Guest post by Ian Tindale, pianist and Artistic Director of Shipston Song

In a quiet corner of Warwickshire, not far from the picturesque towns of Chipping Norton and Moreton-in-Marsh, is a haven for music. At the end of a long track, a farm complex appears and it’s here that locals ‘in the know’ on occasion flock to hear classical music at its best. I had the good fortune to be invited by the owners to give a recital with long-standing colleague tenor Nick Pritchard in their intimate music room for an audience of around 60, and the kernel of an idea started to form. In lockdown in 2021, I remembered this quiet corner of the country and assembled some singing colleagues and made a series of recorded recitals and it dawned on me that this place could be a vehicle for my own creative vision and passion. Thanks to the
endless generosity and willingness of the owners, Shipston Song was formed under my direction and we opened our doors in September 2022 for our first long weekend of song.

My focus in that first year was on what I wanted to do: artists on my ‘wish list’, repertoire I was passionate about, and research projects coming to fruition. In addition to giving a platform to two ‘Shipston Song Rising Stars’, current students who had demonstrated an affinity with song, James Gilchrist, Harriet Burns, Jess Dandy and Julien van Mellaerts joined me on stage, and in a moving tribute James Gilchrist highlighted the crucial nature of small festivals creating a space for an intimate genre in intimate venues, words which continue to resonate for me.

Shipston Song in its 2023 edition very much reflects my desires for the development of our corner of the industry more generally. I believe we have an obligation to redress the imbalance of repertoire that we programme; the realm of song has long been open to many female composers, even if only in a private or amateur sphere, and there are countless works by women that would give a richer fabric to this special repertoire-tapestry of words and music, if only they were heard. In 2022 I focussed a whole recital on the life and music of Josephine Lang, a research project of mine which drew together words and music, and brought to a new audience Lang’s own strife and that of many composers of her sex in the 19th century. This project has gone on to have a life of its own (you can hear it at London’s Conway Hall on 19th
November); the success of the project is down to the unique compositional voice we can discover in her music and the relevance that Lang’s story still has today.

In 2023, as we extend our reach and our platform for performance expands, I have made the decision to commit to equal programming of male and female composers, and so over 3 recitals, we have 35 individual songs by men, and 35 by women. We are surrounding songs by female composers with repertoire by men which has become a core part of the canon – we cannot turn our back on these masterpieces, especially when aiming to attract a wide-range of audiences – so we are marking anniversaries of Michael Tippett and Sergey Rachmaninoff, and other major pillars of the repertoire that feature are Gustav Mahler, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Gerald Finzi. On the other side of the coin we have the (increasingly) familiar (Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, Alma Schindler-Mahler, Rebecca Clarke, Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger) and the still-neglected (Joan Trimble, Ina Boyle, Dilys Elwyn-Edwards, Cécile Chaminade, Nadia Boulanger). It was no small challenge for me, the artists, and our Rising Stars to ensure we maintained this overall repertoire balance, but my hope is that by delving into a body of repertoire which still has many dimly lit corners, we can carry new discoveries out into the world with us.

Another goal for Shipston Song 2023 is to use our platform to programme songs written within the last ten years, and to give a few pieces an invaluable second or third performance. I’m thrilled that Roderick Williams is bringing a new piece by Anna Semple to Shipston, and that we can give its world premiere alongside the piece it was written to partner, ‘Earth and Air and Rain’ by Gerald Finzi. This concert will be the high point of a weekend that also sees Helen Charlston and Laurence Kilsby realise repertoire by Josephine Stephenson, Richard Barnard and Joshua Borin.

On top of this, I wanted to find a way to share the artists’ resources and talents visiting us during the weekend, so I have expanded our ‘Shipston Song Rising Star’ scheme to include three singers and a pianist who will be in residence with us for the whole weekend. These artists (who are current postgraduate students) are invited to take part, and will work together in masterclasses with Helen Charlston, Roderick Williams, and me, as well as perform in one recital each in a now-familiar format. The most formative experiences for me were those in which I was immersed in a community, secluded and protected from the business of the outside world (for a short time at least), living and learning alongside fellow musicians sharing their
insights; I hope we are moving towards being able to offer this kind of total immersion for all our artists at Shipston Song.

I don’t take my ability to create any of this at Shipston Song for granted; the ongoing plight of many organisations at the mercy of Arts Council England sends shockwaves throughout the profession and its supporters. We are all inevitably led to question our existence, the content of our mission statements, and our purpose. In our corner of the Cotswolds, we are hugely lucky: we rely on the generosity of the local population, both as audience members and as private donors, as well as small grant-giving bodies who support specific portions of our work and help bridge the gap between income from ticket sales and elsewhere – a yearly process of book-balancing where nothing can be taken for granted and which is very much ‘hand to mouth’ right up until the week before the festival begins.

Our festival theme in 2023 is by Walter de la Mare: ‘I sang it under the wild wood tree’,
highlighting our particular closeness to nature as a festival in our Warwickshire home. I hope to continue to bring my passion for song to this special place, where the peace and quiet of our rural setting comes together with intimate music making and collegiality and defines our relationship with artists and audiences alike, in 2023 and beyond.

Ian Tindale
Artistic Director, Shipston Song

Shipston Song runs from 22-24 September 2023. Full details of artists and programmes here