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End of June, 2010
Dear Amigos,
I am writing to tell you that on the 30th of June we come to the official end of yet another membership year in the in the twenty year history of the Amigos de Música. I am sure that many of you will have noticed that our final concert takes place on July 3rd, three days after the end of the Amigos year but as you would expect, the date will still count as part of your existing membership.
What an amazing year we have had, although I have to confess that we kicked off to a rather disappointing start in September with the first concert from Sandro Bartoli. However, we soon recovered and went on to enjoy those stunning Paul Crossley Master Classes and the two resulting concerts, all of which was made possible by generous sponsorship from the Mundo Crastino Meliori Foundation. Joana Ballmann demonstrated her progress at the Conservatoire in Cologne for us after the Annual General Meeting. The two Anas played excellent Piano for four hands. We enjoyed lots romantic of Chopin by candleight from Piers Lane. The Duo Mecina fairly sizzled. Anne Kaasa played like a dream and in May we were able to listen to the wonderful playing of Jack Liebeck and Katya Apekisheva and in early June we dressed up and celebrated the first glorious 20 years of Amigos collaboration with the
Cultural Centre.
This time last year the financial markets were beginning to move into the first phase of this seemingly never ending crisis. No one could predict then what is going to happen in the year ahead and indeed one year down the line and we still seem to be no further out of the woods. But as regards the Amigos and
remembering that we had chosen 2009 as the year to increase our subscription rate, not one Amigo left us for that reason and more encouraging still, the total amount of additional donations received has never been higher. Thank you for that and good news as you viagra online for women will notice on the membership form, the rate for 2010/2011 remains unchanged.
By the time you receive this we shall only have the two Pål Lindtner Eide concerts to look forward to on the 30th of June and the 3rd of July. From there we move officially into next year, beginning with considerable style and panache with a return visit from Yevgeny Sudbin on the 24 & 25th September and on the 20th & 23rd of October we must look forward to the debut concerts from pianist Constantin Sandu and Horia Vacaresco, violin.
High summer cannot be far away now and I take this opportunity to thank you for your support last year and wish all the Amigos and their families a long
relaxing July and August whether the time is spent in Portugal or in homelands throughout Europe.
Kind regards,
Barry