NICOLA LISLE meets musician turned entrepreneur Daniel Rye, who has launched a company with the aim of bringing music to the countryside

As a clarinettist whose credits include regular work as an 'extra' with the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Daniel Rye is used to the musical high life. Much of his work involves travelling to cities across the UK, but, for his latest project, he has decided to stay a little closer to home.

Springline Arts was launched last November at Letcombe Bassett, near Wantage, with the intention of bringing music to rural areas that are largely neglected by performing groups.

"The idea is that audiences don't have to travel to towns or cities for the best music, because we'll bring it to them," explained Daniel. "We try to make the event itself special, obviously with high-quality music, and also trying to match the refreshments to the music.

"Our first concert was a guitarist playing Spanish music, so we had Spanish wine and tapas-type nibbles.

"We also had a little interview session, so, after the interval, I asked him questions about his career and about the music he was playing, and invited people to ask questions. That was nice because we got lots of instant feedback, and we could tell that people were really interested."

Like many of the best ideas, Springline Arts came about purely by chance.

"It really started when we got talking to our immediate next-door neighbours, who are very keen music lovers, and we thought: why don't we start something up and put on concerts in the local area? And we wanted from the start to have a high-quality threshold.

"Being realistic, we thought we'd start in a very small way, and, if it goes well, then we'll try and expand and do other concerts further afield. Our unique selling point is that we are concentrating on countryside venues.

"Letcombe Bassett is one of the spring line villages along the foot of the Ridgeway villages where there are springs so that's where the name came from. At the moment, our audiences are coming from around Wantage, but we might perhaps move a little bit west towards Faringdon.

"We are a bit cautious about coming too close to Oxford, because there's so much of this sort of thing already, and we're trying to do things where there isn't much going on. If we had an idea for a concert that we thought would work brilliantly in the Sheldonian, and it wasn't clashing with other events in Oxford, we would think about that. But our core work will be in the countryside."

Springline's first two concerts were sold out, so Daniel is optimistic about the next two, the first of which takes place on Sunday at 7pm at the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Letcombe Bassett.

The Athena String Quartet, all of whom are musicians from the orchestra of Welsh National Opera, will perform Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 59 No.1 in F Major, after which they will be joined by Daniel for Mozart's Clarinet Quintet.

Later this summer, on August 26, you can join the Mellstock Band, who featured in BBC's Pride and Prejudice, for an evening of 19th-century rural dance music. The first half of the evening will be a concert, followed at 8.30pm by country dancing, all in the setting of the historic White's Barn at Letcombe Bassett.

The mix of different musical styles reflected in their first season's concerts is part of Springline Arts' commitment to attracting as wide an audience as possible.

"We're not restricted to one genre of music," said Daniel. "Because our background is as classical musicians that's always going to be the core of what we do, but we're very open minded, and interested in folk music and perhaps a bit of jazz."

So how does Daniel see Springline Arts developing?

"We've got some exciting plans, but they are still at the discussion stage. But I can say that because we've worked in the professional music business for quite a long time we've got lots of contacts.

"From the start, we decided to call it Springline Arts, rather than Springline Music, so that it would give us the opportunity to do some other things like talks, art exhibitions, poetry readings and so on. We also hope to run some courses in the future.

"At the moment, we're still searching for venues. We're already using village churches, village halls and barns, but what we're really looking for is a venue where we can have a good piano. So if anyone knows a venue we might be able to use, perhaps they can give us a call."

For more information about Springline Arts, contact Daniel at Chapel Cottage, Letcombe Bassett, Wantage, OX12 9LR, or telephone 01235 762975, email concerts@springlinearts.co.uk, or visit the www.springlinearts.co.uk website.