hampshire guitar orchestra newsletter

This is a web-archive of the Newsletter we emailed to our subscribers in September 2008

The passage of time may mean that some links to external sites are out of date or broken

ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

This free newsletter is a small-scale production to keep you in touch with what's happening in hago - we always include links into our main website where you can read more, see photos and explore still further, so do click when you see a link...

Welcome to the many people who have subscribed since last issue - here's where you find out what we're up to.
It's a bit of a challenge to write a newsletter in which every sentence is going to interest every reader, because we're spanning the world with this newsletter, and our readership extends from professional players right down to non-players who want to know when our next concert is.
But we'll give it our best shot - so read on....

LATEST NEWS

I know us Brits go on and on about the weather, but this was supposed to be our summer break, and it's been so wet that it's only been our guitar footstools that have stopped us getting trenchfoot.

So it was with some embarrassment that Derek, our MD, welcomed New Zealand virtuoso player Bruce Paine (his website is here) so that he could experience the UK summer instead of the New Zealand winter. Not much of a trade, as it turned out!

But it was a great time musically - Bruce played with us in our July 4th concert, adding a beautiful solo rendition of Rak's Remembering Prague to our concert and taking, for a second time, the solo spot in our MD's arrangement of Schindler's List, played, almost to the day on the third anniversary of the London bombings, when Bruce and hago played that very day in Portsmouth - you can see our clip from 2005 on YouTube.

We kept him busy - Bruce played in Derek's novice adult Guitar Workshop concert on July 10th, and Bruce & Derek gave 3 concerts locally performing solos & duets, topping off with the cheesy "Teddy Bears' Picnic" as an unexpected encore. More about that piece in a moment.

And our MD has a new guitar. Except it's not new. It's getting on for 30 years old. So it's still quite new compared to him (and his old jokes), then...

So - the UK is in recession, the stock market is plummeting, inflation is up, August was the gloomiest since records began, it's pouring down outside, my fingers are frozen typing this.

Are we down-hearted? Not at all - our autumn season started 2 days ago, and it's great to be making music again.

WHAT'S COMING UP?

Check your diaries, and pencil us in!
We're playing for the Salvation Army on September 13th, but it's only a small slot - the only details we can find on the web are on our own website!

Our first BIIIIIIIIIG concert is at the Station Theatre, Hayling Island on October 4th, when we play as part of the HIADS season (Hayling Island Am Dram Society). They have the old Station building from the days when the Hayling Billy used to puff down from Havant. There are booking details on their website.

And we have another first - we're the penultimate guests at the first ever Farlington Music Festival - a month of music in aid of the upgrade of two local Church Halls to make them community focus venues for all sorts of local events. Come and see us on October 18th.

And here's a coincidence, we're playing at All Saints Church on All Saints Day - we're at Catherington, out in the rolling Hampshire hills on November 1st - more details on our website soon.

REPERTOIRE

Oh dear - our MD turned up with another new piece last week at our first rehearsal after the summer. It's one of those that goes round in your head for days afterwards. Watch out for it in concert later this season when we've polished it up a bit! You'll be thinking of us every night when you lie down and the tune starts up again...

WEBSITE NEWS

hago has a new shop now at this page.... You can buy Derek's published ensembles there. They're easy, they're fun, they're audience pleasers and they're played all over the world - search for Derek Hasted in YouTube and you'll find a couple of groups from overseas having a great time.

You can shop anywhere in the world and our website will sort out the post and packing.

Oh yes, and you can purchase Teddy Bears' Picnic - a cracking encore to end any duo concert.

PUBLICITY

Keep an eye out for us - we're working hard to get as much free publicity as possible - it's what makes our concerts sell out. But our biggest and most important way to reach new audiences is word of mouth. So put the word around for us and we'll be eternally grateful, embarrassingly obsequious, but very happy.
It's our mission to change people's perception of classical guitar and it's our reward to meet so many people at our concerts who tell us they had no idea what a guitar orchestra can sound like.