Hello Everyone!

 We hope you’ve had a very pleasant Christmas and trust that 2010 will be all you could wish it to be.

 On Sunday 5^th September we’ll be having our 150^th Birthday Party here.    As at our 140th, we’ll have games, quizzes and other entertainments to occupy the mind, and performances (not necessarily musical) from those who wish to make a contribution.

For us, 2009 had its usual variety, with events to run and projects to pursue but the year was, sadly, dominated by the Coach House problem, caused by a cowboy builder who left us over a year ago with a great mess and more than £100,000 poorer.      His work has to be completely stripped out and the job, conversion of the Coach House in the back garden into four flats, started again from scratch.

The Bank of Scotland still haven’t told us what they intend to do, either to continue the loan so that we can complete the development and sell the building so that Kate can reduce her work load, or repossess the place so ending any hope of reducing Kate’s hours of work.     Kate is permanently exhausted, and we dread the situation continuing indefinitely, not knowing how long she’ll be able to keep going.

At present we’ve had definite pledges of loans from several people totalling £95,000, which is enough to pay off the bank, but we still need £115,000 to get the work done so that all loans can be repaid by the sale of the four flats.   We’re hoping to raise the money in loans of smaller amounts, maybe £1,000 or £5,000, so that we can go ahead with everything.   So if you have any pals who’d be interested in a short-term investment (one year maximum), please let us know!

From my point of view there is little work around.   Approaches to schools are not very successful, but I’m about to put five stories on YouTube (“Sally’s Picture of Her Mum” “The Wide Mouthed Frog” “A Name for the Cat” “The Baby River Turtle” and “Rindycella”) which I’m hoping will generate some interest.    You might mention them to anyone you know in a school.    I’m also working on a series of one-hour adult presentations on African explorers Sam Baker and Richard Burton, on the fourteenth century traveller Ibn Batutta, and composers Chopin and Schumann.  These will be tried out here and hopefully ‘sold’ to organisations as entertainment at corporate functions.      A few more details are in ‘Presentations’ elsewhere on this website.

As far as music is concerned, the house is full of it as usual, thank goodness.   “What’s On”, elsewhere in this website, gives a taste of what we’re doing, but there’s a lot more which doesn’t reach the list of excitements available to the public.        Vivace is growing, now being over 40 strong, with some good soloists so that we no longer need to import strangers.      The Committee is doing a good job of running things, so that I now have little to do.   Kate still, of course, plays the piano for rehearsals and concerts.  In the last year we’ve had wonderful days with Murray McLachlan, concert pianist and head of the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA), and world famous Noriko Ogawa who spent a day giving master classes, finishing with a superb recital.    Noriko has become one of our special pals and we look forward to her next visit.     Masa Tayama, whom many of you now know, has taught and played here many times, demonstrating that he’s one of the finest pianists in the world today.

We decided that Kate’s teaching practice needed widening with the addition of extra personnel and an increase in the range of activities, and so set up The Elmitt Piano Academy, with her friends (and pupils) Bev Preece and Jana Cerna.  For details see under ‘Piano Academy’ elsewhere in this website.

The disreputable wash room was gutted, the leaky roof repaired, and the smelly drainage fixed.     I’m about to start the insulation work and do the decorating, so that it will soon be home to a teacher, some pupils, and the piano we bought for the WI Hall, whose custodians will be glad to see the back of it as it’s in the way and no-one uses it, apart from us a couple of times a year.

We had an exciting summer, with the EPTA Conference in Manchester followed by Chethams Summer School, where everyone was enthralled by the performances of ‘Magnificent Masa’.    We were able to stay in the delightful home of daughter Anne and Peter while they went off to Tanzania, and met up with all of my family, daughters Elizabeth and Julie and grandchildren Vicky, Katherine, Richard, and their kids.       We didn’t get to see Ian this time, but believe he’s OK too.     We have two new great-grandchildren, granddaughter Katherine giving birth to Lyla (with Jim’s help!), while Genna and grandson Richard now have Nathan to keep them awake at nights.    We also have a new arrival, in the shape of Penny, a black lab/golden retriever cross who has taken the place of dear old Emily, who died a short time ago at the age of fifteen and a half, and who is dreadfully missed by us, and by Midnight the cat.     During the summer we visited Kate’s sister Pauline in Zurich and spent some time with Elise as well.

The Hitchin Festival saw Eagle Four (Kate, Christine Bunning – soprano, Catherine Wilmers – cello, and Diana Levitas – violin) give a sell-out concert, while Catherine and Kate, and Christine and Kate had similarly successful duo concerts.     Our friend David Cripps decided to revive the works of Tom Lehrer, and with Kate has now done three shows, thrilling the audiences with such classics as Vatican Rag, and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.     During the Festival I did the first of my ‘historic presentations’, a journey along the Silk Road in AD 1328, to a group in a local pub.

We’ve just returned from eight days in Portugal, being very grateful for use of the luxury flat of Elizabeth and Rod Yates, four pleasant days with E & R and four days on our own after they went off to spend Christmas in Singapore and Hong Kong.     The second half of our happy Christmas holiday has been spent with Mart, who is keeping well, and with daughter Elizabeth who swapped the bitter cold of the Oldham steppes for the big freeze in Arlesey.

We ourselves will be going to Hong Kong in March for Kate to adjudicate at the Festival there, while I work in schools.   We made friends with an English girl there who’s just set up as an artists’ agent, and who’ll have me working with kids and also teaching teachers to be storytellers.       Because we want the animals to remain in the house while we’re away, we’re keen to find someone to stay here from 7^th March to mid April.        A sensible student, teenage or otherwise, would be acceptable, or anyone else who can be trusted to feed their fellow occupants and take Penny for a walk each morning and evening.        Perhaps the ideal opportunity for that trial separation you’ve been thinking of?

In August Kate will be leaving me (sob, sob) to spend three weeks in the Swiss Alps giving master classes and accompanying strings at the Goppisberger Music Festival.  This is a course for talented pianists and string players who will be giving high class performances in nine concerts in the three weeks!      Details are in ‘Piano Courses’, elsewhere on this website.   It’s run by a friend of Kate’s sister Pauline.    Contact Kate if you know someone who might be interested.

We’ve busy bringing this website up to date, and apologise if there are blips which you find confusing.     If you have any suggestions which you feel would improve it we’d be glad to hear from you.      Our emails are below.

We hope you keep well and happy, and that 2010 will be your year!

Kate and Bob 

Tel: 01462 622 222    Fax:01462 622 111    elmitt@btinternet.com    bob.wilkins@btinternet.com