, which lies between the Adriatic Sea and the Apennine Mountains, are Urbino, Ascoli Piceno, Ancona, Pesaro and Macerata. Smaller cities and medieval towns dot the map and Le Marche possesses one of the most important religious shrines in Italy, the Sanctuary of the Holy House at Loretto. Just over the border in Umbria stands Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis and a major ceter for pilgrims. Le Marche is known for both its wines and gastronomy - fresh pasta is everywhere, fresh fruit and vegetables are produced locally, and fish from the Adriatic is plentiful and delicious. For people who would like to take a bit more time to explore Le Marche, we can informally arrange several days after the course finishes for historical and artistic visits. In the region of Le Marche we might visit my "hometown" of Carassai, regional capitals Fermo and Ascoli Piceno, nearby towns of Offida, Torre de Palma, Petritoli and Monterubbiano. Click here for map.

Few areas of the world are infused with such a strong sense of historical continuity as this part of central Italy. Past and present are linked in a web that stretches back over three millennia. An early tribe, the Piceni, gave their name to an important present-day regional capital, Ascoli Piceno. The area was linked to Rome by Roman-built roads such as the via Salaria and the via Flaminia, important thoroughfares even today. In the fifteenth century Urbino became a center of Renaissance learning, and is still an important university center. The Spanish and the French invaded this part of Italy until the Unification in 1860. In Le Marche, where the appearance of town centers has changed very little over the past several hundred years, over 20 towns have beautiful theaters built in the eighteenth and early ninteenth centuries. Many survive today in working order. No other part of the world comes close to matching Le Marche for its heritage of historical theaters.

We will stay in an elegant "agriturismo" called "Belsito", located very near the medieval town of Ripatransone. Belsito, located in the midst of a very large organic farm, is a country retreat whose aim is to foster harmony between the environment, natural resources, and the natural beauty of the area, while providing comfortable accomodations for guests to study, relax, work, and enjoy the gardens, woods, vineyards, olive groves and orchards. Fruit trees should be beautifully in bloom when we arrive in May. We will stay in apartments and the main lodge, all on the property. Each bedroom is equipped with a separate bathroom. Meals at Belsito are a delight, as you can well imagine. During the music week we will also have some meals in local restaurants in the medieval towns and at the seaside. Click here for more photos of the hotel and area.

A discount is offered for pre-formed quartets who apply by the deadline of February 16, 2006. Enrollment will be limited to 8 quartets, so order of application and balance of instruments will be considered if we need to make these kinds of decisions. Participants should bring their own music stands. Cello rental can be arranged for early applicants if necessary. Non-players are always welcome. Application Deadline: February 16, 2006

Prices and deadlines

May 3-10, 2006 (Belsito) Single: € 950 (Euros)  7 nights, full board Shared: € 900 (Euros)  7 nights, full board Student: € 600 (Euros) 7 nights, full board * Application deadline: February 16, 2006 * Acceptance notification: February 27, 2006 * Final Payment Due: March 31, 2006 * All prices include coaching, non-players € 100 less * Pre-formed group members deduct 45 Euros * Late Application fee (after Feb. 16) Add 25 Euros

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