Summer holiday anyone?

Have you booked your summer holiday yet? Have you thought about coming to our course in Croatia? The dates are 19 - 30 July, but you can just come for one week, 26 - 30 July if that fits in better with your school holiday.Here are some of the things that have been written about it in the past:

Liz Goodwin has been going to Croatia for many years now to run a summer school for flute players. This is held in a medieval castle, right by the sea, in the small town of Kastel Luksic which is near Spilt.

Maybe you would like to come in 2009.

What happens on the course

In past years there has been class each morning for 3 hours, starting at 9.00 am. The work on the course is geared to the people on the course and our aim is to have lots of fun, learn lots, work together and put on a wonderful performance on the last evening of the course. It is a unique opportunity for British young flute players to work with Croatian youngsters. The people from Croatia have been aged from 6 to 19 (we occasionally have adults). Some of the course members are absolute beginners and they start lessons on fife; we have some children who have started on fife and transfer to the flute during the course; we have some flute players who have been laying for a few years and we have some advanced players.

The course is conducted in English as it is important for our Croatian friends to improve their English skills.

We usually start the morning with warm up games and songs. Then we break up into small groups to do ensemble work. We often hear solos and have sessions on improving technique. Performance skills are important so we use games and improvisation to prepare for the concert. We always work on one large ensemble piece that everyone can join in with. Last year we did 'Walk Like This" by Ian Clarke and the fife players did lots of funny noises! (Sorry Ian!)

Advanced players are catered for by more complex ensemble pieces and the opportunity to have a masterclass workshop or two - in 2008 we worked on Zoom Tube.

It's a great experience to work as a very mixed ability team to work towards a common goal of a performance. It is also wonderful to workwith Croatian people and experience their phenomenal attitude towards work and music.

You can read about experiences in previous years below.

What happens in the afternoon/evenings

The rest of the day can be spent doing holiday type things - on the beach, exploring, reading or whatever you like to do on holiday. The sea is good to swim in, although the beach isn't sandy, it's white stone and swimming shoes are recommended. There are pedalos nearby which are great fun.

Day trips can be taken to Split and Trogir and a boat trip to one of the islands, Hvar is not to be missed at the weekend.

There is also an art class and a physics class you could do in the afternoons. In the art class they make amazing papier mache figures and 'magic experiments' are done in the physics workshops.

Evenings are good for walking to one of the many local restaurants for a meal.

Where would I stay?

There are plenty of places to stay including apartments and hotels. Families are welcome to come along. If you are a young person and want to come on your own, this is possible and providing there are other people wanting to come we should find accommodation easily. If you are tempted to come but have no one to come with you, let me know as there could be other people in your position. In 2007 we had 3 individual girls from the UK attend the course and we found very suitable accommodation for them.

I stay at the Villa Soulavy which is very near the castle. It has about 8 air conditioned apartments and each one has a fully equipped kitchen. www.villasoulavy.hr

There are many other private apartments and hotel. The travel agency OSTROG has always been very helpful. The contact details are:
OSTROG
Obala kralja Tomislava 17
Kaštel Lukšić
Tel: ++385 21 227 594
Fax: ++385 21 260 784
e-mail: ostrog@st.t-com.hr
For more local information http://kastela-info.hr/

How do I get there?

The nearest airport is Split. There are several airlines that fly there - easyjet, Adria, Flybe, Wizz air - the easyjet flights have just gone on sale. It is possible to fly to nearby airports eg Zagreb or Llubljana and get a train to Split. If you are interested in this visit  - www.seat61.com/Slovenia.htm

Once at Split airport it is about 6km to Kastel Luksic, the taxi costs about £10.

Food

A snack for lunch is provided on the course. Breakfast can be bought at the local supermarkets or bakeries. The supermarkets are very small but do sell a wide range of goods. You need to watch the sell by dates on items! If you are staying in an apartment you could always cook an evening meal. There is a selection of take away outlets, mainly selling pizza. Within a meal there are around 10 restaurants. They all serve similar food, lots of fish, seafood, risotto, pasta and pizza. It is simple food of a good, fresh quality and you can have a meal for about £5. Ice cream is also great in the area and costs from less than 50p.

Money and cost

The local currency is Kuna. There are approximately 10 to our pound but thisi depends on the exchange rate. Hotels and apartments will also take payment in Euros for accommodation.

The course in 2008 and 2009 cost 50 Kuna registration fee and 600 Kuna course fees. I will check this price with the people in Croatia. This needs to be paid on arrival.

Accommodation cost is variable. In 2007 we paid 66 euros per night for an apartment that could sleep 8 people (4 bedrooms).

Villia Soulavy is about 75 - 80 eurs per night.

The bus fare to Split from Kastel Luksic was 16 kuna last year. It was the same price to Trogir.

The ferry from Split to the island of Hvar was 42 kuna.

Supervison

I am unable to offer the same level of supervision and support that we offer on Flutewise UK courses. Kastel Luksic is a very safe place. If parents want to send unaccompanied young people, they must be confident that that person is able to be quite self-reliant. In past years, young people have often spent time with staff in the afternoon and evening and they have also met up wth Croatian people to socialise and sight see. We've experienced no problems in the past and anyone attending will know how to contact me at any time during their stay.

Dates

The dates will be Monday 21 July - Friday 31 July. You would be welcome to come for the second week if this is better for you. The concert will be on Friday evening, 31 July. If you do decide to come for the second week only - 27 July - Friday 31 July - I will send you some ensemble parts to prepare before you come.

What you need to bring

You will need the following:
Flute
Music stand
Personal belongings
Sun screen, sun glasses, etc. It is usually very hot in July/August.
Something to ward off mosquitoes and cream for soothing bites!
Swimming shoes

Make sure you have travel insurance and instrument insurance. The medical treatment is very good in Croatia (speaking from personal experiece, I had very bad bites last year and all treatment and medication were free).

If you would like to come or have any questions, please contact Flutewise.

This is what was written about the 2007 course:

7 August 2007

This is the beautiful castle where we had our course. It's called Kastel Vitturi in Kastel Luksic which is quite near Split.

When we arrived on July 24, Najda, the 'lady in charge of all things', didn't know how many people might turn up for the courses. There were 3 courses going on; our flute one, an art course and a "Harry Potter" workshop which was all to do with physics. As it turned out, Najda was kept very, very busy with registrations and had to turn some people away. We started our class with 22 people aged from 7 to very-grown-up.

Each morning Sandy and I taught for 3 hours. We covered many of the things you would expect on a Flutewise course with the addition of lots and lots of singing and some movement.

In the afternoons we would spend an hour or so planning the work for the next day and then relaxed with our ipods and books. The girls often went swimming in the clear, safe sea. In the evenings we would have a slow walk of about a mile to the local restaurants where we had very enjoyable and inexpensive meals. More about the food later.

A bit more about our course - we met each day in this beautiful room from 9.00 - 12.00. It started off quite comfortable in the room, but by 11.15 it was very hot. We had quite a few flute players, some who had started the fife last year or 2 years ago and some beginners on fife.

Two people on the course, Pjero and Katarina had only played fife and during this course they transferred to flute. They were both stunning and did a marvellous job performing in our end of course concert.

As I don't speak Croatian and I know the people on the course need to improve their English, we always do a lot of British traditional songs. Last year we did 'Soldier, Soldier Won't You Marry Me,' amongst others. This year the work had an animal theme.

At the end of each morning we always gather in a circle to say goodbye, thank you and take a bow. Our 3 British girls, Amy, Isobel and Laura did an excellent job by learning their 'Thank Yous' in Croatian. By the end of the course they were expressing all sorts of interesting ideas that Sandy and I pretended not to understand!

This is everyone getting ready for the concert. The rehearsal went well but the concert was very difficult to stage manage because the wind blew up and it kept threatening to rain. It was a great pity because, up to the concert, we had had superb weather.

The title of the concert was 'The Flutewise Animal Planet' and this is what we played:
Sheep May Safely Graze by JS Bach arr by Bill Holcombe for 4 flutes. This was played by Amy, Isobel, Laura and Gaby while the rest of the course members came on stage in pairs, bowed and then formed a tableau.
A piece from Funky Flute (which we renamed 'The Squealing Cat' so it would fit in with our programme, I hope the composer and publishers don't mind!) This was played by the beginner fifes with help of some flute players.
The Seal from Animal Flute by Diana Saunders. This was played by more advanced fife players and some flutes.
Theme from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky arr by Phyllis Avidan Louke - Classical Music for flexible flute ensemble.
There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly - everyone sang, with flute accompaniment and actions!
Purple Cow - more about that later
The Animals Went in Two by Two - another song
Then we came to the big piece - My Dog Pooh by Isaacson. We changed the title slightly to My Dog Dexter and added animal sounds and percussion so everyone could join in. The piece has a narration which we simplified.
The grand finale was Sandy's Celtic piece. If you've been on one of our courses you will probably enjoyed playing this. Sandy composed it and he teaches it from memory. We decided we needed to rename it to fit in with the concert, so it was called 'The Highland Cow Fling'.

There had been a 'Harry Potter Worksop' going on during our Flutewise course and the children demonstrated some of their experiments during a break in our performance. During our finale they released little helicopters from the balcony. It was very impressive. But it started to rain and on the last note everyone had to run for cover!

It was a memorable concert and it was recorded on at least 3 cameras. They make a professional DVD and I think it gets onto their TV.

One of the nice things about going to different countries is trying different food. We had some lovely meals out when we were there. The Croatians eat lots of fresh fish alongside pasta and pizzas. Pjero, above, is eating something I've never seen in this country, but have had when I was there. It's black risotto, made from the ink of a squid, I believe. It is delicious, but I didn't have any on this visit, because on the 2 opportunities I had to order it, I couldn't clean my teeth afterwards and I didn't think I wanted to talk to people with black teeth!

The only worry Sandy and I had about our girls on the course was to do with food. They just weren't eating enough fruit and vegetables. Maybe we are brainwashed in the UK over this '5 a day' idea. For breakfast the girls were often having cakes, crisps and even sweets!!! Is that your dream of a meal? They assured me the sweets were healthy as they were fruit ones and the strawberry ones contained 0.04% of strawberry. Must be really healthy then.

This was written about the 2008 course:

Mosquito bites were a small price to pay for the wonderful time we had in Croatia again. Imagine, Flutewise in it's own castle! It's true - Kastel Viturri is where we have the course and it is really beautiful.

Abbie Burrows and Gareth McLearnon came with me this year, which was really lovely. We had 24 young people aged from 7 to 17 (a typical Flutewise course). 9 of the children were absolute beginners and started on fife. Some of the others I started on fife last year or the year before that or the ..... and now they are all on flute and they are doing really well. We had Gaby, who is 17 and a really good player. Gareth gave her a copy of Zoom Tube by Ian Clarke and a lesson on it. Carina was there on holiday with her family and enjoyed meeting everyone playing duets with Gaby.

We have a flute class every morning for 3 hours. It is a real challenge with the wide age and skill range to have everyone together - and added to that is the language barrier. I've always made a big effort not to learn too much Croatian because the children need to learn English much more than I need to learn their language. My favourite word in Croatian is 'dobra' which has many meanings - like ok, good, whatever, etc.

This year for our course I took the theme 'The Pied Piper'. It needs a theme as we have a big concert on the last day. But our Pied Piper tale had a twist to it. He got rid of the rats and then there was a big party and the Pied Piper got drunk and took away the adults instead of the children. The main reason for that was so I could make the music we were doing fit in with the story - to help develop language we always sing songs - one of the songs was "What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor" - changed to "What Shall we do with the Drunken Piper"!

This was our final programme:
Fanfare - played by Duje on trumpet (I know it was a flute course, but so what!)
Summer is a coming in - everyone
Song - There's a Rat on My Leg
Rat Chant (improvised piece) - everyone
Canon of Peace - everyone
Music Box - beginner flutes
Fairground Frolics, James Penny - advanced flutes
Song - What Shall We Do with the Drunken Piper
Musical Joke - Mozart - flute trio
Quartet in F minor - Mozart - advanced flutes
We Want Our Parents Back - improvisation - everyone
In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg arr. Randalls - all flutes
Song - They'll be Coming Round the Mountain (can you spot the connection?)
Walk Like This - Ian Clarke - - everyone (the fife players were the choir and did a grand job with all the words.)

It was a magic concert, with a few magic tricks thrown in between pieces because some children do a physics course and others do an art course.