Ralph Allwood MBE was for 26 years Director of Music at Eton College and is now a freelance choral director. He is the Director of the Eton Choral Courses, which he founded in 1980. Seven thousand 16 to 20 year olds have been students on courses over the last thirty-five years. He co-founded the Junior Choral Courses in 2012, and is now planning courses in Shanghai, Melbourne and Greenwich, Connecticut. The Rodolfus choir, made up of the best singers from the courses, has been described as ‘unspeakably beautiful’ by Gramophone. It has produced over 20 CDs.

Ralph is a founder and conductor of Inner Voices, a choir made up of singers from state schools in London. He has conducted choirs for 40 live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, is a judge for the Llangollen Eisteddfod and Cork International Choral Competition and has written much music heard worldwide on radio and television.

Ralph adjudicates the Llangollen Eisteddfod and the Cork International Choral Competition. He is a Fellow Commoner advising in music at Music at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and an Honorary Fellow of University College, Durham. He is Choral Advisor to Novello, Wellington College and Trinity College, Oxford. He teaches at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and at his old school, Tiffin.

In 2012 Ralph was awarded a Doctorate of Music by Aberdeen University. He was made MBE in the 2012 New Year’s Honours list.

Dalcroze: using movement in Aural Training
Jacqueline’s afternoon workshop at the Kodály Summer School 2017

This session will look at some of the ways movement is used within the context of an aural training session. Sometimes as an expressive tool, sometimes as a quick reaction game, sometimes as a means of engaging more with the music and sometimes to show the music in space. The class will include games and exercises to do with melody, intervals, chords, harmony and much more.

About Dalcroze: Exploring the language of music through movement
From pulse to rhythm, bar time to phrasing, form and structure the language of music can be explored creatively through movement. There are many benefits to doing this:
– the body learns to feel the music and becomes a musical instrument in itself
– we learn how to use the body effectively
– because we learn to feel music more deeply this helps us when we perform
– we learn many additional skills such as reacting quickly, being well coordinated, learning to actively listen
– we work on our own and in pairs and as a group and learn to cooperate and communicate well
It is a way of learning music that has great value for young and old, amateur and professional, singers and players and much more.

Jacqueline Vann studied Dalcroze Eurhythmics at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze, Geneva from 1994 to 1997. She is Deputy Director of Studies in the UK and is also responsible for the Dalcroze children’s examinations. She is a freelance Dalcroze teacher working with adults, seniors, musicians and non-musicians, children of all ages as well as those with Specific Learning Difficulties. She teaches regularly on the Dalcroze International Summer School and Easter Course as well as the UK’s Foundation, Intermediate, Certificate and Licence training courses.
She gives regular Dalcroze workshops around the country and has taught in Italy, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, South Korea and Australia.

In 2013, to celebrate the centenary of the London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics, she gave two papers at the first International Conference of Dalcroze Studies – one on the Dalcroze Children’s Exams and another on the benefits of using Dalcroze to teach children with Specific Learning Difficulties.

Jacqueline now lives in the South West of England. She teaches with Exeter Young Strings, JUTP Music and is currently setting up Dalcroze training at the University of Exeter. She lives on Dartmoor where she also breeds sheep, keeps chickens and pursues another of her passions – horse riding.

Take time to breathe
Claire’s afternoon workshop at the Kodály Summer School 2017

On a ten day BKA course, when there will be so much to take in, take time out in this gentle movement and relaxation session. Through mindful movement, simple stretches to ease tight muscles, breathing, and the chance to simply relax and re-focus, you will also be able to take away some more ideas for relaxation through movement, mindfulness, music and meditation for the future.

Claire McCue is a composer, piano teacher and music educator based in Glasgow, also with a background and qualification in Dance teaching, the result of a much-loved hobby. After a “slight diversion” by way of a BSC(Hons) in Maths, Statistics and Management Science, she studied for a BA in Applied Music at Strathclyde University then, after a few years teaching (and discovering Kodaly!), gained a Masters in Composition (Distinction) from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The Kodaly journey has never stopped since, nor has the composition or love of dance and use of movement in her teaching.

Claire delivers regular musicianship sessions across a range of ages for the RCS Junior Conservatoire and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus and has co-led an early years training programme for nurseries and Youth Music Initiative tutors for YMI Falkirk Council over the last two years. She teaches piano for RCS early years and privately, and does some workshops for the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS).

Her compositions and collaborations have won various prizes, been broadcast on BBC radio 3 and performed internationally, and recently she enjoyed combining composition/education worlds in writing some new pentatonic songs for NYCoS. She looks forward to meeting new and familiar faces at the next BKA Summer School.

Florent studied for three years in a jazz school in the South of France. The singing lessons left him hungry for more accurate answers though – and then he discovered Allan Wright.

He liked Allan’s teaching so much that he has been working with him for almost ten years, getting his certificate as an associate teacher along the way.  Florent now teaches in music schools, as well as in individual lessons and workshops, all around France.

He specialises in pop music (he is a pop singer) but teaches singers in many other musical genres.

Sarolta Platthy graduated from the Liszt Academy of Music with distinction, majoring in Choral Conducting and Music Education.

She went on to teach at a Music Primary School in Budapest from 1971 to 1991, where she taught all levels. She also founded and conducted the school choir.

As a master teacher, from 1984 she tutored students of the Liszt Academy in Methodology during their teaching practice.

Sarolta has been on the faculty of the Kodály Institute, Kecskemét since 1991, teaching Solfege, Music Theory and Methodology. Between 1998 and 2006 she taught classes (age 10-14) in the school of the Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir.

For the last thirty-five years Sarolta has given lectures, led workshops and been instructor at several Kodály Summer Courses throughout the world including the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, South Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines. She was also a visiting professor in the Kodály Programme of the Holy Names University in Oakland, California in 1977 / 78 and in the autumn semester of 2000.

She is a co-author of the National Curriculum for Music Primary Schools (1997).