Brimming over with music

‘Hello, Gavin. Have you got the sackbuts with you?’ Administrative magician Rebecca Rickard is dealing with what is, for her, a fairly ordinary sort of phone call in the greater scheme of things. As it turns out, Gavin (Henderson) has indeed got no fewer than three sackbuts, and is planning to bring them with him the following morning on the London to Totnes train. Three musicians in this, the first week of the 60th Dartington International Summer School, will no doubt be duly grateful.

The Summer School is a unique gathering point for musicians of every possible description and of varying standards of ability. Following a roughly chronological scheme from early music through to contemporary, there are one-week courses in piano accompaniment and early brass (cornetts and sackbuts), two-week courses in film music composition and jazz improvisation, three-week courses in conducting and opera performance. On a single day when I was there, I looked in on a piano masterclass, a baroque orchestral workshop and an introduction to Indian classical music, and attended a concert by Tarang — an ensemble of young musicians playing classical and contemporary Indian music — and the Rose Consort of Viols.