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Archive for the ‘26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf’ Category

Wrap-up of Woolf Conference 2016

Posted in 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , , , , on Saturday 2 July 2016| 8 Comments »

Bronte Parsonage group photo

Outside the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth with conference organizers Jane de Gay and Tom Breckin; Rebecca Yorke of The Brontë Society; International Virginia Woolf Society President Kristin Czarnecki; and Paula Maggio of Blogging Woolf.

Updated July 25

If you weren’t able to make it to the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf at Leeds Trinity University in Leeds, England, you can read more about it, view photographs, and watch a video. Here are links:

You can also search #Woolf2016 on Twitter and Facebook. And to follow Virginia’s travels around Greece, England and other such places, follow #travelswithvirginiawoolf.

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Virginia Woolf at Giggleswick School

Posted in 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , , , , , on Monday 20 June 2016| 5 Comments »

Yesterday, once the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf ended, about a dozen of us opted to take the 90-minute bus trip to Giggleswick, the village that houses Giggleswick School. The outing was put together as the final official event of this year’s Woolf conference.

At the Gigleswick School

It was at Giggleswick School where Woolf’s cousin Will Vaughan served as headmaster. And she stayed with him and his wife Madge in the headmaster’s home during the period of time in which she made her trip to the Brontë Parsonage in November 1904.

The weather was quite English; it rained from the moment we got off the bus until we boarded it again. Our gracious hosts at Giggleswick School treated us to a beautifully laid tea and a look inside the headmaster’s house.

Going to the chapel

We then split up, with a few of us heading to Giggleswick Chapel. It took four years to build and was finished in 1901, so was quite new when Woolf visited. There, we were given an informative tour by Barbara Gent, the school’s librarian and archivist, and a concert of organ and piano music by the school’s music director, James Taylor, and the chapel’s organist, Philip Broadhouse.

Afterward, Anne Reus, who assisted with organizing the conference and is a Ph.D. student at Leeds Trinity University, shepherded us to The Black Horse Pub, where we ordered a hot meal while sheltering from the cold rain. With immense dedication, she ran back and forth through that rain — without an umbrella — making sure the bus knew where to find us.

The hardy hikers

Despite the weather, every one of us was happy to be at Giggleswick — even the nine adventurers of our party who chose to go on the strenuous 6.5-mile hike up the hillside to the caves that Woolf visited when she strode out for a country walk. At the end of the day they climbed on board our bus, drenched but smiling.

After the rigorous hike, which included climbs over stiles built of rocks and treks alongside cows and sheep, Beth Rigel Daugherty said:

If I ever again hear anyone say that Woolf was fragile, I will tell them that is a lie!”

Here are some photos from the day. You can tell by these that I did not go on the walk led by indomitable conference organizer Jane deGay, but I so admire those who did. By the time we headed for Leeds, they were wet, chilled, hungry — and exhilarated.

The gracious Barbara Gent, archivist and librarian at Giggleswick School, read us Woolf's diary entries made during her stay.

The gracious Barbara Gent, archivist and librarian at Giggleswick School, read us Woolf’s diary entries made during her stay.

Our lovely tea included real china and scones with jam and clotted cream.

Our lovely tea included real china and scones with jam and clotted cream.

Giggleswick plaque

Headmaster's house at Giggleswick School

Headmaster’s house at Giggleswick School

The headmaster of Giggleswick School accepts a conference T-shirt as a gift of thanks for allowing us into his home.

Mark Turnbull, headmaster of Giggleswick School, accepts a conference T-shirt as a gift of thanks for allowing us into his home as his wife looks on.

It's easy to imagine Woolf warming herself at this fieplace in the sitting room.

It’s easy to imagine Woolf warming herself at this fieplace in the sitting room.

View from the drawing room window at the headmaster’s house

 

The room at the upper far right is the one that Woolf used during her 1904 stay.

The room at the upper far right is the one that Woolf used during her 1904 stay.

The lovely front garden includes poppies, a fitting flower since the school and the chapel include tributes to the more than 200 Giggleswick School alumni who were lost in the Great War. Eight hundred served.

The lovely front garden includes poppies, a fitting flower since the school and the chapel include tributes to the more than 200 Giggleswick School alumni who were lost in the Great War. Eight hundred served.

Giggleswick Chapel

Giggleswick Chapel, funded by the generosity of Walter Morrison and constructed using stone from local quarries. The architect was Thomas Jackson of Oxford.

Dome of the chapel

The dome of the chapel features an eye decorated in mosaic with gold ink detail.

Interior showing portion of the Italian marble floor

Interior showing portion of the floor of Belgian marble and pews made of cedar from Argentina

View of the rear of the chapel, with statues of King Edward VI, patron of the school, and Queen Victoria.

View of the rear of the chapel, with statues of King Edward VI, patron of the school, and Queen Victoria.

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Virginia Woolf at the Brontë Parsonage

Posted in 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , on Wednesday 15 June 2016| 3 Comments »

As a prelude to the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf at Leeds Trinity University in Leeds, England, Woolfians visited the Brontë Parsonage and Museum in Haworth.

The chief find of the day was this guestbook entry made by Woolf in her maiden name of Virginia Stephen on Nov. 24, 1904. She was the first of only two visitors that day. The other was her companion Margaret Vaughan, wife of her cousin Will, headmaster of Giggleswick School.

The book is stored in the library that houses books by and about the Brontës, pictured below.

A story on the conference is in the Yorkshire Post at this link: http://bit.ly/1W0dV7l

Page in the Brontë Parsonage and Museum guestbook signed by Virginia Woolf in 1904.

Page in the Brontë Parsonage and Museum guestbook signed by Virginia Woolf in 1904.

Behind-the-scenes room at the Brontë Parsonage Museum where the guestbook signed by Virginia Woolf is stored, along with other materials by and about the Brontës.

Behind-the-scenes room at the Brontë Parsonage Museum where the guestbook signed by Virginia Woolf is stored, along with other materials by and about the Brontës.

Brontë Parsonage Museum

Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, in Yorkshire

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Travels with Virginia Woolf: from Greece to Leeds to London

Posted in 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, Travels with Virginia Woolf, tagged , , on Monday 13 June 2016| 2 Comments »

Virginia Woolf is on the move — and she is posting her travel pics on Instagram and Twitter.

Last month she visited Greece, stopping off in Athens and Santorini. She toured Athens by bus, revisited the Acropolis on foot, was a guest at a Greek wedding on Santorini and spent some time near the water.

This month she is headed to the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf: Woolf and Heritage at Leeds Trinity University in Leeds, England. If you’re going, too, and tweeting about your trip, use the conference hashtag #Woolf2016. Virginia will also be stopping off in London. And she may take some detours along the way.

You can follow her travels on Twitter by searching #travelswithvirginiawoolf. Meanwhile, here are her collected tweets from her trip to Greece.

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Woolf’s life writing in concert at Leeds conference

Posted in 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, music, Virginia Woolf, tagged , on Wednesday 20 April 2016| Leave a Comment »

Hearing Woolf’s Life Writing, a concert showcasing music that inspired Virginia Woolf’s writing, will be held in conjunction with the 26th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf at The Concert Hall, Leeds School of Music, Friday, June 17, at 8 p.m.

Virginia Woolf: A Musical Life

VW: A Musical Life

The concert focuses on settings of Woolf’s diaries and letters and features three world premieres:

  1. The song cycle “A Lonely Mind” by Jan-Willem van Herpen
  2. Richard Barnard’s song cycle “Woolf Letters,” previewed in the YouTube video below
  3. A song by Jeremy Thurlow.

Barnard’s and Thurlow’s works were commissioned for this concert. The fourth work of the concert is Dominick Argento’s “From the Diary of Virginia Woolf” (1974, written for the English mezzo-soprano Janet Baker).

This concert is the second in a series showcasing music that inspired Virginia Woolf’s writing and that directly responds to her work, including new commissions, world premieres and little-known music by women composers.

Woolf famously stated , “I always think of my books as music before I write them,” and her writing continues to influence composers who have set her words or been inspired by her novels.

The series is a collaboration between pianist Lana Bode of the Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Dr. Emma Sutton of the University of St Andrews. Other performers include Annelies Van Hijfte, soprano; Marta Fontanals-Simmons and Nicola Rose, mezzo-sopranos; and Sian Cameron, pianist.

For more events in the Virginia Woolf and Music series, visit the website.

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