 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Anthony_Madderson
Date: 2007-05-10 20:10
Dear All,
This week has seen a week promoted at Howarth of London as Clarinet Week and I thought I would report in with what I found. Guests were to include Andrew Marriner, Vandoren, Buffet and Clark Fobes.
I was lucky enough to make it to the store yesterday where I was able to attend part of the masterclass given by Mr Marriner, meet the Vandoren representatives and also have a look at the re furbished shop. Mr Marriner's class was given on orchestral extracts and was a wonderful afternoon. Players from many of the UK colleges performed and Mr Marriner was always warm and helpful with his suggestions of improvement. This class was held , for those of you who know the store in the new downstairs room, which seemed to have been paid for by buffet given that only buffet clarinets were on display in this room and they had a representative present!!
Upstairs the sheet music room has also changed and the enormous collection is now much more accessable as on previous visits I could never find what I was looking for, but this time it is very easily laid out for, despite the enormity of the collection.
I was also lucky enough to have a word with the Vandoren representative, Jean-Paul who was very helpful in describing the differences to me of the mouthpieces and also from looking at my mouthpiece, telling me which direciton he thinks would be a good for me with the vandoren range. While he was obviously a salesman, he was also obviously a mouthpiece genius. A very interesting conversation.
Unfortunatly Clark Fobes didn't make the trip. I was informed by staff at Howarths that he lost his passport and cancelled on Monday of this week leaving both Howarths and its customers very upset and dissapointed. This was most dissapointing as I was really looking forward to meeting him after so many good stories about him, especially given the poor excuse. As one should say nothing if one has nothing constructive to say, I will leave that part of my visit there.
All in all, this was a very interesting day and the only blemish apart from the Fobes non appearance was that I couldn't get more time off work to attend the session given by Buffet today on their manufacture and model comparision talk.
Anthony Madderson
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-05-10 20:50
I wanted to go up London yesterday (Wednesday) for Andrew Marriner's masterclass, but I didn't plan my day too well.
Missed the opportunity, though I hope there's another one in the near future.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: rsholmes
Date: 2007-05-10 22:51
I don't see why losing your passport would be considered a poor excuse.
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Author: donald
Date: 2007-05-11 00:34
i agree re passport- it could in fact be that if one couldn't find ones passport at the last minute, it would be IMPOSSIBLE to travel (i'm sure that the conditions for speedy passport replacement are different in each country)
btw
one of my students (travelling to an Asian country) lost his passport on the Aeroplane after he left NZ?????.... now that caused some trouble, but was able to be dealt with promptly- if he had lost it on the way to the airport i can't imagine he would have been able to take the flight...
donald
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Author: Anthony_Madderson
Date: 2007-05-11 09:31
I view the lost passpot as a poor excuse because as Mr Fobes was to be in attendance from Tuesday through to Friday of this week, surely he could have used a fast track emergency passport service to get another passport within 24-36 hours and still attended some of the time. I do of course also understand that he would have had to have changed his flight. Yes, I realise this procedure costs money, but letting down both a large clarinet department that stocks and promotes his products (we wonder for how much longer?) and many players in the UK who were planning trips to meet him when there are so many fine products on the market is a much bigger issue.
Anthony Madderson
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Author: howarth
Date: 2007-05-11 10:55
Hi there
I would just like to say thank you for Anthony Madderson's comments on the Howarth Clarinet week. Although we (Howarth) read posts, we do not tend to reply to messages on this board as views tend to be varied. Howarth are very proud of the new clarinet department, it (finally) being finished. I must add that Buffet gave no finacial support for the room downstairs, its just thats what we sell most of, and Buffet do the widest range, of which we keep most in stock.
It was indeed a shock and huge disappointment that C Fobes cancelled, considering we had set the week up around his dates.
We shall be doing more events as the Marriner masterclass was a huge success, so please keep an eye on the website for more details, or please send us an email with your details and we shall let you know when the next events are coming up.
This message board is important, and thank eveybody for taking an interest in improving relationships (where possible) in the clarinet world.
Donny
T W Howarth
clarinet@howarth.uk.com
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