Archive for April, 2010
When the music suddenly stops….
As a professional string quartet with many years of training, one of the things we particularly pride ourselves on are our ‘ensemble skills’. This is having an awareness of what each of us is playing and responding immediately to that. It’s also having an idea of the external goings on whilst concentrating fully on the [...]
Forthcoming Concert at St Giles Church, Cheddington
It seems quite recently that we were blogging about our Christmas concert in St Giles Church, Cheddington (our own village) and already the spring sunshine is here and we’re busy programming for another concert in the church to take place on May the 14th 2010.
As each time we play in the village, we try to [...]
Wedding at Hinchingbrooke House
On Friday we were presented with a slight problem. One of our viola players who was due to be playing at yesterdays wedding at Hinchingbrook House (as part of a string duo with myself on violin) called us from Northern Ireland to say that as the planes were all grounded due to volcanic ash (from [...]
String quartet for just an hour…
Like many groups, we rarely take on bookings of less than two hours (or three hours on peak Saturdays over the summer) - as it’s simply not viable to break up a full day for just one hour of work. However, there are a couple of circumstances where we make an exception to this rule [...]
Wedding at Horsley Towers
After two busy days in a recording studio, on Saturday it was nice to get out into the beautiful surroundings of Horsley Towers near Ockham in Surrey. The spacious venue was ideal for a spring wedding and many guests were able to go outside and enjoy the lovely sunshine during the drinks reception.
We played a [...]
Deputising for teaching….
It’s always been the case that a lot of professional musicians regularly teach as well as perform - either privately or at schools or music colleges. Due to the sometimes erratic nature of work, it’s not always 100% possible for full time players to meet their teaching commitments, and they will often ask a trusted [...]
Classical music NOT to choose for a wedding….
A string quartet will usually provide music for all sorts of functions, such as corporate events, product launches, birthday parties, military dinners and of course weddings - and the most established, professional groups will always have a large repertoire of music, so that there is something to suit virtually any occasion.
Of course, when it comes [...]