Ashleyan Opera Prize 2015

Ashleyan Opera Prize 2015

What a fantastic evening’s entertainment we experienced with ten post-graduate singers hotly contesting this year’s Ashleyan Opera Prize. Phillippa Lay has a very promising powerful soprano voice but needs to work on opening up her high notes. Zulkifi bin Zainul,...
Our Last Concert at the ABH

Our Last Concert at the ABH

Our first Touch of Basil was held in the Adrian Boult Hall of Birmingham Conservatoire in September 2000. We were told at that time that we were unlikely to be able to use ABH for too long in the future because it was to be replaced. The concert on September 26th 2015...
Newsletter Mailout 2015

Newsletter Mailout 2015

Have you ever wondered how your newsletter gets produced and sent to you? Well here’s where it all happens – the Action Committee and friends spend a busy few hours folding and stuffing the newsletters and any flyers into envelopes which then have to have...
Composition Prize 2014

Composition Prize 2014

On 14th November 2014 Tony and I enjoyed an evening of varied music when we attended the Philip Bates Prize for Composers and Songwriters at Birmingham Conservatoire. The first piece was “Me faytz trobar” by William Cole. Unfortunately, because the date for the event...