Instrumental Workshop

William Lyons is leading an instrumental workshop at The Church of St John the Evangelist on Saturday 26 September, a full day for anyone playing Renaissance woodwind, brass, or strings. It runs from 11:00 to 16:30, so you'll want to clear the whole day for it rather than squeezing it in around other plans.

The session is aimed at players tuning at A=440. The music takes you through the court and civic ceremony traditions of Shakespeare's London, the kind of fanfares and processional music that would have sounded across the city during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. From there, the focus shifts to Venice and the work of Giovanni Gabrieli and his contemporaries, whose polychoral style—splitting ensembles across a space—defined the sound of the city's great basilicas.

It's a workshop, not a concert, so the day is about playing through the material rather than just listening. You'll be working through the repertoire with Lyons leading the way, moving from the English court and civic music of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras over to the Venetian school. If you play one of the instruments it's aimed at, it's a good chance to get stuck into that particular stretch of early music with other players in the room.

It's held at The Church of St John the Evangelist on Knoyle Road in Brighton, BN1 6RB. The session runs from 11:00 to 16:30 on Saturday 26 September, and tickets are £10 for concessions and £20 standard.