A few weeks ago Gemma, a very old school friend of mine, came to one of my concerts and asked me if I was free on a Saturday in June. I said yes thinking she meant her birthday but she told me about a summer ball she is organising is to raise funds for her charity The Lighthouse Centre. I've known Gemma from the age of 5 and I don't remember her ever
wanting to be anything other than a nurse. She probably never remembers me wanting to be anything other than a musician. After a few years in
nursing she realised there was a greater need for long term care at home and
set up The Lighthouse Centre which offers support and therapies for people with long term conditions. Having followed my progress on the harp she asked if I would be interested in playing my harp at the ball. I immediately accepted which prompted shrieks of delight on both sides but then I had to seriously think about whether I was up to this sort of performing.
Up until now the most I have had to prepare for a single performance is three pieces for an exam. While this gig would be background music I would still need a good half hour of music, I totted up what I would manage and it came to about 10 minutes. My usual tricks of playing slowly and adding repeats might get it to just over 15 but people would probably notice if I went through the same programme again. So over the last few weeks I have revised all of my exam pieces so far, worked on the new grade 4 pieces and added a few from other books. Practise has been particularly varied as I haven't been able to get through everything each time so I've had to focus on grade 4 and rotate all the others. I won't be able to memorise the whole lot I have had to get used to playing while reading, not something I am fond of as I lose my place in the music when I look at the harp then lose my strings when I glance at the music! However as it is background I can probably get away with the odd wrong note and it will be a great chance to try out my grade 4 pieces in preparation for the exam in July. Having been inspired by Claire Jones (and more news from her shortly) I am actually looking forward to wearing a dress!
News has come out today that Claire will be recording her new album for Classic FM tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday with music arranged and composed by Chris Marshall, her fiance, accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra. It will be conducted by Stuart Morley another old friend from college and who was a GOAT sponsor on day 19. It will certainly make a change for Stu who is usually to be found conducting We Will Rock You in London. The album is due to be released in September shortly after Claire and Chris's wedding. 2012 is certainly proving to be an exciting year for them. I know from seeing updates from Chris that both he and Claire have worked particularly hard in getting the music ready for recording and I really look forward to hearing the finished album! More information is here: http://www.clairejones.co.uk/
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Duet for harp and ... tuba??
It's been a while since I last updated but after a lull in practise and numerous performances on my normal instruments and exams I managed to get back into a practise routine. I have a plan to do grade 4 this term so ordered various books and started learning plenty of pieces. I have narrowed down to three pieces and will make those the main focus of my practise. I also have mine and Chris's wedding to think about and am working on some pieces on the harp, as well as the clarinet, that may get used at some point on the day.
You remember Kirsty and Derek from the last post? They did their grade 5 exams on trombone with me as their accompanist. I am delighted to report they both passed. Kirsty got a distinction and I understand Derek was somewhere around that mark. Maurice (on horn) and Thanea (on cello) from the GOAT are taking their grade 5 exams early this term so I wait with interest to hear how they get on.
Sticking with the brass world and moving smoothly from trombones and horns to tuba I can now explain the title of this post. Shortly before Easter musicians from the music service took part in Live Music Week, a chance for staff to perform in small ensembles and a larger orchestra and travel to schools to present programmes of a variety of styles. I organised my small group and we gave a programme of Latin music to some primary and scondary schools in Cambridge. Rehearsals have to be long as we spend more time laughing and eating cake than we do actually playing. The day was a success and our programme went down extremely well. No one got lost (see last years related post) and no one fell over (not documented but did happen last year). On the Thursday and Friday we teamed up with enough other staff to form an orchestra for a larger scale piece. This year it was Howard Blake's Land of Counterpane which is based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a lovely work, evocative, and imaginative. School children from across whichever area we were in (Huntingdon, then Wisbech) joined us for the performances. The music service regularly invites a guest soloist in for the County Wind Orchestra concerts, usually a past student who is embarking on a performing career and this year we had tuba player Callum Rookes. Callum is currently studying in Denmark and is particularly interested in promoting the solo works of the tuba to a wider audience. One of his pieces he performed as part of the schools concert is Fnugg by Oystein Baadsvik. It is a fantastic mix of singing and playing, multiphonics, beatboxing and many other advanced technical skills. I have heard the piece three or four times now and it never ceases to amaze me! Fnugg means either something very small, or invisible, or it can mean a snowflake. The piece doesn't sound particularly like a snowflake and certainly isn't invisible but it's great fun. The tuba has a great range of tonal characters and personalities and as a contrast Callum wanted to play a slower, expressive piece. My good friend Margaret (featured in many previous blogs) was the orchestral pianist on the day and is the official accompanist (although she never remembers agreeing to the latter role usually because the music is given to her on the day of the performance). On the first day of our performance Margaret was introduced to Callum and Callum (who had already been assured there was an official accompanist) showed her the music. With a rolling of the eyes and a chuckle Margaret had a look. At around the same time Rohan, who was playing harp that day glanced over. 'That would work on the harp' she said. Margaret and Rohan both then tried it out and somehow a decision was reached that Rohan could do it. Callum liked the idea and he performed it with Rohan. The warm, mellow sound of the tuba sat beautifully with the harp and it was a great performance.
Could this be a commissioning project for Callum in the future? As harp players tend to be almost as rare as tuba players there is a more practical consideration to think of but musically it would be lovely. Doing a quick search to find the composer of Fnugg I discovered that Callum has just set up his own blog: onemanandhistuba.blogspot.co.uk. There is just one post so far but is well written and hopefully this will develop further. Callum has an infectious affection for the tuba and will never tire of exploring its possibilities. I hope he inspires others to take up this rare but exciting instrument.
You remember Kirsty and Derek from the last post? They did their grade 5 exams on trombone with me as their accompanist. I am delighted to report they both passed. Kirsty got a distinction and I understand Derek was somewhere around that mark. Maurice (on horn) and Thanea (on cello) from the GOAT are taking their grade 5 exams early this term so I wait with interest to hear how they get on.
Sticking with the brass world and moving smoothly from trombones and horns to tuba I can now explain the title of this post. Shortly before Easter musicians from the music service took part in Live Music Week, a chance for staff to perform in small ensembles and a larger orchestra and travel to schools to present programmes of a variety of styles. I organised my small group and we gave a programme of Latin music to some primary and scondary schools in Cambridge. Rehearsals have to be long as we spend more time laughing and eating cake than we do actually playing. The day was a success and our programme went down extremely well. No one got lost (see last years related post) and no one fell over (not documented but did happen last year). On the Thursday and Friday we teamed up with enough other staff to form an orchestra for a larger scale piece. This year it was Howard Blake's Land of Counterpane which is based on poems by Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a lovely work, evocative, and imaginative. School children from across whichever area we were in (Huntingdon, then Wisbech) joined us for the performances. The music service regularly invites a guest soloist in for the County Wind Orchestra concerts, usually a past student who is embarking on a performing career and this year we had tuba player Callum Rookes. Callum is currently studying in Denmark and is particularly interested in promoting the solo works of the tuba to a wider audience. One of his pieces he performed as part of the schools concert is Fnugg by Oystein Baadsvik. It is a fantastic mix of singing and playing, multiphonics, beatboxing and many other advanced technical skills. I have heard the piece three or four times now and it never ceases to amaze me! Fnugg means either something very small, or invisible, or it can mean a snowflake. The piece doesn't sound particularly like a snowflake and certainly isn't invisible but it's great fun. The tuba has a great range of tonal characters and personalities and as a contrast Callum wanted to play a slower, expressive piece. My good friend Margaret (featured in many previous blogs) was the orchestral pianist on the day and is the official accompanist (although she never remembers agreeing to the latter role usually because the music is given to her on the day of the performance). On the first day of our performance Margaret was introduced to Callum and Callum (who had already been assured there was an official accompanist) showed her the music. With a rolling of the eyes and a chuckle Margaret had a look. At around the same time Rohan, who was playing harp that day glanced over. 'That would work on the harp' she said. Margaret and Rohan both then tried it out and somehow a decision was reached that Rohan could do it. Callum liked the idea and he performed it with Rohan. The warm, mellow sound of the tuba sat beautifully with the harp and it was a great performance.
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| Callum and Rohan, as seen by the clarinet section |
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