I'll send another post shortly as I plan to hike through Ireland, Scotland and England next July and August. I would like to meet as many of you as I can, and get pointers and helpful information. So I'll let you know where I want to go and we'll take it from there. But here's where you can see me, and meet me. I hear there are some awesome curry joints in the area. KES ***************************************** "...and white banners broke and fluttered from the battlements in the morning breeze and high and far he heard a clear ringing as of silver trumpets. So Gandalf and Peregrin rode to the Great Gate of the Men of Gondor at the rising of the sun, and its iron doors rolled back before them." (Minas Tirith, LotR,ROTK) Welcome to Tolkien 2005 Celebrating the half century since the publication of JRR Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings", The Tolkien Society is presenting a conference, "The Lord Of The Rings - Fifty Years 1955-2005", honoring one of the most well loved and influential books of all time. The conference will be held at Aston University, in Birmingham, England, August 11 - 15, 2005. For details, please see the website, at "http://www.tolkiensociety.org/2005". Opening the conference on August 11 will be Richard Crawshaw, 2005.venue@tolkiensociety.org, and Karen E. Stober, kstober@skyweb.net. Richard will be reading the quote from "Return Of The King". I, The Silver Trumpet Of Gondor, will play a fanfare, "Dawn At The Gates Of Gondor", composed just for the conference by Robert Gans, erasergans@yahoo.com, of Maine. I have also had a piece accepted into the art show at the conference. The piece is at "http://www.skyweb.net/~kstober/shadow.htm". It will be put up for sale at the conference. We are hoping to get a couple of other musicians to form a brass ensemble to play the fanfare. Ideally a fanfare ensemble would consist of some mid and low range brass consistent with a brass quintet i.e. 2 trumpets, french horn, trombone and tuba or bass trombone. But if I get more players, the composer is willing to work with whatever I get. I don't know if the musicians must also be conference attendees or not. Richard Crawshaw would know. Cheers Karen E. Stober kstober@skyweb.net