Book Arts Exhibition: Between the Books.

The ACE Foundation invites you to visit our Book Arts exhibition running from 11 December - 9 January at Cambridge Central Library and 11 January - 11 February at Great Shelford Library.

The exhibition has been produced by 12 participants of our 10 week Book Arts course, and their tutor, Candida Bradley, a book artist from South London.

The display of their hand made books will be interwoven into the libraries standard book collection and each piece will challenge our usual perception of books, whilst at the same time still educating us. Each book is of course its own stunning work of art in its own right too!

We hope you will have a chance to see these beautiful pieces and to learn more about the world of book arts while you're at it!

Other music events

Of course, being an organisation committed to promoting cultural and international understanding through education, we are not only interested in our own, excellent events, but also those of other organisations which complement our own principles.

The Cambridgeshire Holiday Orchestra Association have been running music courses for children for over 50 years, and we are proud to be supporting their activities in 2010-11. CHOA runs music courses for children between the ages of 7 & 18 in the three major holidays each year. The children are clearly delighted with the experience because many return time and time again. This year's Christmas Course is running from the 27th - 30th December and will be directed by our very own Trevor Barlow. (For further information and to book the course please see the CHOA website, link above.)

Another event we have recently become involved with is the Britten Sinfonia Family Music Day. The event happens annually, this year on Saturday 30th October, and is primarily for families with children up to age 11. Held at West Road Concert Hall it includes a diverse range of exciting activities including gamelan and instrument making.

Focusing more on teachers (a vital component for education, I think you'll agree!) ESTA, the European String Teachers Association, provides events aimed at string instrument teachers. They recently informed us of a series of workshops on Creative and Effective String Teaching being held in London. If you are a string teacher and would like to improve your method, please see the following link: http://www.estastrings.org/courseApplication2010.htm.

Robert Schumann: The Man, The Mind, The Music - 2010 conference

Thank you to The Musical Brain for arranging such a fantastic event on the weekend of October 2-3.

For those of you who missed it, or have only just discovered us, the event was a conference, held in Robert Schumann's 200th anniversary year, which explored the relationship between his music and his mind. The occasion brought together a dynamic collection of scientists, musicians and health specialists, as well as many other delegates with an interest in the relationship between music and the brain. This provided a stimulating and enjoyable environment for both intellectual discussion and musical appreciation.

Speakers included Prof. John Cox, Prof. Michael Trimble, Prof. Nigel Osborne, Dr. Jessica Grahn, Prof. Stefan Koelsch, Dr. Katie Overy, Stephen Johnson and Ian Ritchie. Delegates were treated to some superb performances by Ian Brown, James Gilchrist, Anna Tilbrook and the Sacconi Quartet. The musicians were also involved in the discussions, allowing the audience a privileged insight into the experience of music as a professional musician. All the speakers and musicians were very generous in providing examples of how music affected their lives and well-being, which allowed for a very penetrating analysis of the field in question.

All biographies can be found on The Musical Brain website.

This first event, under the leadership of The Musical Brain, has certainly provided a tantilising foundation for what is to come. Many thanks to The Musical Brain for providing this excellent opportunity and we look forward to continuing the relationship.

We were very pleased to have received excellent press coverage for the event. A more detailed review of the 2010 conference can be found in Nature.

Jazz Day video

If you want to know more about our music playing days, take a look at the video from the Cambridge Jazz Day with Alan Barnes and Brigitte Beraha.

Many thanks to Peter Lefort for producing it.