The professional programme was spread over four concerts in 2008.

The opening concert was, as in 2007, performed together with the excellent Umbrian Chamber Orchestra I Solisti di Perugia. We now count them as friends and we have asked to work with them again in 2009. The concert was a mixture of baroque, classical and contemporary composers. Povilas opened with the beautiful Haydn Concerto in re minore for Piano and String Orchestra, while Reinbert followed with a remarkable composition by the Lithuanian composer Anatolijus Senderovas, Mirage (2006): Concerto for Guitar and String Orchestra. Alfia then gave us a splendid performance of the Boccherini Concerto for Violoncello in Si B moll maggiore, while Elvira finished by repeating the Haydn motif with the exciting Concerto for violin in Do maggiore. She has since been asked by the Solisti to perform this piece again and will do so with them at a Christmas week concert in Terni, south of Perugia. The courtyard of the Comune was full to overflowing for the evening and we are beginning to recognise that we now have a dedicated audience who will travel to hear the MasterClass.

The second concert was a recital for Violoncello and Piano given by Alfia and Povilas and included Beethoven's seven variations on a theme from the opera The Magic Flute by Mozart, Schubert's Sonata 'Arpeggione' in la minore and Schaffran's arrangement for violoncello and piano of Shostakovich's Sonata for viola and pianoforte.

Four nights later, Elvira and Povilas gave their recital for violin and piano. Debussy's haunting Sonata for violin and piano preceded Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, after which followed Ravel's Valse nobile e sentimentale and Stravinsky's Divertimento for violin and pianoforte.

The fourth of this concert series arose because of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Olivier Messaien, gifted and highly religious French composer. As in 2007 our good friend Joseph Rosen, gifted amateur clarinettist, joined us for this 2008 series. The price of doing so was that he work through the year on Messaien's Quartet for the End of Time which would then be performed during the MasterClass in Summer 2008. Elvira, Alfia, Povilas and Joseph performed this magical and inspiring piece of music in an atmospheric setting in the Church of San Michele Arcangelo in Citerna.

Its composition was completed and it was first performed during Messaien's imprisonment in the concentration camp Stalag VIII during the second world war. We had asked to perform this concert in the church because of another event that had occurred there during the year, namely to hanging of the newly restored painting of a previous Apocalypse, The Crucifixion, as painted by the 16th century painter Nicolo Circignani, known as Il Pomarancio. This conjunction of two such apocalyptic events was something that we were very proud to have devised and we are very grateful to Don Nazzareno Marconi for his accompanying lecture and slide-show which helped to create such a moving and memorable evening.

We cannot but acknowledge with pride the part played by those who attended the Course this year. They worked harder than anyone else and during the three concerts in which they featured so strongly they entertained audiences that were fitting for the various occasions, provoking many appreciative comments.

Then there were the two little ones Noemi and Cosima, whose Shostakovich duet was widely appreciated; the two Japanese students, one cello and the other guitar, who played so well together. It was good too, to see the Professor and his student playing guitar duets by Piazolla and delighting the audience by so doing, as well as hearing the difficult Kreutzer Trio for guitar, violin and clarinet performed by Reinbert, Elvira and Joseph. Finally, when did you last hear a quartet for four Cellos? We did, wonderfully well played by Calum, Chafik, Eleanor and Alfia. The photograph below proves it!