MUSIC AT AMBIALET is the third incarnation of the original summer school Music at Ladevie, founded in 1991 by the pianist and writer Paul Roberts and his partner, arts journalist Jenny Gilbert. Within a few years they had built up a unique enterprise with an international following. For seven years from 2003 the summer school took place at Chateau Castelfranc in the Languedoc.

Now, from 2010, the magnificent Priory at Ambialet in the Tarn Gorge is the summer school's new home. Over the years it has maintained and developed the original vision of its founders: to nurture the highest standards of music-making in idyllic surroundings, removed from the competitive pressures of everyday life; to combine amateur pianists with conservatoire students, so offering to the amateurs a standard of teaching and performing they would not normally find, and to the advanced students contacts and friendships with their future public.

TUTORS: At Ambialet 2010 Paul Roberts will be joined by:

Charles Owen (Course I)

Martin Sturfält (Course II)

Alon Goldstein (Course III).

Please go to WWW.AMBIALETMUSIC.COM for further details.

The dates for Ambialet 2010 are:

Course I: 3-11 August

Course II: 13-21 August

Course III: 23-31 August

CONCERTS and EVENTS: Music at Ambialet encourages a wide range of music making, both formal and informal. Highlights from the summer schools of the past few years include masterclass preparation of Chopin's Ballades, Ravel's Miroirs and the complete Etudes of Debussy (by participant Sandra Joy); lecture recitals by Paul Roberts on Bartok's Sonata, Liszt's Petrarch Sonnets, Debussy and Impressionism, Beethoven's Op.111; Charles Owen playing Bach and Fauré; Ian Brown playing Beethoven, Bach and Falla; concert performances of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring for piano duet and Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto for two pianos (played by Martin Sturfalt and Stephan Bojsten); readings from Hoffmann by pianist Catherine Kautsky to accompany her own performance of Schumann's Kreisleriana; Bach and Liszt played by Robert Durso; jazz, soul, blues, ragtime, boogie-woogie played by Dave Nelson; poetry readings from Shakespeare to the present day; French cabaret by candlelight; dancing on the terrace to the accompaniment of accordion and saxophone.