It is a difficult time for all of us at the moment. Musicians are working hard to come up with new ways of making music to cheer us along in these socially distant times.

Here is a fun way to keep up your viol consort playing whilst discovering satisfying new repertoire:

Consort music minus one – a project for these distracted times

We’re all missing viol consort playing but David has come up with an ingenious idea. He has made it possible for all of us to play along with him in a new series of four part consort pieces taken from an accessible manuscript of 16th century German songs. For a small fee you can download scores, complete performance tracks and ‘minus-one’ tracks. For more information see below, visit David’s website or email him directly to order.

Ali’s new You Tube channel

Ali has started a new YouTube channel – do have a look and subscribe. It’s got lots of very useful short technique lessons and accessible workshops on particular pieces, how to approach divisions and other useful viol playing tips.

Three Choirs Festival – 16th Century Love Songs with James Gilchrist

For the latest information on the situation please look at the Three Choirs website At the moment tickets are on sale or can be reserved, for our planned concert on 30th July, at 11am It is very encouraging to see that even on the first day of public booking ticket sales look very good.