The Week I Met Steve Reich, and lost my Pom-Pom.

I went to watch the Colin Currie Group perform Steve Reich’s ‘Drumming’ in the Queen Elizabeth Hall. Fantastic piece and incredible performance. Steve Reich was there and bounded on stage at the end to give Colin a massive hug and call him ‘a revelation’. I feel this is the equivalent of me meeting Kylie, and her admiring my work, however Colin did not hyper-ventilate and managed to stay composed and eloquent throughout the post-concert talk. (See previous postings. And only joking Mum; of course I do not really consider Kylie in same league as Great Musicians.) Afterwards, Colin introduced me to Steve backstage. Unfortunately, I was holding a bottle of beer at the time (sorry Mum. Again.)

He admired my handbag. It is made from 2 LPs sewn together with leather. You can see it in this photo (sorry about the red eyes. This was taken in the Buddakan restaurant, New York. I had embarrassed myself by walking down the stairs saying ‘O my goodness – isn’t this where they have the wedding dinner in the Sex and the City Movie?!’, only to find there was a lull in the hubbub of conversation and everyone had turned to stare at the strange English girl who appeared to be wearing an LP) Anyway, I bought the bag from Camden market and the LPs say ‘CPE Bach’. I always feel I have to explain that the alternative was ‘Des O’Connor’s Greatest Hits’, and I thought CPE Bach had more street cred.

But of course Steve is from the USA and had obviously never heard of Des. So that’s how I came to have the surreal experience of trying to describe Des O’Connor to the world’s greatest living composer.

I did apologise for not thinking ahead and sticking a Reich LP on top, but Steve said not to worry, ‘I haven't made it into handbags’!

Colin Currie with Steve Reich.

The next morning I was playing with the BBC Concert Orchestra. We were being conducted by Sue Perkins, who won the ‘Maestro’ Competition on the TV. She was actually very good, considering she’s had no formal training and only a few lessons. The concert was a sell-out in the Chichester Festival Theatre, and she had the hard job of conducting AND presenting the concert.

I heard the great news that Classic FM in the Netherlands like our Dreaming CD so much, that they have added 2 tracks from it to their playlist. The Pavao are gradually taking over the world’s airplay. Apparently we were also played on Radio 2 on Valentine’s Day. They played ‘Tonight’s the Night’, which is a track from the ‘Lost Gershwin’ album we made with Victoria Hart. You can hear the track here, and also watch a video where she describes me as liking ‘all things pink and fluffy’!!

So we had the final episodes of Popstar to Operastar. Here is a photo of our esteemed panel. I got to play ‘Bat out of Hell’ with Meatloaf. I’m not sure it’s what Rugeri had in mind when he made my violin in 1680.

In the Final, I think they got a bit over-excited with the dry ice.

At one point, I couldn’t see my music, or the rest of the orchestra! I sneakily took this photo from my chair. Does this ever happen at Covent Garden? I managed to develop a new technique with my earphones during the final rehearsals. They had previously kept falling down the back of my chair when I wasn’t using them, so I kept them secure by tucking them under my bra-strap instead. I found it slightly ironic that after 25 years of dedicated viewing, I was missing the live episode of Eastenders, because I was also live on TV, but on the wrong channel. At the aftershow party, I managed to thank Alan Titchmarsh for playing our Pavao Quartet CDs on BBC Radio 2 so much. He said he likes them so much that he plays them at home too! He also said he’d try and play them this week or next, so listen out!

We performed for the first time as the Pavao Octet on Monday. It was for a memorial service in Christ’s Church, Spitalfields. We played several opera arias with some fantastic singers, listened to Tracey Emin give a speech, and then got to play along with a Big Band, during the background music at the end. There was some fantastic food going around, and we didn’t want to miss out on dessert, so a cellist went off to grab us some chocolate puddings to eat in our bars’ rest!

That night, I got a last minute phone call to join the BBC Concert Orchestra the next day. It was recording Friday Night is Music Night in BBC TV Centre. I enjoyed the medley of TV themes, including Emmerdale and Steptoe and Son, and was ashamed that I recognized all of them. We also played the music that always follows the shipping forecast. I always wanted to have a go at playing that, as the original is so out-of-tune! I had an embarrassing incident; I was sporting leg-warmers with pom-poms attached, but realised I had lost one. One of the members of the orchestra came up to me in the break and presented me with my missing pom-pom, which he had found in the middle of Studio One, saying ‘This can only be yours’. O dear, do I have such a reputation for knitwear?

The Pavao Quartet have been booked for some solo spots in Friday Night is Music Night on the 21^st April. I think we will be playing movements of Elgar and Bax, as well as one of our Gershwin arrangements.

After a recording session for singer Clare Maguire, and a fun play-through of quartets at a friends house, where I ended up sight-reading two Beethoven Quartets, and the last movement of the Barber Concerto arranged for string quartet (!), I thought I deserved a treat, so I went to Ronnie Scotts on Friday. I saw Joe Locke, (amazing vibraphone player), Geoffrey Keezer (who played the INSIDE of the piano, and made it sound like a Spanish guitar) and Tim Garland. (I played with him a few years ago with the Dominic Alldis jazz ensemble).

Then yesterday, I joined the Trafalgar Sinfonia and Barts Chamber Choir for a performance of the Messiah in St Martin-in-the-Fields. Can anyone help with the questions which occurred to me halfway through the concert? Who was St Martin? And why was he in The Fields?