If you would like to see a short video of the course in 2008, follow this link:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50128897



Review from one of the participants:

Llangenny Flute Summer School 2008

For a week this July the strains of flutes could be heard across the green hills of Llangenny, a small village in Powys. Held at Pendarren House, overlooking the Grwyne Valley, and below the Black Mountains in the Brecon Beacons National Park Llangenny Flute School got its first outing. An idyllic location and one which was used to the full with many of the classes and meals outside.

The location was only one of the many high points of the week. Led by Sarah Newbold (flute, Guildhall School of Music and Drama) and Zoe Smith (piano, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), the teaching was second to none.

The course consisted of master classes, chamber music, lessons on expression and an afternoon of “outdoor problem solving”. Sarah and Zoe make a first-rate team, their expertise combining to produce the sort of teaching that revolutionises your playing and sticks with you.

Through the classes, we entered a world of discovery about posture, sound quality and resonance, breathing, confidence, musicality and communication of the music (to name just a few). On many occasions during the course, the difference in the performance by the end of the lesson was so marked that not just the players but the listeners too were profoundly affected.

There was a wide variety of participants (all grade 8 plus, amateurs, music students and professionals) which contributed a great deal to the course, and Sarah and Zoe encouraged us to learn from each other as well as them.

If you should start as you mean to go on, then the Llangenny Flute Summer School has done this perfectly and the future of this school will be very successful. It will, I am sure, be a significant landmark in many flautists’ journeys of development, for years to come.