WEST Devon-based conductor Simon Ible has embarked on an innovative and ambitious new project which aims to embrace the very best of professional and amateur performance.

He has been invited to launch the pilot Tavistock Music Festival, to be held during the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Simon is best known in the South West as the artistic director of the Ten Tors Orchestra, but he also conducts the University of Plymouth Orchestra and Choral Society, the East Cornwall Bach Choir and the Two Moors Festival Chorus.

He says being the artistic director of the festival, which carries the theme ?Tavistock Sings!? is ?quite a challenge?.

The event will be held in both Tavistock Town Hall and St Eustachius Church.

Simon says St Eustachius is the best large performance space in West Devon ? and one of the most accessible church venues in the county.

?Tavistock Parish Church is a prime venue ? and it is such a lovely town with good facilities,? says Simon, who lives at Lewdown.

?The idea of the festival is that it is totally taking place in the town centre in just two venues. It is somewhere where everyone ? the audience and performers ? can enjoy all the facilities Tavistock has to offer as well as the music.?

The main part of the programme will be on the Saturday evening and involve the Ten Tors Orchestra, the Two Moors Festival Chorus and four international soloists for a performance of the Mozart Requiem.

On Friday a Youth Choir Competition will invite applications from schools within a 30-mile radius of Tavistock. Internationally respected music educationalist Professor George Pratt will chair the adjudicating panel.

On the Sunday lunchtime, two of the Saturday night soloists, soprano Lucy Crowe and baritone William Berger, will give a recital in Tavistock Town Hall. And in the evening there will be a special Festival Evensong in the parish church.

The South West Early Music Forum hosts Monday?s event. A Purcell workshop day for choir and string orchestra at St Eustachius? Church will culminate in a final free concert in the early evening.

Simon hopes visitors will find it a varied and interesting programme of events for both audience and participants.

?I think it is important for people to take part as well as listen so I hope it is all encompassing.?

Simon is delighted the festival is able to mount such a high calibre Youth Choir Competition.

?The judge is the adjudicator for the National Youth Choir finals in London. So you have the best person in the country coming to do this which is really exciting. Youngsters in West Devon will get the same attention as if they are going to a competition in London.

?They are as deserving as any choir in the country and I think it is important that the quality is here and recognised as being here.?

With a packed diary of musical engagements Simon says he has to be a very organised person to juggle commitments.

?The bottom line is you have to have good organisational skills. This idea of a musical director having his head in the clouds is a romantic notion but it would never work!? he says.

Already this year he has 37 concerts to conduct, with all the rehearsals and administration that goes with it.

?You cannot be anything but focussed. It can get tiring. It can be mentally, emotionally and physically tiring ? but it is also exciting and very fulfiling.?

He strongly believes in the physical and mental benefits of music ? both listening to it and making it. He advocates singing as being positively good for your health.

?Music is great fun and a wonderful distraction. It is spiritually uplifting and can take away the stresses of everyday life. Music is a form of emotional expression, and sometimes you cannot express yourself in any other way.?

Simon says music can help explore some emotions which cannot be described in any other way ? and this works for the listener as well as the player or singer.

The Tavistock Music Festival should be a sound feast of the very best. A coming together of enthusiasm, expression and entertainment.

Tavistock Forward secured a grant for the festival through the Tavistock Market and Coastal Town Initiative to fund the festival. The event is also likely to receive support from West Devon Borough Council and Tavistock Town Council. If successful, the festival could become an annual event.

?Part of the brief of the funding bodies is to enhance the culture and the local economy,? says Simon.

The festival is looking for support and sponsorship from local business and private patrons to raise more funds.

?People need to be aware of the opportunities this festival will bring. Let?s not say ?Oh, God! We have to put our hand in our pockets!?

?The people in Tavistock are as important as anyone in raising the profile of the town. The more we can use this to boost the town?s image, the more people will come back again and again.?

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