by admin | Aug 2, 2016 | Uncategorized
This year’s newsletter is now available (and can be downloaded here) Most people will be aware of the necessary change to our venue for the 2016 Touch of Basil. It will take place at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield on October 1st. Philip was a student there until 1999 and there is a music room at Bishop Vesey’s dedicated to his memory in regular use for instrumental lessons and practice throughout the week. The concert will take place in Big School starting at 7pm and will again be filled with performers associated with Philip’s trust. The winners of the two school prizes at John Willmott and Bishop Vesey’s schools will be there along with Ashleyan Opera Prize winner Andrew Randall and a winning piece from the Philip Bates Prize for Composers and Songwriters. Georgina Bloomfield 12, will join us for the third time to thrill with her brilliant violin playing. The young voices of Ex Cathedra will also return to show some of the most celebrated music education in the country and Bishop Vesey’s own music department will be represented by a clarinet quartet. Thanks to all the staff there for their ongoing...
by admin | May 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
Entries from all over the UK are now invited for the 2016 Philip Bates Prize for Composers and Songwriters. Composers between the ages of 16 and 25 may submit works in any style by Friday 8th July 2016, the application deadline. Shortlisted entries will be given a public performance at the final on Tuesday 1st November, when the winning pieces will be chosen. Shortlisted composers must supply their own pre-rehearsed performers at the final and the chosen winners will receive a cash prize. This exceptionally broad competition has recognised talent in a variety of genres in the past. It encourages entries in everything from classical, jazz and folk to singer-songwriter ballads, Asian music and rock, as long as the work is suitable for live performance and appealing to a wide range of concertgoers. Works should last between 6 and 12 minutes and should be for one or two singers / vocalists with between two and five instrumentalists. Philip Bates, a young man from Castle Bromwich with a promising musical future ahead of him, was tragically killed shortly after his nineteenth birthday in March 2000. To honour his memory, the Philip Bates Trust (founded to encourage young musicians like Philip) and leading music college Birmingham Conservatoire (part of Birmingham City University) jointly run the annual Philip Bates Prize for Composers and Songwriters. The competition offers three cash prizes, all donated by the Philip Bates Trust. Birmingham Conservatoire and the Philip Bates Trust award one £300 prize each. There is also a £200 prize awarded by the audience. Only one entry may be submitted per composer and entries should be...
by admin | Mar 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
The Ashleyan Opera was created by Philip’s grandparents Stanley and Margaret Asher ran from 1959 for almost 50 performances well into the 21st Century. They performed grand opera to the delight of audiences in Leicester at The Little Theatre and Leicester Haymarket. When the group closed for the final time the money left in their funds was donated to Birmingham Conservatoire to award a prize each year to a postgraduate vocal student at the start of their career. It has run for 9 years since 2007 each year attended by Margaret Asher herself and eminent judges from the opera world to make the final decision. You can see the Prize winners listed over on our Prizes and Awards...
by admin | Jul 27, 2015 | Uncategorized
With the new website we will be introducing online donations. This is new territory for the Trust and we hope that it will make life easier for our supporters and us. Donations can be made via the Paypal button in the footer of the website.
