We’ve got mail from Brighton

Joglaresa will be performing eclectic medieval music at the Winter Festival this year. Having taken part in the Brighton Early Music Festival, they will begin their ‘On Yoolis Night’ tour very soon! They sent us a postcard from ‘sunny’ Brighton:

Joglaresa’s postcard from Brighton

Dear Spitalfields Music,

Well we’ve had a wonderful time down at the Brighton Early Music Festival (BREMF) this year.  With singing medieval slave girls, belly dancers and the wonderful Brighton Community Choir taking part, the night was never going to be anything but exhilarating! Despite a bit of rain the audience came out in force, even singing and dancing along with us, it was absolutely amazing.

Only 4 weeks to go now until we begin our On Yoolis Night tour, eek!  Really looking forward to coming back to see you all again on Dec. 19th, we’ll be sure to keep you updated with all things Christmassy through Twitter @_Joglaresa
Hope you’re having a wonderful time with the preparations for your Winter Festival!

See you soon,
Joglaresa

We’ve compiled a Joglaresa playlist on Spotify for you to sample some delectable traditional English music from the 12th-15th Century. Joglaresa will be performing at the Winter Festival on Monday 19 December from 7pm to 8pm. For more details, head over to our website. Tickets £5-£15.

Intern Diary: Niharika says ‘Hello’

Hello – Niharika here, the new Marketing and Communications Intern at Spitalfields Music.

It has been four weeks since my first day and am really enjoying it. Spitalfields Music is in a wonderful location – in case the name didn’t give it away already – its HQ resides on the always busy Brushfield Street. It is lovely to work at my desk because I am able to hear live music from the market, and since a lot of restaurants and cafes crowd Spitalfields, the aromas from busy kitchens always waft in.

What we’ve been up to:

We have had the first recruitment session for Women sing East. If you want to join, or are interested in joining our other community choir Spitalfields Singers click here to find out more.

We are also currently working on our Winter Festival, and I wanted to share the new brochure with you:

Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2011 Brochure

The brochure has been illustrated by Joanna Moore. You can read more about Joanna, and see some of her unique work here.

Currently, I am working on the Winter Festival 2011 programme book – compiling and collating artists’ information. I love reading about the performers and their work. The line up this year is excellent and I am really looking forward to the festival!

Some more news:

• Booking for the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2011 is now open!

• Our Twitter has hit the 2000 mark and is growing – if you are not following us already – here is a link to the page http://twitter.com/SpitsMusic

Niharika Jain
Marketing and Communications Intern

Intern Diaries: I guess it’s time to say goodbye

So here we are, at the point which five months ago looked so far away but has arrived more quickly than a speeding kangaroo. (Happy Australia Day!)

My final few weeks at Spitalfields Music has seen the wrapping up of the brilliant 2010 Winter Festival, with some truly amazing performances of Monteverdi’s madrigals. Since then, the office has become very reflective, evaluating all our activity since June. It got me thinking about all the things I’ve had to do while being an intern (which as it happens, was a lot!). Writing press releases, designing e-flyers, managing leafleters, formatting programme book text, learning how to use Twitter, lots of social networking, writing blog posts, engaging local press, distributing publicity, market researching, time on Facebook, creating Spotify playlists, website management, recording a webcast, planning sessions with big felt-tip pens, and engaging with all parts of Spitalfields Music’s programme. I guess I’ve been pretty busy!

It’s very sad to be leaving a team that is as brilliant and fun as Spitalfields Music’s. I’d like to thank everyone for the opportunities, advice, and laughs I’ve had since I sat down in that first team meeting, unsure of what exactly was going on!

Michael Duffy
Marketing & Communications Intern (Sept 2010 – Jan 2011)

Intern Diaries: Week Nine

So since I last wrote for the intern diaries, at lot has been going on in the Spitalfields Music office. If you’ve read my previous post (if not, you should!) you’ll know that we officially launched Fables – A Film Opera almost a fortnight ago. Not only was this a superb introduction into the project, but it seems to have cemented my role as unofficial Spitalfields Music Cameraman (as if being an intern wasn’t already enough!). Joking aside, it was fantastic to gain a first-hand insight into aspects of the project by talking to a whole host of people involved.

Journalistic skills now finely honed, the other task I’d set myself for the past month was to get completely accustomed to all the software we use on the Communications team. Now competent on Photoshop, the website programme, and Twitter (hurrah!), I had only the clunky box office system to get my head round. Extra pressure came here from the fact that Rebecca was soon to go on holiday leaving me nearer the box office firing line than I am normally! Fortunately, I managed to feel my way into its quirks and have even sold tickets!

Another thing I’ve been getting to know is the relatively new Student Ambassadors scheme. The scheme invites students to volunteer around 3-4 hours of their time per month to promote Spitalfields Music, and in return they get free tickets to festival concerts and other perks. Sounds good to me. With Rebecca away, I sat in for a couple of the interviews, one of which turned out to be with someone I knew from university!

That pretty much brings us up to today. I’ve just come back to the office after attending a photo shoot with one of our artists for next summer. I’m afraid I can’t tell you who they are – you’ll have to wait and see!

Click here for more information on the Student Ambassador scheme.

Michael Duffy
Marketing & Communications Intern