We are always pleased to host visits from student and special interest groups.
We can tailor the tours to suit your needs and include some playing of instruments in the collection.
There will be a charge for sessions with instrument handling and these must be booked in advance.
Feedback:
From tertiary group (Musicology students) after a handling tour in the Bate Collection and a Javanese Gamelan workshop:
“The impact of this session on my students is, I think, immeasurable. There is just something about sitting at Handel’s harpsichord or holding Beale’s trumpet that drives home the realization that these were real people who played real instruments. Playing a period instrument for the first time made the students understand viscerally, not just intellectually, the physical and therefore musical differences the instrument itself makes on the music they have played. They won’t play early clarinet music in the same way ever again.
These students have never had the opportunity to play early instruments, so for them, that’s the experience that was the most powerful. However, the gamelan lesson was especially significant. They’d all studied gamelan in class, but the opportunity to experience first-hand how the parts wove together and to feel what it's like to be inside the music was transformational.”
- Dr Allison A. Alcorn, Professor of Musicology, Illinois State University
Contact Us
If you'd like to book a session, please get in touch with our Education Officer - Isabelle Carré: bate.education@music.ox.ac.uk
