Day 38 - Another fundraising event and another practise session dedicatee

Social media has made it very easy to share information about fundraising projects but then that can make choosing which charity to support difficult. Charities and fundraisers have to be innovative and come up with new ways to raise awareness and to get people involved. The sponsored Grade-one-a-thon is a fine example but for those who prefer to hear a range of notes greater than just the one octave there is the sponsored Play. One of these events involves George who is one of the team at Palace Band. He directs the chamber music and brings a huge amount of experience and musicianship to rehearsals. As a clarinettist he is currently pursuing a busy freelance career. He has his own fundraising challenge in a weeks time as he will be conducting the Kensington Symphony Orchestra in a 6 hour performance marathon at Westfield Shopping Centre in Shepherd's Bush. George's piece is Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights and he will take to the platform at some point in the afternoon with 24 others timetabled in to conduct various other works. This sponsored Play series started in 1989 and the last event took place  in 2013 raising over £15,000. This year money raised goes to War Child, a small international charity currently working to protect children from the brutal effects of war. A small amount also goes to KSO itself, which uses the money to support its concerts and its own charitable aims, including the Kampala Music School in Uganda.
 
One of the things I quite like is when I discover that two people I know from different eras in my life are on the same project and my old college friend Nina will be playing oboe in the performance. I have sponsored George and have told him to keep an eye on the oboe section...

My own fundraising activities have continued and I had the pleasure of doing a good hour on the harp today. This session was dedicated to one of the Palace Band, clarinettist Dave. I have now been with the band for over ten years and Dave was already there when I joined playing with the line 3 clarinets. Like me Dave endures the eastern stretch of the North Circular Road every other Sunday. that shows the commitment we have to the band! Dave's session had structure as I started with some warm up exercises then progressed onto scales and arpeggios, listening carefully and looking at technique. I then did a technical exercise which requires the thumb to slide from one string to the next while the other fingers keep going normally. It is really hard and makes my thumb hurt but I had a few goes and it is making sense! When I did my pieces I experimented with a little video camera. Chris bought the key-ring sized camera a few years ago to put on his model train (which earned him three stripes for his anorak!) and I tried attaching it to various points on the harp just to see how it looked. On watching the videos I could see my fingers from all angles. I didn't pay too much attention to whether or not they were doing the right thing but it was fun to watch and this may give me something to look at later on. It also reminds me I could probably do with some advice soon as the recordings were not at a publishable level yet but here's a preview of what it might look like!

I did a little more on the first section of the new piece, called Manha de Carnaval, a Latin piece, not too fast but with some rhythmic patterns that need to be stylishly played. So a good day and thanks Dave for the donation!