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 – 2nd in Blackpool and 5th 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!
