Les Arts Florissants – La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers and Venus & Adonis

Last week I travelled to Paris to meet up with Sam who had been working there since 27th December with Baroque ensemble ‘Les Arts Florissants‘ on two pieces: ‘La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers’ (Charpontier) and ‘Venus & Adonis’ (Blow).  Having not long returned from Dubai, squeezed in a trip to the country to visit my dog (who has been on her holidays with my friend Susan and her dog Ollie while I was away), celebrated my Dad’s 60th Birthday with a big party, done two days teaching at school and sorted out the whole snowboard debacle, I was nonetheless keen to get off travelling again!  It had been two weeks since I’d seen Sam and I was really looking forward to spending some time with him and seeing his show.

I arrived at Cité de la Musique in Paris half way through the second act of the their show there on the Wednesday evening, having travelled across London and Paris with a suitcase and snowboard, ready for my trip ahead.  They were streaming live video of the show on tv screens outside the auditorium but I had a ticket for the last night of the production so avoided watching any of the show and waited for them to finish before meeting Sam and the rest of the cast backstage, then heading to a local bar for some drinks and a bite to eat.

I’m glad that I waited to see the last night of the show (and many thanks to Les Arts Florissants for my ticket as I know they were in limited supply).  It was in the theatre at the Chateau de Versailles, a truly spectacular building and gardens, and the theatre was a wonderful venue from an audience perspective – apparently the acoustics on stage were not ideal for the singers, but the sound coming into the auditorium was fabulous.  The orchestra were onstage too, not in a pit, and the two productions, each around an hour long, were semi-staged.  I was pleased that they had put the pieces on in the order they had – La Descente d’Orphée is really rather dark, and Venus & Adonis made for a much lighter second half (despite the ending).

So, another trip made to a place I had not visited before (Versailles) to see Sam performing, and then on to the Alps for a week of snowboarding with my new board & bindings!

2012 and I’m excited!

Happy New Year one and all, and wishing you the very best for 2012 – a year destined to be significant for many, if you are open to the possibility of change.

I saw in the New Year in style this year, on a gig in Dubai at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (despite having a terrible cough and cold and generally feeling very under the weather).  On 30th December I flew with 8 other musicians from a chilly London to the warm shores of the UAE where the 10th band member joined us from Manilla.  Even though the tour budget couldn’t stretch to putting us all up in the Jumeriah Beach Hotel (3000 UAE Dirhams / £530 per night) we were nonetheless well looked after by the hotel, who collected us from the airport (cold towels and bottled water at the ready) and dropped off at the Academy (appartments allocated to staff at the hotel).

After a late arrival and an early start for the most amazing breakfast buffet I’ve seen in a long time (since my last trip to Dubai in fact), we took the opportunity to stroll along the beach and dip our feet in the sea, before a meeting with the agent and a lengthy set-up and soundcheck on-stage.

The venue for the gig was a temporary, but enormous, open marquee on the hotel’s private beach, where the 1000 or so guests ate another lavish buffet meal before joining the dance floor outside to party the night away with us in the run up to midnight and beyond.

The countdown to midnight saw the band scrabbling for last-minute dinner and costume changes before the most spectacular fireworks display over the water.  Since the stage’s backdrop was the sea and the Burj al Arab hotel, we had the best (and completely unobstructed) view of the whole display.  We then played our fourth and final set to get 2010 off to a rocking start.

Champagne on the beach followed – the band were in high spirits by then since this was the first drink we’d been allowed to have all night.  I was the first to go to bed, since by this point the drugs (Sudafed & Cold + Flu pills) had worn off and I was feeling worse for wear.  Some of the band continued the celebrations way into the early hours of New Year’s Day and only made it up in time for the plane home.

Luckily myself and two of the girls in the band had extended our stay until 5th Jan, so for us we still had a few more days of sunshine and sand.

And as for the exciting year ahead, there’s been a lot of noise about 2012 and all the possible changes it may bring; from the end of the Mayan Calendar and the prophesised end of the world to shifts and changes on a much smaller scale, it seems to me that this is the year to really make of it what you will.  I for one have started as I mean to go on: working with fantastic people and having as much fun as possible along the way.

2 gigs, 3 dresses, many ‘celebs’

Saturday 9th July was a busy day for me; I had two gigs in the diary which is always good news!  The first gig was a wedding in Windlesham, Surrey, playing Trumpet Voluntary for the Bridal Procession of a wedding at noon.  I allowed plenty of time to get there but still was tight on time due to the Saturday morning traffic getting through central London.  I needn’t have worried though – the bride was 40 minutes late!  Apparently she arrived at the church late, realised she had forgotten her bouquet, went back to get it, and then was having photos taken outside the church while the congregation, organist, professional choir that she had hired and myself all waited around inside.  The choir had been hired mainly to sing Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus for the Bride & Groom’s recessional music, but as far as I’m aware they had to give it a miss as there wasn’t time!

I didn’t hang around to find out – I had to get to my second gig of the day (which I missed the soundcheck for because of the delay at the church in Windlesham).  Gig Number 2 was a performance with function group The Atlantic Band playing at theDuke of Essex Polo Trophy 2011.  I had an AAA pass for the whole event, and managed to get my sister (Nicola aka ‘Rubes’) a free ticket too – she has a keen interest in both fashion and minor celebs from The Only Way Is Essex (TOWIE) etc so she was the perfect companion.  Dolled up in our new dresses from my sister’s fashion boutique Ruby we enjoyed a pricey glass of Pimms while Nicola, in her element, told me who was who and why they were ‘famous’.  I’m sure I’ve never been surrounded by so many ‘reailty’ tv stars; most (if not all) of the TOWIE cast were there, but surprisingly no sign of the Made In Chelsea crowd.  Both Peter Andre and Alex Reid were there (who I’m reliably informed are both exes of Katie Price) along with many, many others, including a TOWIE cast member who is actually called Joey Essex – his favourite word appears to be ‘reem’, whatever that means?!  (See here for an UD explanation).  All in all it was a fun day in the sunshine, a short game of polo (I never realised how short a polo match is!) and then on to the gig.

Just as I went backstage to get changed into my 3rd dress of the day (another ‘Ruby’), the heavens opened and the whole place turned into a swamp – just what you need when the band is wearing all-white on stage!  I managed to keep my outfit filth-free though and had a fun gig – we were joined by Gareth Gates who got really stuck into a rendition of Mustang Sally, a guy from a new boy band I’d never heard of, and Dane Bowers (who was originally mistaken for ‘one of the ones from Blue’) singing an interesting version of Signed, Sealed, Delivered.  We were also due to have the pleasure of performing with Arg (James Argent from TOWIE) but he disappeared from the marquee before we could get him on stage and wasn’t seen by me again for the rest of the evening.  Perhaps these Tweets of his give us a clue as to what happened:

“Last year i was singing on a lil podium at the side of the tent and tonight im on the main stage wiv a live band, Crazy! Essex Polo lets go!” (@RealJamesArgent)

“@LydiaRoseBright @kirk_official in The Helicopter haha! I’m singing later with big band so nervous!! http://yfrog.com/kfi8hij” (@RealJamesArgent)

Don’t fret Arg, there’s always next year!!

Dropped for Freelancing? Comments welcome!

I was recently dropped from a ‘professional’ ensemble I have been playing with, essentially because I’m a freelancer, and I can’t help but feel a little miffed at the decision.  It boiled down to the fact that I had depped quite a few of the gigs with this particular ensemble out to other trumpet players because the fees were very low, the gigs were often on the weekends, and I was eventually offered much better paid work on the same dates.  As a freelancer living in London, money can be tight, and I’m in no financial position to turn down well paid gigs; it literally makes the difference between being able to pay the rent and eat, or not – this is hardly a choice that is difficult to make when it comes down to simply being able to afford to live.  However, it’s never a decision I like to make, as the gigs I had to dep out would, I’m sure, have been much more fun and enjoyable than the better paid ones I was offered instead; a point I had tried to explain to the band leader, but who seemed to take the whole thing rather badly.

I had been very open and honest with said band leader about my position; that I rely solely on my work as a musician in order to pay the bills and while I enjoyed the gigs I played with their ensemble, if I was offered a gig that clashed and where the difference in fees was sizeable, that I would have no option but to take on the higher paid work and find a suitable dep for the original gig.  The next thing I heard from the band leader was that I had been replaced, probably indefinitely, as I wasn’t seen to be showing commitment to the group.  I think that if the band leader was made uncomfortable by the knowledge that I may dep some gigs out closer to the time after originally taking them on, that I was owed the professional courtesy of them discussing these concerns with me first, not just booking somebody else and telling me the next day.

I do understand that they want a core band of people who play at every rehearsal and gig, but if they are going to have freelancers in the band then I think it’s unrealistic to expect that.  As far as I have experienced, it is standard in the industry to dep out gigs if you need to – as long as the band leader agrees and the dep is suitable.  Yes, I did have to pull out of some gigs that I originally said I could do, but I never left anybody in a position where a dep could not be found and the part left unplayed.  Unfortunately I couldn’t commit more than that to the band – turning down higher fees would cripple me.  The band leader seemed to think I wanted ‘one rule for me and a different one for everybody else in the band’ – perhaps I was the only one there who wasn’t sitting on a pile of money – or perhaps the other musicians have more secure sources of income.  Either way, I told the band leader that the only way to secure your core band members who rely solely on playing for their income is to secure higher fees for the band (in one instance I depped out a £70 gig on a Saturday night so that I could take one for £170 instead, and passed up a gig for £30 on a Monday night as I would have lost more than that from not doing my teaching while at the gig).   I think when you’re working with an established band it is not unreasonable to expect a decent fee – or dep out the work appropriately as required.

So, now I’ve been replaced, and while I don’t have any hard feelings about it if that is the basis on which the ensemble is going to be run, I do think it’s a very dangerous move in terms of them maintaining the highest possible performance standards.  If they are only going to work with musicians who can commit 100% to all gigs regardless of the fee, thus essentially ruling out working with freelancers, won’t they essentially end up with a band of amateurs?  I don’t mean that to sound like a negative comment – there are many amateur musicians who perform to exceptionally high standards, of course – but if you want to run a band as a professional outfit, surely it would be best to use professional musicians?  I would appreciate any thoughts or comments you have on this – have I just got the wrong end of stick, or is my approach to working as a freelancer in line with everybody else’s?

Tweeting is easier!

I realise I have been rather slack on the blogging front.  I have to say, Tweeting is so much easier; I think micro-blogging is much more my style!  However, I will now attempt to condense the last 6 months into a sensibly sized blog post.

So, after a quiet January, February wasn’t much of an improvement.  Aside from my regular teaching work I had two function band gigs and a handful of rehearsals for The Bombshellettes and T.Mandrake.  On a positive note, I did have a couple of lessons with an old teacher of mine, Andy Mitchell.  Andy is principal trumpet with the English National Ballet and professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department (where he used to teach me).  I was put back in contact with him by one of my former RAM tutors, Mark David, who’d been working with Andy and suggested I get back in touch.  I’d not seen him in ten years, so obviously there had been quite a change in my playing since he’d last taught me!  We had a couple of lessons working on a recital programme I had coming up and it was so useful to get a new perspective from an old tutor.

Things started picking up a bit in March.  I had my recital – one of the highly coveted lunchtime concerts at Chichester Cathedral which went very well indeed.  The venue was full, there were literally hundreds of people there to see the concert, including my mother – my number one fan!  I also had a photo shoot with Cavendish Brass which was a really fun day and we got some great shots for our new website (http://www.cavendishbrass.com).  I played with Zone One Brass (ZOB) at the Regional contest and we failed to qualify for the National Finals – very disappointing indeed considering how well we felt we’d played and especially after listening to the recording of our performance.  Oh well, the politics of the brass band world are far too ridiculous to get into now.

April was a rather average month, although I did play a fun charity gig at The Parish Church of the Annunciation, Marble Arch.  The concert was a fundraiser for the church, with many actors and singers involved, and I was booked to open the show with a performance of Let The Bright Seraphim along with soprano Eli Rolfe Johnson and organist Olly Lallement. 

The month of May was ZOB madness.  The band played in two contests that were two weeks apart; the first in Blackpool and the second at the All England Masters in Kettering .  The rehearsing paid off and the band did rather well – 2^nd in Blackpool and 5^th at the Masters.

In June I launched my new Live Music Night at a bar in Soho called El Camion (formerly El Camino).  The night runs every Tuesday and I book four acts to play a 30 minute slot each.  So far it’s all been going really well, and I’m trying to build up the reputation of the venue and the night as a respectable one to play on the London circuit for those looking for an intimate performance space. 

July was a very busy month – spent a couple of days up north with Oompah Brass doing some outreach work with them which was great fun.  The Bombshellettes opened the main stage at the Lovebox festival which was a big step forwards for the band.  I then spent 3 weeks in France for the Opera de Bauge festival, which was a great experience.  3 operas in 3 weeks (Mozart – Magic Flute, Verdi – Rigoletto, Handel – Julius Caesar), I met some great people, enjoyed the operas and in general had a wonderful time. 

So, that took me into August, and then it’s been all about the function band scene since then.  I had some Bombshellettes gigs too; a wedding that was basically a 3-day festival, as you do, and a fun gig at Floridita.  I’ve been Oomping again, with Oompah Brass at Katzenjammers in London Bridge for a couple of Friday nights, which is always great fun.  I saw their new show up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival last month – “The A-Z of Oompah” – which was excellent.  I had a fun few days at the Fringe actually, saw a few shows, played a jazz quartet gig, and it was sunny for a change!

Now it’s September, the schools are back which means I’m back to many hours of teaching and driving, but it’s good for paying the rent.  I’m off to Poland on Friday to see my boyfriend singing in a concert or two out there, and then back to London in time to run another night at El Camion.  I will, of course, attempt to blog more regularly, but life’s busy and I’m promising nothing!

New Year, New Start

Since I last wrote a blog entry I have quite literally taken my life apart and put it back together again.  Still, it’s a new year, “time for a new start” and all of those other impossibly optimistic New Year cliches.Anyway, the start of this year was not looking so good for me on the diary front.  The run up to Christmas and New Year was pretty busy, as it always is, but what with the credit crunch in full effect, this January has seen a decline in the function band work I have relied on in the past to get me through the lean months – no more corporate award ceremonies for “salesperson of the year” or Christmas parties in January (even though the venues are cheaper).

January was going to be a really tight month until I got a call offering me a gig – The Lifeline Gig – with a week’s notice.  It’s great when that happens.  One minute you’re looking at your budget for the rest of the month and wondering how you’re going to live on £1.52 for food and petrol (because it has snowed too much, so your teaching keeps getting canceled and therefore you don’t get paid), to breathing that huge sigh of relief when you get off the phone knowing that you are actually going to make it through to see February without having to beg (although I did have to buy cheap baked beans, and they were horrible).

In a way, the quieter months at the start of the year can be quite relaxing after the manic pre-Christmas workload, and it gives you time to sort out your accounts and file your tax return and generally get your life in order.  It’s also a great time to do some decent practice, rather than only having time to play during gigs.  And I’ve taken on the role of ‘Chief Ironer’ for my mum and sister as I have the time to do it and they have the cash to pay me for it.

And so tomorrow will see my playing for Guildford Philharmonic in a Magical Kingdom children’s concert.  The dress code is “smart casual and loads of bling and a mad hat if you’ve got one” but I’m not complaining, just happy to be out working!

Recital On Sunday 8th November

I’m performing a solo recital at St John’s Church in Fulham on Sunday evening and it would be lovely to see you there.  The concert will begin at 7.30pm following Evensong, doors will be open from 7pm.  Tickets are available in advance at a cost of £6.50 (for telephone bookings please call 08444 771 000 or to buy online please visit http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=xxx&query=schedule&promoter=heartoffulham).  Tickets can also be bought on the door at a price of £7.For health reasons (!) I have had to change my programme so it is not as advertised on the website, but I have a great evening’s entertainment lined up for you so please do come if you can.

St John’s Church is easy to find from Fulham Broadway Tube Station and is on the corner of the Fulham Broadway and North End Road.

Buses
28, 391, 211, 295, 14, 414

Tube
Fulham Broadway (Wimbledon Distict Line)

Postal

St John’s Church, North End Road, Fulham, SW6 1PB

Telephone
020 7385 7634

Fax

020 7385 7634

Email

admin@stjohnsfulham.org

Cancellations – A Muso’s Worst Enemy

July was a bad month for cancellations.  Between disagreements, misunderstandings, holidays and general disaster I lost out on about £400 worth of work for the month.  The missed teaching and function band dates I can live with, but there were two big disappointments for me.

The first one was a concert with a professional symphony orchestra.  I was booked through my diary service (MAS) to do a rehearsal and ‘proms-in-the-park’ style concert with Wesward Symphony Orchestra, based down in Torquay.  I was really excited about this gig, so I didn’t mind too much when I had to cut short a holiday in Corfu to get back for the rehearsal.  After a late finish at a gig the night before (squeezing in as much work as possible to make up for cutting the holiday short) I got up early on the Sunday morning to meet up with a couple of string players and share the drive down to Torquay.  The rehearsal went really well – it was fantastic to meet the brass section and make some new contacts, and since I was playing everything from 4th tumpet/2nd cornet to bumping on 1st, my playing was given good exposure and I seem to have made a good impression.

So, after a successful rehearsal (and ALOT of travelling) I was really excited about the concert the following week.  So, as you can imagine, I was so disappointed to hear only a couple of days before the concert that it had been cancelled as the promoters had not secured enough money to put on the event (Cockington Proms).  The orchestral contact who booked me through MAS has been very apologetic, saying that she’s doing her best to at least get us some of the fee due (for the rehearsal we did) and that she was highly impressed with my playing and professionalism and would definitely book me again (compliments I was very glad to receive!).  So, some good will hopefully come from the trip in terms of a part fee and maybe some work in the future, but I’ve heard anything on either front so far…

The second missed gig was a misunderstanding which resulted in me having to make a tricky decision.  I had been booked through a friend to do a rehearsal with Colombian percussionist Roberto Pla, who was doing some work in London.  I’ve never played any serious Latin-style music so the first rehearsal (and fundamentally audition) was always going to be difficult (and not helped by the fact I’d had a big T.Mandrake gig the night before and was hung over – not cool).  Despite being put well outside my comfort zone I really got into the music and Roberto is a very helpful and patient person to work with, and so we make a good enough impression to be booked for his London gig on 5^th August (‘we’ being my friends Nicki [sax], Kasha [trombone] and myself).  At the next rehearsal with Roberto, all was going really well until he mentioned the gig on 6^th August.  I nearly had a heart attack on the spot – 6^th August was my best friend’s wedding – OH NO!  What to do?  Give up the opportunity of an amazing gig or go to my friend’s wedding?  At the end of the day there really was no contest; she had been my best friend since we were 13 and there was no way I could miss her wedding (even when I heard how amazing the rest of the trumpet line-up was).  I was desperate that Roberto didn’t think I’d been unreliable and let him down but he completely understood my decision, and I’ve been in touch with him since, so I hope to get a call next time he needs an extra trumpet player in London.

My friend’s wedding was lovely – I did a reading in the ceremony and was a witness to their marriage, and I’m very happy for the new Mr & Mrs C!

I later heard from Nicki that the gig with Roberto went really well from a playing perspective, but it was an outdoors gig at the Docklands Festival and it rained (naturally) so only the hardcore fans braved the weather to hear them play.  Such is life!

Birthday Blog ~ featuring My First Twitter Gig!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post but today is my birthday and I’m officially taking a day off from all things work-related so I actually have time to write one!

It’s been a busy month, which is always a good sign, and a good mix of work on.  I played another Verdi Requiem with the Canterbury Choral Society – this was the gig that was tied to the one in Snape Maltings so it also meant I finally got paid for both gigs.  Then of course there’s the usual function band gigs for the summer season weddings.  I particularly enjoyed a gig I did on 18^th July with new function band RubberSoul (they’re new to me, not to each other; they’ve been playing together for about 10 years).  Not only were the guys and gal in the band really friendly and welcoming to me as a dep, they’re an excellent band (very well organised which made a nice change!) and the sets we played were full of energy.  And the best bit about all of this is that this was my first Twitter gig!  I got chatting to Tony from RubberSoul months ago on Twitter about various horn arrangements we were each doing for our function bands, and when they needed a dep he got in touch via Twitter and voila, a new working relationship was formed!  So, he took a bit of a punt in booking me without ever having met me, without hearing me play and without any recommendation, but the gig was a roaring success (despite me falling over on the steps up to the marquee for the first set!) and thus the miracle of Twitter as an effective networking tool becomes a reality.  We even managed to convince the band’s drummer of the benefits of Twitter (and iPhones) in the dressing room that night between sets, and he has recently got an iPhone and joined Twitter – so gradually the word is spreading!

And other work has been going well.  July brought with it more graduation ceremonies than you could shake a stick at (never really understood that phrase, but what the hey, let’s roll with it).  I spent a week and two days in Lancashire playing fanfares (four trumpets and organ) to open and close ceremonies at UCLAN and Edge Hill Universities and to accompany the processionals and recessionals.  We had an unfortunate incident in the first Edge Hill ceremony where one of our trumpet players collapsed and was taken to hospital; she’s ok and feeling much better now, and if you want to see her being carried out of the ceremony check out the first 5 mins of this video!  Please excuse the very unfortunate placing of a microphone directly infront of us, the sound on the video is distorted as a result.

I’m still waiting to hear about the extra teaching I’m trying to secure from September – I’ve played assemblies at two schools and have a meeting about a third, so fingers crossed for getting some more ‘bread-and-butter’ work as I like to think of it.  If I could up my teaching to one full day a week that would be enough for me.  It’s a tricky thing trying to balance the ratio of teaching to other work; teaching is great as it provides a regular income, but take on too much teaching and you have to turn down gigs.  You can see the dilemma I’m sure.

And thus far the birthday celebrations are going well – they started on Friday night with a T.Mandrake gig at The Troubadour followed by trips to Mango Lounge and Bungalow 8 (where Quentin Tarantino was partying following the London premier of his latest film Inglourious Basterds), and have continued through the weekend to tonight when I’m going to Ladies’ Night at Windsor Racecourse with some friends – lucky me (I hope!)

Tweeting to Trumpeters

Back in May I played a wonderful gig at Westminster Cathedral for the Installation of new Archbishop Vincent Nichols.  To read more about that gig see my blog on it.  The reason I’m writing about it again now is that during the ceremony, I was following @catholicherald on Twitter as well as posting my own Tweets about the ceremony.  At one point @catholicherald, who were live-tweeting the entire ceremony, made a comment about the fanfares – which I was playing – so I tweeted back, and I think they were a little surprised!  They also sent me a DM (direct message for those of you not up to speed on Twitter lingo) saying

“That’s extremely impressive – tweeting and performing at Westminster Cathedral at the same time…”

Needless to say, the fanfares are added for effect at the start and end of the ceremony – there was plenty of time to sit around Tweeting mid-ceremony, and there’s not much doubt that I’m the first trumpet player to ever have tweeted during an Archbishop’s Installation Ceremony at Westminster Cathedral – there’s a first time for everything and I’m glad to have taken part!

The people tweeting @catholicherald were very complementary about the music in the ceremony, so many thanks for your kind words.  It was a fabulous venue to play in, and I played to my biggest audience to date; the Cathedral alone holds about 2000 people, and as you can imagine it was packed, but couple that with live broadcasts on the BBC, on the Diocese’s internet channel, on EWTN (the Roman Catholic TV network) and on Premier Radio, and with over 1 billion Catholics worldwide that’s one hell of a potential audience to play to!  Was I nervous?  No, not really.  I always find that playing to larger audiences takes away the intimacy that can often be the cause of nerves…When you can see the whites of peoples’ eyes, that’s when you’re in danger of feeling the pressure.

So, to finish off, here are some of my favourite Tweets from @catholicherald during the ceremony, and a copy of the article from the Catholic Herald newspaper in which I was mentioned (thank you very much to Ed West).

“Procession nears the high altar, passing the great and the good. And some MPs”

“His grace is greeted by the flock. Looking very handsome still. Once called the ‘Brad Pitt of the English Church’”

“More fanfare. That’s what our country needs – more fanfare! It’s great”

“Wouldn’t it be great to be greeted like that every time you came home from work? Handel playing in the back, page-boys.”

“His Grace says: ‘Faith opens us’ (and our mind) and he quotes Paul: ‘There is no Jew or Greek’ – the Beeb will like that one”

From the Catholic Herald's newspaper, May 29 2009