Albion's Treasures...and farewell Michael

We are sure that everyone in the select crowds on October 12 and 13 enjoyed themselves immensely at the Albion's Treasures concerts. The timing (midweek) was not ideal for everybody of course, but those who were able to come certainly had a good time.

It's also appropriate to say goodbye and thank you here to longtime Player Michael Hooper, whose final shows these were, as he relocated to York in the UK at the end of October to undertake Ph.D study. We are certainly going to miss him and his extraordinary skill with mandolin, lute, gittern and many more. Bon voyage, Michael, and hope it all goes brilliantly!

Your first ever Renaissance Players free download

We are frequently asked by those who missed a recent concert or live too far away to get to one if there is any way of getting to hear a performance. While it remains impractical for many reasons to offer entire concerts, I am pleased to say we now have the very first free Renaissance Players audio download online for your listening pleasure.

Winsome's 2004 (re)arrangement of the old Renaissance Players standard English Dance was the only piece from the Cupid's Fav'rite Nation shows to get another outing in the October Albion's Treasures concerts. This recording was made by former Renaissance Player and arch-chronicler Wayne Richmond at the Cupid's Fav'rite Nation concert on June 9 2004 at The University of Sydney.
Click here to download and enjoy!

(Please note: There may be a fairly severe hourly data transfer limit on the server where this download is stored, so if the page comes up as temporarily unavailable, please try again later. The download will remain available for some time.)

Hopefully, those of you who managed to hear some of them enjoyed Julia Lester's Homestretch spot-features of The Renaissance Players on her Drive shift on ABC Classic FM. All tracks featured were from our 1998/1999 Sephardic Experience set of CDs, including selections such as Puncha, puncha la rose huele from Thorns Of Fire, Durme, durme, mi angelico from Apples & Honey, Ajugar de novia galana from Gazelle & Flea and Teskoto from Eggplants. Thanks also to Ms Lester for the many nicely comprehensive plugs for the very English and secular Albion's Treasures shows as well!

Hello to those hardy souls who made it to one of the two Cupid's Fav'rite Nation shows in early June in the not-quite-as-chilly-as-we-expected Great Hall at The University of Sydney. It was nice to revisit the English traditional folk, mediæval and consort repertoire again after so long, and those who came along seemed to have a lot of fun.

You can now see a small selection of photographs from these concerts by clicking here.

Hello to everyone who came to one of the three Christmas Pudding shows for 2003 at the Seymour Centre. These were our first Christmas concerts of the new millennium, so it was good to see so many new and past fans in the audience for such a strong series of shows.

If you've decided since the concert that you just have to have a permanent memento of the show to take with you through to the next Christmas shows and beyond, don't forget that around 98% of the concert can be found on the rather good TESTAMENT double CD, stunningly recorded, beautifully presented, and released in 2000 on Celestial Harmonies. If you're based near Sydney we strongly recommend a trip to Michael's Music Room at Sydney's Town Hall Arcade for this purchase, as we are always in stock there for a good price, and they are also very nice people.

Thanks to former Renaissance Players regular Jessica O'Donoghue for leaping into the breach with 24 hours' notice, live and direct from Queensland, and thanks as always to Wayne Richmond as well; that was him in the front row on the Saturday night, playing the microphone and digital camera.

You can now see a selection of Wayne's photographs of that performance by clicking here.

Runnymede XXIX...blink and you'd have missed it!

Thanks to all who made it to The 29th Runnymede Pop Festival on June 14 at the City Recital Hall.
Special thanks also to The Sydney Children's Choir who brought their own special magic to the concert this year.

More new recordings in the can and on the way

The Renaissance Players spent some time in early 2002 recording a two-CD set of songs and dances from the Llibre Vermell, or "Red Book" of Montserrat, taken from the repertoire presented at The 28th Runnymede Pop Festival. With all of this material now mixed and mastered, now begins what might be a small exercise in patience as arrangements are finalised for the release of this double CD.

The RP on the IMDb

The Renaissance Players have finally secured an entry on the Internet Movie Database, the massive free online information source for film, television and other related performances. Our recent involvement with Facing The Music seems to have led to this, amongst other things.

Also listed under the film title Born To Shop are the contributions which an older core of this group (Winsome Evans, Mara Kiek, Michael Atherton, Katie Ward and Andrew Lambkin) recorded for that documentary by Sarah Gibson in late 1990.

Winsome also has her own listing on the database here.

Contributions and corrections to the Database are invited from anyone who takes the time to complete the free registration,
so if you know of any gaps in either listing, step right up!

Evil site gremlins vanquished!

Many of you may well have been having real trouble making some pages on this site "make sense" or even download fully since I added a few, ahem, "graphic enhancements" a few months ago. The problem has finally been tracked down to an exceedingly stupid glitch in the (different) authoring software I was using at the time. Particularly affected were the new Articles and Photos pages, as well as the page backgrounds and new button shortcuts on several pages on the site. These have now been fixed and the site should look much better (and more complete) to you the next time you have a look around. :) Apologies for any concern, puzzlement, frustration or complex personal problems these glitches may have led to (especially if you've only started visiting recently)...if it's any comfort to you, I have another five grey hairs now...

Runnymede XXVIII Revisited

Read Harriet Cunningham's kind, though brief, review of the recent Runnymede shows in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Renaissance Players made yet another live appearance on The Music Show with Andrew Ford
on ABC Radio National on May 25 to promote Runnymede XXVIII. The segment included two songs
(Splendens ceptigera and Los set goyts...), an interview with Winsome and a
poetry performance by Geoff (Two Marys from Iberia) and ran for 21 minutes.

Vale Robin Anderson

The Renaissance Players community is greatly saddened by the recent death of Ms Robin Anderson, one half of the team responsible for some of the finest Australian documentary films of the last two decades, including last year's "Facing The Music". Robin showed a passionate interest in the issues she covered in her films, made with husband, Bob Connolly, as well as a genuine respect for the people she met in the course of her work. She will be missed, and all in The Renaissance Players extend their most profound condolences to Bob and their two daughters at this time.

THE RENAISSANCE PLAYERS IN LOCAL FILM

The Renaissance Players appeared, briefly, with many other SUDoM-based ensembles, in the documentary film
"Facing The Music". This incredibly important film documents Professor Ann Boyd's struggles with constant funding cuts
to the Sydney University Music Department over the last decade, and the many wonderful things the Department does
which may fall by the wayside if the merger with Sydney Conservatorium of Music
is handled in the manner that has been threatened in the recent past.
It is made by Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson,
the team responsible for the famous and award-winning 1994 documentary about Leichhardt Local Council,
"Rats In The Ranks". It is stark, it is sometimes pretty bleak, it is controversial, and it is brilliant.
It certainly explains the true background to the excuses of "falling Department numbers"
being made by Sydney University heads recently when they have been trying to close the Department!

The film enjoyed two very successful screenings at the State Theatre in Sydney as part of the 2001 Sydney Film Festival,
and screened in several sessions per day at the Valhalla Cinemas in Glebe between July 7 and October 31, 2001.
The film also screened on UK television on Channel 4 on August 13, 2001.
Australian television viewers got the chance to see the ABC's version of the film on November 14, 2001.