Darren Lynch

Now there is no excuse for ignoring the Conductor!

Black Cat Music is delighted to introduce the Maestro Conductor’s Chair.  This elevated chair affords the conductor better visibility for the orchestra, and is fully adjustable in height and inclination.

With its adjustable seat and backrest, the Maestro Conductor’s Chair is exceptionally comfortable.  The footrest helps to give the Conductor extra support.

Height can be adjusted from 64 to 90cm, giving ultimate flexibility.

The five-foot base ensures that the chair is extremely stable.

With its elevated height, combined with superb adjustability and stability, the Maestro Conductor’s Chair will ensure the Conductor is visible to every orchestra-member throughout rehearsals and performances. 

In June, Black Cat Music welcomed Nik Williams to the team. Formally a sales and product manager for Fender, Nik, a keen drummer, started his career as a percussion sales specialist for Yamaha.

“It is with great pleasure we welcome Nik” said Black Cat’s managing director Alice Dagger, “he brings fifteen years of experience in the world of music with two of its biggest brands”.

Nik too is excited. “Working at Black Cat has expanded my knowledge beyond instruments into accessories, furniture and acoustics whilst keeping me within the music industry, which I love.”

Nik looks forward to continuing and building relationships with Black Cat’s distributors and end users throughout Europe “Already Black Cat has a reputation for supplying excellent quality products combined with the personal touch” said Nik “already I feel like part of the Black Cat family” he added.    

Established in 1873, Bilton Grange is a leading boarding and day preparatory school for children aged 3-13, based just outside Rugby in 90 acres of stunning Warwickshire parkland.

Music is considered central to the character of the school with all pupils given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument from Year 1. “We teach mainly folk and classical” said Mark Penrose, Bilton Grange’s Director of Performing Arts “through a sequential aural Kodály-inspired programme.”

Bilton Grange’s commitment extends to nine individual teaching rooms and six other spaces for teaching larger groups and ensemble rehearsals. Last summer the school purchased new storage equipment from Black Cat Music & Acoustics including a Folio Cabinet and Cello, Violin and Guitar racks.

Mr Penrose stated, “The storage racks are used every day, particularly the violin and cello ones, and they have made the department look neater and more purposeful. Even the students were excited when they arrived commenting much neater everything looks! We are really pleased with the outcome and Black Cat Music’s customer service was excellent!”.

Links

You can read more about Bilton Grange’s music department here

Click here to view Black Cat Music’s range of instrument and music storage

Photo credit: Bilton Grange

At the beginning of June, Black Cat Music & Acoustics ended a busy run of five shows and conferences in four weeks at Alexandra Palace for the Association of British Theatre Technicians’ 2019 Theatre Show.

The busy Theatre Show included a symposium, organised by Black Cat alongside our friends from Wenger Corporation in America, titled “Future trends in design, technology and safety” and included presentations by Tom Stickland from the Theatres Trust and international safety inspector Oliver Leigers from Germany.

The show capped off a busy four weeks which included the One Voice Conference, the UK's largest voiceover event, held in London, the Music Teacher’s Association/MMA Conference at Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire, the biennial Musikschulkongress in Berlin and the popular Independent Schools’ Bursars Association Conference in Manchester.

Speaking after the ABTT show and symposium, Black Cat’s Managing Director, Alice Dagger said “what a great way to end such a busy month! The symposium brought together experts from America and Europe to talk about theatre related topics such as virtual acoustics, mobile staging and systems integration.”

The Black Cat team will not be resting for long, four more conferences in the UK and Europe are planned in the Autumn.

In a period of just over two weeks starting from the beginning of May, the Black Cat Music & Acoustics teams will be busy attending no less than four separate events in the UK and Germany. First will be the One Voice Conference, the UK's largest voiceover event, in London between the 9th and 12th May.

There the team will once again be demonstrating a working, self-install, voiceover booth following the success of last year’s conference where the booth saw use by an artist to record an urgent job for the US in the middle of the busy conference! Popular UK voiceover artist Peter “X-factor and Britain’s Got Talent” Dixon recorded a short video of the booth you can see here.

The following week between the 17th and 19th May, one team from Black Cat will be exhibiting at the Music Teacher’s Association/MMA Conference at Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire whilst another will head to Berlin for the biennial Musikschulkongress.

Hot on the heels of this busy weekend will be the fourth event where Black Cat will be in Manchester at the ever-popular Independent Schools’ Bursars Association Conference on the 21st and 22nd May. This conference attracts over 400 delegates and 140 exhibitors and is always a busy but fun event.

If you're attending one of these events, please stop by to say "hello"!

After months of planning, Black Cat Music & Acoustics are set to start distribution of its popular Wenger and own brand music performance equipment from Liège in Eastern Belgium.

Managing director of Black Cat, Alice Dagger said “Our European sales continue to grow, and it was important to us to open a strategically placed distribution centre so that we could service our customers in mainland Europe more easily. Liège was the perfect choice.”

Black Cat Music & Acoustics, founded in 1982, are the Master Distributor for Wenger in Europe and Russia and enjoy relationships with thousands of schools, music conservatoires and orchestras throughout the region. Wenger is unchallenged as the largest manufacturer of fully-guaranteed staging and music performance equipment in the world.

Next month Black Cat will once again be attending the biennial Musikshculkongress at the Berlin Congress Centre from 17th to the 19th May.

March saw Black Cat Music & Acoustics showcase a Studiobricks self-install, practice pod at the Music and Drama Education Expo at London Olympia. The exhibition is the ideal opportunity for industry professionals from around the world to network, attend workshops and view the hundreds of exhibitors displaying their products and services.

The pod/booth was set up by the Black Cat team in little over an hour and it proved to be a major draw for professionals who were impressed by the acoustic properties and sound reduction levels. Students too enjoyed getting in on the act asking their friends enter the booth, close the door then sing or even shout. Because of the ambient noise of the show, it looked as if those in the booth were miming!

Black Cat Sales and Marketing Executive, Justin Bird said “Our stand was busy on both days of the show and it was a great opportunity for our customers to see and try products for themselves. We not only had teachers trying out the practice booth but sitting on music chairs, comparing music stands and discussing personalisation of music folders.”

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When Gabe Gale, curator of the Royal Academy of Music Museum, set about creating a rehearsal area for students, she needed music stands which would not look out of place in an area surrounded by historic instruments. Black Cat Music came to the rescue and supplied four, solid rosewood, Regency stands which, as the photo of the Aster Trio show, really looked the part.

To many of us of a certain age, their first experience of a music stand was at school with a rather wobbly contraption made of thin metal which, if you tried to adjust for height or angle, would promptly collapse spreading your sheet music over as wide an area as possible. These stands also seemed to attract the attention from certain pupils determined to bend them into a series of artistic and abstract shapes.

Times have, fortunately, changed!

Whilst products like Black Cat Music’s best seller, the Classic 50 overcome the problems of our youth, sometimes something more ornate is required, where the stand not only needs to be functional but fit within the décor, almost like a piece of furniture.

In a note to Black Cat, Gabe commented “Thanks for these lovely stands, they really enhance the practice space”

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Throughout December Black Cat Music is offering a stunning 20% Discount on the Black Cat LED Music Stand Light. Single LED Lights start at £10.22 + VAT each, or take advantage of the quantity discount breaks allowing purchase prices as low as £9.66 + VAT when purchased in quantities of 50+.

The LED music stand light from Black Cat Music simply clips on to your music stand. 4 LED lights (2 per gooseneck) provide bright, even illumination for your sheet music. Easy positioning of goosenecks, with individual light control, ensures lighting when and wherever you need it.

Full details of this month’s offer can be found at https://www.blackcatmusic.co.uk/music-stands-and-accessories/music-stand-lights/led-music-stand-light.html