Claire Whitson, Bass, prepares lunch 

BBC National Orchestra of Wales viola player Laura Sinnerton explains what happens when Comic Relief and a England-Ireland rugby needle match impacted on the band's players on tour ...

Friday 18th March

Today we have the morning to ourselves as our cottage is so close to our next venue in Bangor.  It’s lovely to be able to spend the morning relaxing over coffee, with the more energetic among us going for a run and preparing a nice lunch together before driving to the Prichard Jones Hall in Bangor.

This evening’s programme comprises of Gareth Glyn’s A Night at the Opera (a work that came to light during one of the composer workshops the orchestra holds), Sibelius’s perennially popular Violin Concerto and Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony.  Rehearsal is going swimmingly until trumpeter Andy Everton demands we all stop and take a fresh approach.  He, along with Steve Barnard (usually timps, now reincarnated as Animal from the Muppets on kit ...), John Cooper (usually on clarinet, now all schmoozy on sax), Bill Graham-White (usually on double bass, now all powered up on electric bass) and Mike Frost (by day, sound technician, by night, jazz guitarist extraordinaire) HIJACK Sibelius’s Concerto and transform it into some sort of crazy jazz standard thing!

Long suffering BBC NOW transport managers Mark and Andy take a very brief and well-earned break

It turns out that this is not in fact mutiny in the ranks, but rather our contribution to Radio 3’s Comic Relief programmes.  It was great to see some of our colleagues playing in such a different style (they do in fact have their own jazz band, droll-ly called NOT NOW) and a real reminder of how lucky we are to be surrounded by such talented players.  Rehearsal then continued as normal (just when I was getting into the groove).

After a quick bite to eat, it’s time to get changed and warmed up.  I love this programme - despite having played the Sibelius Concerto what feels like a hundred times this season, I genuinely never get tired of it.  There’s one little bit in the second movement (Figure 3 if anyone is interested) that really does give me goose bumps every single time we play it.  After the interval, it's on to Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony.  Again, this work has a brilliant viola part and I find that it all passes really quickly.  I love the coda at the end, there’s a passage in the horns that always makes me want to salute, it sounds so like an anthem of some sort!  The audience (there’s always such a lovely audience in Bangor) look like they enjoyed it as much as I did and we quickly pack up and head back to our cottage for some supper before bed.

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

Rob Gibbons, viola, arriving for a rehearsal looking very cool

BBC National Orchestra of Wales viola player Laura Sinnerton reports from the front line of concert halls and cake shops in North Wales

Thursday 17th March

Every year, as part of our role as Wales’s National Orchestra, we undertake a series of concert tours to the north of the country.  It’s really lovely for us to be out of the studio (though the bright, natural light hurts the eyes for a little while) and it feels so important to be able to take good concerts to towns that are so far away from Cardiff.  This time, along with conductor, Christophe Mangou and violin soloist, Jack Liebeck, we head off for four concerts with two different programmes to Aberystwyth, Bangor, Wrexham and Llandudno.  In order to keep our travelling to a minimum, us girlies have rented a lovely cottage in Llandudno and I arrive at our meeting point armed with a vegetarian lasagna and a lemon meringue for dinner tonight as well as flapjacks for the journey (Sinnerton Home Industries was in full operation last night).

One of the major downsides to a North Wales Tour is the drive to the first venue.  Not so much the length of drive, but rather the nature of it as while North Wales has some of the most stunning scenery in Britain, it also has some of the windiest roads!  This is an issue, as despite trying (what feels like) every remedy known to man, I still suffer from travel sickness.  My poor mother, in desperation, took me to our family doctor about this issue when I was still quite young, when even the shortest of journeys had become a distinct possibility for vomitus unexpectedus.  Our GP said I would grow out of it, but now as a living, breathing and sadly still being forced on to various types of motorised vehicles, adult musician, I can confirm that he blatantly lied.  Ensconced in the front passenger seat, cradling the lasagna for tonight’s dinner, staring straight ahead, I yearn for the day I master the use of the Force and can just BE there! We eventually stagger out of the car at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, feeling rather queasy.

Rehearsal is a short affair, mostly topping and tailing, reacquainting ourselves with the acoustics and sorting out space issues on the stage.  Then it’s off to the Uni canteen, always a highlight on North Wales for the tasty food.  Sometimes, it is difficult to fill the gap between rehearsal and concert in a venue outside a town centre, but Aberystwyth has a lovely little gift shop, a very comprehensive book shop (I can hear my mother reaching for the phone to remind me I’m saving for a new bow as I type the words ‘book shop’) and at present is hosting the BP Portrait Artists 2010 Tour.  Thus, the time flies by and I solemnly swear to my mother that although I bought more than one book it was less than five and one was on sale so in a way I saved money.

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

 

If someone asked you to put together a new Band, of underground young British musicians, who can write and perform original music that is genuine and heartfelt, where would you begin? Songwriters? Or instrumentalists? Rhythm section? Or Vocals? How many people would you put in the band? Where would you find them? And what genre of music should they play? These are just some of the questions I asked myself when I was first appointed Series Director on Goldie’s Band: By Royal Appointment.  

Executive Producer Celina Parker first approached me with her idea of forming a band in 2008, after we worked together on Maestro. Goldie impressed a lot of people during that series and the cerebral cyclone that is Celina felt he would be a powerful advocate for the positive power of music to change lives. After all, he wrote Mother - a cathartic track that helped him communicate and come to terms with being 'abandoned' in the care system (aged 3) – and, without a single music lesson, became a Drum and Bass pioneer.

At this stage I was thinking what’s not to like. Goldie has heaps of enthusiasm. I love music. Lets start filming. But then reality kicked in: I’ve never actually put a band together. Although I did once play the tenor drum for my school pipe band at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo… a position I attained after being told I was a terrible bagpiper! Thankfully the BBC Classical Music Department is full of talented musicians – some of whom look like real Rockers...

Preparation is key to any successful venture and over the next two years, music action groups, clubs, charities, teachers and other musicians were contacted. All of them were asked to put their best songwriters and instrumentalists forward. What we needed was that they must be unsigned, unknown and that their music had helped them take on challenges in their own lives. Big ask. Again, I’d like to take credit for this groundwork, but I was on another project and high praise must be given to the production team members, especially Victoria Jones and Cat Dixon.

Around now, it seemed everyone wanted to get involved - like I said, I wasn’t around! Prince Harry signed up, Buckingham Palace was booked and Goldie’s team of mentors enlisted: Guy Chambers, Soweto Kinch, Ms Dynamite, Cerys Matthews and Steve Abbott all offered to help - I actually cannot remember another project, where the ‘celebrities’ were so much more interested in the idea than in profit or building profile…they really did do it for the love of it, because, trust me, there wasn’t much money involved!

Read the rest of this entry

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?