Day 31 | Recorder31

It's the final day of this year's #Recorder31 - we hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have! Today we thought we'd review this year's event and conclude with a look at the future. 

Recorder31 had a community based theme this year and we were really happy to see that the recorder community has thrived during the past 18 months despite the pandemic. It has been a really tough time for so many people, and it has taken its toll on music and musicians. However it has produced some positives, one of which is being able to connect more globally. Of course this was possible pre-pandemic, but connections have been made during this crisis that probably wouldn't have happened without it. Our "in conversation" videos are an example of this! 

We enjoyed performances from Anna Stegmann, Eliza Haskins, Anna Stegmann & La Risonanza and Chris Orton. Mary-Jannet Leith produced two special Pitch Point episodes including performances on the csakan and the renaissance tenor. There were also highlights from LIFEM 2020 brought to us by BBC Radio 3's The Early Music Show (available to re-listen to on BBC Sounds until 9th September 2021). We can't wait for this year's Festival which will once again host the Moeck/Society of Recorder Players Solo Playing Competition Finals! 

We held four playing competitions and loved watching all of your performances. Unfortunately there could only be one winner each time for the competition, but we thought all of them were winning performances and we hope you enjoyed playing the pieces we picked! As well as the free sheet music downloads for each competition, we brought you three exclusive play along resources courtesy of Consorts.co.uk! 

Throughout the month we've explored lots of recorder topics as well as other topics such as related renaissance and baroque instruments. We looked at recorder repertoire and choose some of our favorites for soprano and sopranino, alto, tenor and bass recorders.  

Over the course of the past month we have chatted to recorder professionals from across Europe finding out about how they started the recorder, their upcoming projects, their advice for new players and much, much more! 

We asked all of our guests what they thought the future of the recorder looked like and they all thought it looked very bright as long as we can promote and keep music in schools and we agree. The Society of Recorder Players (SRP) is the best place to go for players wanting to connect with others in their area with branches across the country and the European Recorder Teacher's Association UK Branch is the place to go for all recorder teachers, whatever your level. For younger people we highly recommend NYRO and Woodhouse as well. These fantastic recorder organisations in the UK mean that the future is very promising for the recorder and we look forward to seeing the next generation of recorder players! 

Our thanks go to everyone who made Recorder31 possible this year – Aafab, Mollenhauer, Mary-Jannet Leith, Annabel Knight, Anna Stegmann, Sarah Jeffery, Chris Orton, Moira Usher, Eliza Haskins, Fabio Bonizzoni, La Risonanza, Neil Garner (Consorts.co.uk) and LIFEM. 

See you next year!