Passamezzo concert of music, words and song from Shakespeare’s England in support of children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent

The internationally renowned early music ensemble Passamezzo performed Music, words & song from Shakespeare’s England on Wednesday 25th July, 2018 in support of the children’s cancer charity CLIC Sargent at the 5th in a series of annual charity musical evenings organised by the Worsted Weavers Guild.

The performance was held in St James’ Church on the Packington Estate in Warwickshire (~ 20 minutes north of Kenilworth), by generous permission of Lord and Lady Guernsey.
The concert was followed by a reception in the Pompeiian Room and on the terrace of Packington Hall.  The Capability Brown designed grounds and the Diocletian-era inspired church on the Packington Estate are not normally open to the public.

Programme

Touches of sweet harmony:
Music, words & song from Shakespeare’s England

• The broom/Jog on/Heartsease
• Thomas Morley: O Mistress mine
• John Wilbye: There is a jewel
• John Dowland: Paduan
• John Wilson: Take, o take those lips away
• Robert Jones: Farewell dear love
• Anon: Whoope do me no harm
• Anon: Daphne
• Anon: The Willow song
• Anon: Mad Tom of Bedlam
• Anon: Tomorrow it is St Valentine’s Day
• Anon: Bonny sweet Robin
• Anon: Packington’s Pound
• John Wilson: Lawn as white as driven snow
• Anon: Chorus of Mountebanks

Passamezzo was founded by Tamsin Lewis in 2001, initially to explore the Jacobean Masque.

A passamezzo was a popular sixteenth century tune and dance. It could be played and danced simply and enjoyed by anyone, but could also become an exhibition piece, with virtuosic and showy divisions played upon it.

Passomezzo founder Tamsin Lewis said: “We chose the name Passamezzo for ourselves because we feel it reflects the character of our work: we provide a wide range of performances from the very simple to the very elaborate, and pride ourselves on creating a piece which suits your occasion perfectly.”

The core membership of the ensemble has expanded to: Eleanor Cramer (soprano), Alison Kinder (viols and recorders), Tamsin Lewis (Renaissance violin, viols, voice), Richard Mackenzie and Robin Jeffrey (plucked strings), Richard De Winter and Michael Palmer (actors and baritones), and Charlotte Ewart (choreographer.

The ensemble specialise in English Elizabethan and Jacobean repertoire, the masque remaining an important part of their programming, and concerts have a distinct theatrical air created by costume, readings and presentation. The ensemble delights in all aspects of musical life, from the intimacy of the lute song, to the brash raucousness of the broadside ballad, from the sacred part song, to the profane insanity of bedlamite mad songs. 

The programmes are carefully researched with music frequently taken from manuscript sources, unearthing pieces that have lain hidden for centuries. It is this range of material and overall spectacle, combined with the informative and accessible manner of their presentation, that makes Passamezzo such an engaging group.

Passamezzo often work with dancers and actors. They have played in a great variety of venues including the British Museum; the Victoria and Albert Museum; Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre; Hampton Court Palace and in theatres, concert halls, stately homes, churches, palaces and ruins throughout England.

Television and Radio credits include: BBC Restoration; Howard Goodall’s The Truth about Carols (BBC2); Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents (BBC2);  Henry VIII and his six wives, and Elizabeth I (Channel 5); Frost Fair; King Lear and Boxing Day, (Radio 4); Early Music for the Holidays; Christmas Carols, Chant and Legend (Harmonia Early Music/PRX).
Passamezzo also work with with Moroccan Sufi musicians, Ensemble Mogador Soufie performing 17th Century English and Moroccan music in both countries as part of the Shore To Shore Project

Centenary for the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine: a conference, awards for medical writing and new associate memberships

The Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine is organising its Centenary Conference, which is to be held on 7^th December at the Royal College of Physicians in London. The December 2018 FPM Centenary Conference will include a poster awards session showcasing national and international studies aimed at Transforming Health. The Conference will be eligible for 6 CPD points.

Register for the Conference 

Submit an abstract for the Transforming Health poster session at the 7th December Conference.

Talks by expert clinicians will provide updates on best medical practice in diagnostics and new therapies with regard to common serious clinical disorders, ranging from lung disease to cancer, stroke and cardiac disease, liver problems  and other serious clinical disease. Speakers will also discuss management of new clinical challenges, including antibiotic resistance, the impact of ageing on co-morbidity, and other important current challenges for clinical practice.

Speakers and discussants will include Professor Christopher Byrne, University of Southampton on Identifying and managing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Professor Peter Barnes FRS, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, with updates on treating asthma and COPD, Professor Tom Kirkwood CBE, University of Newcastle, on ageing, health and multi-morbidity, Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, University of Liverpool NHS Chair of Pharmacogenetics on applying personalised medicine in clinical practice. Dr Tim Nicholson, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s Medical School, on functional neurological disorders and Professor Anthony Rudd, Guy’s and St Thomas’s, National Clinical Director for Stroke with NHS England, on reducing the severity of stroke. FPM President Donald Singer FPM journal editors Bernard Cheung (Postgraduate Medical Journal) and Ken Redekop (Health Policy and Technology) will give a brief overview of the FPM and its activities.
 

The FPM is a British non-profit organisation founded in the autumn of 1919 as a merger of the Fellowship of Medicine and the Postgraduate Medical Association, with Sir William Osler as its first president. Its initial aims were the development of educational programmes in all branches of postgraduate medicine. The FPM now organises clinical and research meetings and publishes two journals. The FPM has since 1925 published the international journal, the Postgraduate Medical Journal. In 2012 the Fellowship launched a new international journal, Health Policy and Technology, published on the Fellowship’s behalf by Elsevier.

The Postgraduate Medical Journal publishes topical reviews, commentaries and original papers on themes across the medical spectrum. It provides continuing professional development for all doctors, from those in training, to their teachers, and active clinicians, by publishing papers on a wide range of topics relevant to clinical practice. Papers published in PMJ describe current practice and new developments in all branches of medicine; describe relevance and impact of translational research on clinical practice; provide background relevant to examinations; and papers on medical education and medical education research.

The FPM’s peer-reviewed journal Health Policy and Technology focuses on past, present and future health policy and the role of technology in clinical and non-clinical national and international health environments. It aims to foster closer links with policy-makers, health professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia.

Further ways in which the FPM will mark its anniversary  include introducing a new Associate Member category for the FPM and launch of new international awards for excellence in medical writing by doctors in social media.

The new Associate Member category for the FPM will be open to doctors in established postgraduate training posts, to senior doctors in established posts and to other experts who are interested in postgraduate medicine. Authors and reviewers for the official journals of the FPM – Health Policy and Technology and the Postgraduate Medical journal will be entitled to a reduced membership fee for their first year as Associate Members. Benefits for Associate Members will include a reduction in the registration fee for attending FPM educational events and a reduced annual electronic subscription to the PMJ or HPT journal. See the FPM website for more details about how to apply to become anAssociate Member of the FPM .

The FPM will also launch international awards to recognise best social media writing on medical themes.  To be eligible, articles should be aimed at increasing understanding by the public and health professionals of important health-related issues. Articles published online since 1st January 2018 will be eligible.

Up to 5 awards of £100 each will initially be made – one for each major geographical region: the Americas, Europe, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand.  The judging panel will include health professionals from the FPM and from the Editorial Boards of HPT and the PMJ and experts in social media. Winning writers will have the opportunity to publish their award-winning article in HPT or the PMJ, depending on the theme of the article.

See the FPM website for details of how to enter for the writing awards.