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Know any Beatles songs?

Last night, I was playing at an event at the Natural History Museum for London Fashion Week. We'd just finished playing a movement from the Four Seasons, when I heard someone clapping behind me. I turned round and it was Paul McCartney! 'Know any Beatles songs?' he said!!


We have had a lovely summer of playing in festivals with All Angels, Hayley Westenra and Sir Willard White. I also did a couple of concertos in St Martin in the Fields, took my niece to the Aquarium, and saw 3 different versions of the Wizard of Oz! With my other niece, I had a dilemma. I had planned to take her to see Beethoven's 4th piano concerto at the Proms, but at the last minute realised Kylie was on at the o2 arena. Kylie won. Sorry Beethoven.

Natalia is back from Portugal, so quartet is now reheasing again every day. It's our 10th anniversary, so we are celebrating with lots of concerts! We are currently reheasing Shostakovich's 8th Quartet for a concert soon, and we are also preparing for a competition in Amsterdam in November. One of the pieces we have to learn is called 'What's the Fastest way out of Here?'!!

Last weekend we went to record a brand new compostition by David Knotts in Bournemouth. It was for children's choir, string quartet, mandolin and descant recorder - not your usual combination but very fun. I had just returned from a week's holiday in the South of France so hadn't played my violin for a week, but decided it actually did me more good than practising!

I'm really excited about our latest CD project. We are re releasing our Dreaming CD in new packaging, using paper which can be planted and it grows into wildflowers! Release on November 10th in HMV, Amazon etc so watch this space!

We also have a CD of forgotten Gershwin songs coming out on October 27th- recorded by Victoria Hart. They're the ones I went to research in the Library of Congress back in March. Due to approaching deadlines, and with us all on holiday at different times, I ended up recording all 4 parts on one track - even playing viola!!

31st July

Played with All Angels and Will Martin last night in the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton. We started the show with our version of Traumerei, from our ‘Dreaming’ album. The day before, we did a lunchtime recital in St Martin in the Fields, in Trafalgar Square and played the Bax Quartet that we’ve recorded. We started with a Mozart Divertimento and also played Elgar’s ‘Lullaby’. The audience was fantastic – not just in number, but in enthusiasm. We sold lots of CDs, and many people gave us their email addresses to join our mailing list. It would be great to do some more London concerts.

Jen and I had a performance in Amsterdam with Adele last week. I had no idea what the weather was going to be like in Amsterdam, so arrived wearing wellies and a sundress. Having risen at 4 am, I must have looked quite frightening all in all. Adele, in Amsterdam, decided halfway through the show that she didn’t like her bass guitar anymore – and threw it out to the crowd. I hoped she wasn’t expecting us to do the same with our violins!! We then had to get a train to Paris, and met the other two Pavaos there, so we could hire a car and drive to Normandie for a week of recitals. Why is it always so complicated?! Jen and I laughed a lot when we discovered to get a bus in Amsterdam to the airport, required buying 2 ‘Strips’ on a ‘Stripenkart’. What on earth did that involve? When we finally managed to arrive in France without mishap, I treated myself immediately to a chocolate crepe outside the Gare du Nord. True to form, we had arranged to meet the others by the Pick n Mix stall!

Our week in France went very quickly. We have done a tour in the Normandie nearly every summer for 9 years now, and this was one of the best. We were looked after very well, staying in a beautiful gite in a manoir. We played Schubert’s Quartetsatz, the Bax G major and Mendelssohn’s last quartet every night, including in a wonderful abbey, and we finished with an outdoor concert of our jazz arrangements whilst everyone picnicked on the lawns of a beautiful house.Our music kept blowing away, so I had to hold it to the stand with my hair clip, which unfortunately had a big flower attached, so attracted some bees! Bryony and then went off in a friends truck to watch a silent movie that was being screened outdoors with French subtitles. The evening was quite eventful, as I got an electric shock from a fence I climbed over, and then had to eat sea snails afterwards. And during the interval, we just quietly asked a steward if there was any chocolate available to buy, and next thing we know he’s announcing over a loudspeaker ‘Chocolat! Chocolat pour les anglais!!!’ How embarassing.

After one recital, we were enjoying wine on the lawn, and someone asked Jen and I if we would like flat or sparkling. When I replied ‘flat’ and Jen said ‘sparkling’, Jen commented ‘true to form!’. Jen, do you mean that I always play flat and you always sparkle? Haha!! One concert really made us laugh; just as we were raising our bows and drawing breath to start the moving slow movement of the Mendelssohn, an elderly gent in the audience, not realizing how loud he was speaking suddenly announced ‘The second violinist’s AWFULLY pretty!’

We had a fun day off at the end of the tour, and went to the beach. It was colder that day, but being true Brits we sat on the beach covered in scarves and towels, eating chips!! I found some fake kiddies tattoos in a seaside shop, so we had lots of fun applying those. You are supposed to use a damp sponge, but we had to make do with my bikini dipped in the sea.

I have finally had time (but only at 2 am) to change the strings on my violin, and polish the poor thing. I spend so much time packing and unpacking, and emailing concert organizers, that the poor instrument must feel very neglected except when I’m on stage. How do people have time to learn Beethoven Quartets, organise concerts, AND keep their bedrooms tidy?!

Prime Minister and Pigeons

We went to Luxembourg for two quartet concerts this weekend, where we managed to attend a street party and wave to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. As well as two quartet performances, we managed to fit in shopping and watching the fireworks. I had my usual problem of not being able to shut my suitcase on the way back.. I loved the way the car 'drop-off' section in the car park at Luxembourg airport is called the 'kiss and fly'!! Avoiding unpacking my suicase, I went to watch Ida Haendel at the Wigmore on my return- she was really fantastic - I hope I'll still be playing at that age.

As well as seeing the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, I performed to the Prime Minister the last week. I was playing with my friend’s trio ‘Blue Topaz’ in Somerset House, on the Strand, and it turned out Gordon Brown was there, and David Cameron!

My Mum got a DVD in the post today - she wasn't well enough to come and watch a recital I did a few weeks ago with pianist Alison Farr, so Alison's Dad kindly made her a DVD of it. It was a good programme, because the concert organiser had had a great idea; he advertised a list of pieces we could play in the local paper and got the audience to ring or write in to vote for which ones they wanted to hear! We finished with an encore of Vieuxtemps' variations on Yankee Doodle, and got a standing ovation, so I hope Mum enjoys it!

Tomorrow, I am off to Paris with pop singer Adele, then the next day our Quartet is performing with All Angels in the Thaxted Festival. And I need to start practicing Piazolla's Four Seasons, as I am playing the solo part in a few weeks.

I think I have poisoned all the pigeons in West Hampstead, in the process of trying to change a violin string. My pegs keep getting stuck in the hot weather, and so as I am about to replace a string on my violin, I want to loosen up the peg. The best way to do this is with some old dried up soap. But I can’t find any – so I took a corner off our perfectly good brand new soap in the bathroom and stuck it on my windowsill to dry out. I checked the next day and it had gone. Then the same happened the next day, and the next. I have a horrible feeling that a pigeon is taking off with the soap thinking it is some food. I have probably poisoned at least 3 pigeons by now, and am still no closer to solving my sticky peg or changing my violin string.

I am about to give my niece a violin lesson over the phone as I haven’t had time to give her a lesson in person for ages. It works quite well; she plays a piece or scale and I tell her which notes she needs to flatten or sharpen! As for her bow technique, that will have to wait until I have worked out how to use my webcam…

Classical Brits and circus skills

Phew! The last 6 months…..

We released our Elgar and Bax CD ourselves. Victoria Hart’s record label ‘Discrete’ VERY kindly let us use their label, and I scrambled around trying to sort out everything from MCPS licenses to distribution. The distributor I found was so fantastic that she didn’t even flinch when we decided at the very last minute to release a Christmas CD on the same day, for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. This meant getting our arranger, Carlo Martelli, to arrange 12 Christmas carols in a week – he was still writing them as we started recording! Due to an accident with the heating in the church we were recording in, my brother had to come on a mercy mission with as many woolly jumpers and fingerless gloves he could find; it was truly a wintery recording, but a huge success on Classic FM and for Breakthrough.

We promoted the CD in Harrods in December and were also invited play at the opening of the Harrods Sale the day after Boxing Day.














January saw us getting some fantastic reviews for our Elgar/Bax recording :
‘Intoxicating warmth and emotional spontaneity’ Strad Magazine
‘an unqualified success – a real must-have!’ Music Web International (Disc of the Month) ‘plenty of energy, precision and clarity, with an impressive sense of lively rapport between the four players.’ BBC Music Magazine (4 stars)
‘Assured performances’ The Guardian
And some amusing ones…'The four Armani- clad babes who grace the cover, two pages of the booklet and the CD itself, and who look suspiciously like a quartet put together by Simon Cowell, turn out to be an ensemble of real depth and musical distinction. With a light, beautifully integrated sound, their account of Bax's First Quartet is a real winner (try the sorrowful slow movement or the lively finale). They bring to the exactly contemporaneous Elgar (1918) a grace and emotional intensity that is quite the equal of other more established quartets'
Classic FM Magazine (4 stars)

Ha! Perhaps I should send that to Simon Cowell?!

I had the awful news in February that my wonderful violin professor and friend, Howard Davis, had passed away. I was honoured that our quartet was asked to play at his funeral. Howard would have laughed if he could have seen my face when it suddenly dawned on me that it was the worst possible audience – a room full of violinists!! We have dedicated our latest CD to him and miss him terribly.

Later on in February we gave a rather unusual recital in Poole, playing a piano quintet, voice quintet, saxophone quintet and viola quintet all in one concert, which also involved me knitting and playing cards on stage. The idea was that we had invited friends round for some tea and quintets and the audience could eavesdrop on our rehearsal. So the stage was set up like my flat, with clothes and books everywhere, and even a pink telephone next to my feet and a few realistic suitcases waiting to be unpacked. Alison, our pianist, sat knitting on the sofa on stage until it was her turn, and we even had a game of cards on stage in the interval, before wandering over to our chairs to start the 2nd half!



Piano quintets with Alison Farr











After the success of our Christmas arrangements, we wanted to release another CD of well-known tunes in gorgeous arrangements by Carlo; one that would sell all year round and not just at Christmas! The result was ‘Dreaming’, the theme of the CD being moons, stars and night-time. We had a disaster with the cover. We had a wonderful photo shoot all planned, but poor Bryony got food poisoning at the last minute. 2 days later, Bry was still really sick, but my some miracle we managed to create a cover photo just a few hours before our deadline. We asked a photographer friend to meet us on Waterloo Bridge at 10 pm. Bryony couldn’t stand up for very long so we leapt out of a taxi, stood for just 20 mins with our backs to the camera (no time for make up and Bry looked green anyway), tried to keep hold of our instruments (it was the night a hurricane was forecast) and by some miracle actually got a shot that was cover worthy!



















Also so far this year..

Our Quartet were nominated for a Classical Brit Award, had a photoshoot for Hello Magazine, and an interview on Classic FM TV (see YouTube).



I went to the Library of Congress, Washington D.C to explore the Gershwin archives, then on my way back stopped off in New York to watch Aretha Franklin at the Radio City Music Hall.



















I have recorded with Hayley Westenra, Andrew Lloyd Webber, KanYe West, Adele, Kasabian and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

I performed with Sir Willard White (Norwich), Victoria Hart (Warsaw), and Adele (on tour around the UK and also in Paris, Holland and Dublin). Also performed the Mendelssohn Octet twice with the Emperor Quartet.

Played on the X Factor, performed in ‘Chess’ in the Albert Hall, and also played in ‘I’ll Do Anything’; Andrew Lloyd Webbers’s latest BBC1 talent show.


Oh – and most exciting - I went to a circus skills class for a hen party and learnt to juggle.

Our Quartet schedule has been pretty intense this year, but last weekend won the prize – I gave a duo recital with Alison Farr in Somerset, and the quartet joined us for a quintet recital the following night, (standing ovations both nights!) We then had to drive from Somerset to Lincolnshire for a quartet recital the next day, and then drive back through the night to London where we had a recording session for Lloyd Webber in Abbey Road at 10 am!!
I did come home with 2 bottles of pink champagne and some lovely flowers…. what more could a girl want?!

Spamalot

What a mad couple of weeks..

Played on the Spice Girl's new single, recorded at Abbey Road, then the next day we did our first quartet recital of the season, at St Olave's Church in the City. We played Elgar's only String Quartet and the Bax G major. We have recorded both works on a disc which is being released on November 19th on the Discrete label. I am busy writing to radio presenters at Classic FM and Radio 3 asking them to consider playing it! Currently surrounded by pile of padded envelopes, CDs and stamps. But have no internet at the moment, so have set up work in a corner of my local bar, where they have wireless internet!

The day after the recital, I played in Fiddler on the Roof again, then my niece came to stay for the weekend and I took her to the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park. We watched 'The Boyfriend' and we loved all the 20s music and costumes, not to mention the dancing. We were lucky- it was the last performance of the season, and Dame Judi Dench came on stage at the end to make a presentation. We cornered her in the bar afterwards so Louisa could get her autograph!

The Quartet played at Ronnie Scotts on Sunday 16th. We played in the first set with singer Victoria Hart. I had taken my Dad to Ronnie's for his 60th, and he was delighted to come and watch his daughter (plus honorary daughters in the quartet!) actually play there.

Tuesday 18th - we played at the V and A Museum for the London Fashion Week party. There was a 50s theme, and I spent 2 hours in hair and make-up. Came out looking like Marilyn Monroe. All very well and good, but those icons of the 50s must have done nothing else except their hair all day long.

Spent the day in Cheltenham on the 23rd, being filmed for a video for the band Girl Friday. Then it was my birthday! Two days of celebration, ending with 20 of us going to watch Spamalot in the West End. We had front row seats, and because I play in the band sometimes, I managed to set it up so they picked my poor unsuspecting brother to go on stage!!


Had to recover quickly from all the pink champagne I consumed, for a recording session at 9am the next morning. It was for the 'Lord of the Rings' cast album.

The quartet played at the National Movie Awards aftershow party last night, but the only famous people I spotted were Shane Richie and Ron Weasley from Harry Potter.. Have spent today stuffing envelopes and sorting out the booklet for our Elgar CD. Bryan Adams very kindly took all the photos for the album, and we're really pleased with them - can't wait to see them on the shelves of HMV!

5 am start tomorrow - going to Pinewood studios to play on a video for John Barrowman!

A Real Quartet

We’ve just had 2 weeks off quartet because Jen was on her honeymoon. I love the way it takes one of us to get married for us to take time off!


We have recorded the Elgar and Bax G major for our new disc. We did it in a lovely church in Hanwell. It was lovely and quiet, until we heard a strange noise outside just as we were about to do a take. It turned out not to be a plane or car, but… a peacock!! Now, that HAS to be a good sign!

The recording was in the middle of my 2-week stint playing in Fiddler on the Roof. The on-stage fiddler was miming to me, and there was even a speaker inside his violin- with my sound coming out! The part is quite difficult, and the show is 3 hours long. On top of the 8 shows a week, I was squeezing in quartet recording/performances, recording the violin part on 2 new pop albums and teaching! One mad day, we were playing with jazz singer Victoria Hart at 1pm in a club in Piccadilly, and then I had to run round the corner for the matinee of Fiddler! I think the band thought I was a bit overdressed for a matinee, turning up in a tiny black jazz dress and LOTS of make-up! My last day on Fiddler was great – my friends came and took up nearly the whole front row on the balcony. They cheered and screamed so loudly at the end for the band – I was proud!

The next day I got up mega-early to fit in some teaching, then we had a quartet coaching with Elgar-expert Anthony Payne. He was incredibly helpful, and then we had to run for a train to Wales. We did a concert in Llandudno with a male voice choir, for an audience of 900. We were recalled onstage at the end to be presented with huge bunches of flowers, and then to my horror, the conductor brought the audience to their feet for a rendition of the Welsh National Anthem! I was so embarrassed that I didn’t know the words (or tune!), and was trying to cover my mouth with the flowers, when Jen nudged me and pointed down the row at Bryony. She was singing in Welsh!! She saved the day – at least one of us knew it! That girl has hidden talents…

Got home the next day and just about had enough time to actually sit down for a meal, and do some laundry, then it was off to the Isle of Man the next day. We did a recital in a converted church, and then Jen left early the next morning to organize her wedding, whilst we climbed a hill. There was not a soul around, and the scenery was lovely, but it was so windy I nearly blew off the cliff! It was great to finally visit the Isle of Man, as the Amadeus Quartet had started there, whilst they were interned after the war. Mr Pilates also developed his technique there, apparently. We were all in much need of Pilates lessons when we got home – after lugging our suitcases and a cello up and down hotel staircases and through airports.

We had an odd quartet date a few days later, performing for a cricket match! I then went into my 5-year-old cousin’s school in Bounds Green very early the next morning, to give a demonstration of the violin in their assembly which went down well. They were so much better behaved and more interested than all the private schools I’ve been paid to go into! Next day was a violin duet date in Blenheim Palace, where I met an interesting juggler and magician, and then it was Jens’ wedding!

I left my house in a flurry in the morning as usual. There is absolutely NO time to perform, run around the country, do laundry AND keep a tidy bedroom. Couldn't find any of the clothes I needed for the weekend and had been so way-laid by concert organisers calling me about programes that I was running late, so flung ENTIRE contents of wardrobe on floor. Then could only find one shoe, so flung entire contents of shoe cupboard (yes they do take up a whole cupboard) on floor. Then tried to open the door and it got wedged between pile of laundry and pile of shoes with me in the middle with a violin and suitcase. I was completely stuck, unable to move and late, and my flat mate had to come and rescue me!

Jen looked gorgeous, and we played/cried her up the aisle! It was a true country wedding; she arrived in a horse and cart, and we all sat on hay-bales at the reception. There was a ceilidh band and when my feet got tired dancing – I took the violin off the fiddler and joined in! Hope he didn’t mind!?

The following week had me playing on a couple more recording sessions for people’s pop albums, and I also played with a different quartet at a party at the V and A Museum. We were amplified, wearing black dresses, long evening gloves and pink scarves, and playing Bohemian Rhapsody and I Will Survive – v good fun!

During the last few days, I have played with Paul Potts on This Morning, visited Armani to borrow dresses for our quartet photo-shoot next week, played violin duets for a awards ceremony inside Tower Bridge for the 20 most influential women in facilities management (??!?), and played in an outdoor Prom concert, where the fireworks went off too early in the 1812 Overture, we were stopped dramatically before the end by a massive power cut, and then had to run across a muddy field in the pouring rain to catch our train!


Quote of the year – came from a male cellist sitting with us on the train the other day... ‘So, are you a girly quartet, or a real quartet?’
!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Switzerland for the day

On Wednesday we gave a performance of the Brahms Clarinet Quintet in the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland. As we were only going for the day, I thought checking-in at the airport would be so easy with no suitcase, but no! When trying to get through the departures gate, I was stopped by the man checking our passports and boarding cards. The usual story; he was insisting I was only allowed one piece of hand luggage, and I therefore would have to put my 300-year old violin worth tens of thousands of pounds, which doesn't even belong to me, into the hold. I wearily explained yet again that the rules of his airline state that you are allowed a musical instrument as well as one piece of hand luggage, but he wasn't having any of it. I could have just gone to a different gate, where there no doubt would have been a more enlightened security person, but I thought he should learn the rules to save the next poor violinist who tries to get past him. I returned with his superior who told him he was wrong and had to let me pass, but I didn't get an apology - just my passport flung back at me!

Then as if I wasn't late enough, my bag was searched. All because there was a stray lipstick at the bottom of it that apparently I should have been carrying separately in a see-through plasic bag, And then the lady took the plug off my hair-tongs and put it on again. Why? Why?

Very late by now.. desperately trying to fit everything back into my bag. I love the way they unpack it for you and then just hand you everything back in a heap. How did I fit it all in?

Ran towards the gate and then the final insult - a man asked me to take off my boots for inspection. For goodness sake! Do they realise what a hassle it is trying to balance on one foot to take a boot off, with a violin on your back???

Anyway, the performance went really well, and I even had time for a short walk around the town centre before jumping back on the plane. Unfortunately, the British education system has left me talking a strange hybrid of French, German, Italian, Spanish and Cockney Rhyming Slang every time I visit a European country, so it was probably a good thing that I didn't have time to attempt to talk to anyone or buy anything!

Have just started a 2-week run of being the solo violinist in Fiddler on the Roof in the West End. When I was booked for it, I stupidly asked if the part was hard or exposed. The answer; the clue's in the title! Durr!