UPCOMING EVENTS
WHAT IS CLONTER
Set in the heart of the Cheshire countryside, Clonter offers audiences an opportunity to hear some of the world’s finest emerging musical talent from a wide range of musical genres including jazz, folk, opera, gospel and panto. We are passionate about live musical theatre and aim to provide a diverse programme of events. Clonter offers an exciting range of opportunities for our audiences to get up close to our work,with pre-performance talks, open opera studios, musical theatre workshops and much more. Make a night of Your Visit, bring the family, enjoy a dining in our Carmen restaurant or bring your own picnic. Come and explore all that Clonter has to offer.
Clonter Opera Theatre, Swettenham Heath, Congleton CW12 2LR
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THE CLONTER EXPERIENCE
EDUCATION & COMMUNITY
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THE GREAT BRITISH MUSIC CAMP…is back again for its FOURTH year. The whole building has been pulsating since Monday with everything from bass guitar riffs to a good old brass band, and a bit of Stevie Wonder in between, played on everything and anything. The staff show kicked off the first concert, including the cook on viola, but after just one day, the young ones were strutting their stuff on the Clonter stage.
A version of Carmen’s ‘Habenera’ made it into the first night students’ show, along with other great treats, including a very young man strutting his stuff on the tuba, and another on guitar barely visible amongst all the microphones and music stands. The youngest participant estimated at 6 years old (offspring of a tutor), who was in danger of stealing the show, but the most impressive aspect of this camp is the atmosphere created that allows for the most lovely alliances to be forged – students deciding in just one day to get together with another student, often several year’s their younger, to just have a go at something – and a bit of magic is born. Many familiar faces from last year, just a bit taller, but also some new ones as well, with a fabulously healthy cultural mix. In spite of a number of wet nights, spirits still seem high, but most importantly music is still being made in every nook and cranny of the building.
‘…Thunderbolts and lighting, very very frightening…’ Eddie Mercury and his friends must surely make it into one of the concerts after Wednesday night’s light and sound display. No campers got struck by lightning or washed away by the downpour, so all good. Did you know that Bohemian Rhapsody was from an album called ‘A Night at the Opera’. How appropriate.