Career » Angelina Egerton

Getting up to date…

7 March 2014 2 Comments

As the title would suggest, this post will hopefully bring my blog up to date with the various gigs I’ve been doing since Valentine’s Day.

Almost immediately after V-day, I drove up to Edinburgh with fellow CLOUDS member Elfair Dyer to rehearse for a few days with Esther Swift (for more information about CLOUDS click here).

We are currently learning a new trio piece for the International Harp Festival in Caernarfon, North Wales, in April. The piece is a new commission given to Esther especially for the festival. As usual, none of it is written down so we have to actually see each other to learn the music.

I am so excited about the new piece! The theme is mythology so there is a spooky story to go alongside the piece. We get to use loop pedals! The whole piece is quite dark in nature so it’s a world away from what is normally expected of a harp trio (clue: we won’t be wearing ball gowns). The sound is much edgier and more challenging.

I’m happy to say we can now play through the whole thing! We have more rehearsals coming up soon to polish everything off (and to make sure we actually know what we are doing). So fingers crossed the performance will be a success!

A few days after getting back from Scotland I had a very last minute gig. Background music for a Wake. This type of gig isn’t easy (it’s easier than a funeral service though), but the list of songs they requested were very fitting and, actually, I’m going to keep using that playlist for other background gigs too.

The very same evening I gave a talk at the Women’s Institute in Mellor, just to the south of Manchester. It’s slightly in the middle of nowhere, hurray for unlit, snakey roads with only enough room for one car.

I was a little nervous about this talk… I didn’t know if I could fill the allotted time but luckily, with playing, I was fine, plus the ladies asked lots of questions and genuinely seemed interested in the harp and the different types of work that constitute the life of a freelance musician.

The next gig I had was the following weekend, playing for a wedding reception in Sheffield. My Sheffield gigs are notorious for being stressful, I always get lost, but this one was ok. Not perfect but I found somewhere to park eventually.

The reception was in one of the University buildings.

There was a lot of champagne flowing:

And, check out the interesting table plan…

Anyway, this seemed to be a wedding of people who win at life. Everyone was beautiful and gracious (getting louder towards the end… I blame the champagne) but generally a very classy affair.

Last Thursday lunchtime I went to watch the RNCM Harp Ensemble’s lunchtime concert at the Manchester School of Art – a lovely space for a concert like this…

The photo doesn’t do it justice, trust me it looked lovely. I’ve been out of college for nearly three full years now (can’t believe it) and it’s still a little strange to see a harp ensemble concert that I’m not involved in. I mean it was refreshing in a way – the harp department had been setting up since before 9am! I remember back to my time in college and just loving the feeling of being part of such an amazing team.

Finally, we come to the gig I supposedly had last Friday, now I can’t say too much about this as I’m currently obtaining legal advice from the Musicians Union. But just to warn you, when it’s all sorted out there will be much ranting!

So that brings us just about up to date. I hope you all are enjoying the spring-like weather as much as I am! If you have any feedback please do leave me a comment.

Career

Harps of a feather, pluck together.

24 February 2014 1 Comment

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post. I’ve been busy gallivanting around Great Britain on (mostly) harp related bits and bobs. There is a lot to report since my last update.

This post is becoming mammoth so I’m going to have to split it up into smaller sections…

Firstly, I got my photos back from my solo shoot with Julie Harris. I will be getting more from this shoot soon but I wanted to share the first two with you:

What other news is there… oh yes! My last blog post ‘How to make your grass greener’ has been featured on The Media Directory – don’t believe me? Check it out at http://www.themediadirectory.com/news?shownews=399

In terms of playing, a lot has been going on as well. A few Saturdays ago I had the pleasure of visiting my home city of York to play Sibelius’ First Symphony with York Guildhall Orchestra under Simon Wright. For once, there were two harps in the orchestra! Principle Harp was played by Georgina Wells – I’ve known Georgie since she tutored at a youth orchestra I used to attend so it is a real treat to play in orchestra with her. We had a great time:

The experience of playing in an orchestra is so different when you are not alone in your section. I am so used to being the only harpist that playing second harp actually brought a few challenges that I don’t usually experience. As well as watching the conductor, the music and, if I’m lucky, my hands – I also need to watch Georgina for important entries to make sure we play exactly together. I do not have enough eyes for this task!

Having said that, beefing up the harp section is so much fun – on my own, pretty much everything has to be at least mezzo forte to come across to an audience. With two harps, you can bring the music to life so much more. Even in piano passages, you can be confident that the harps will be heard. It’s great!

But away from the concert platform, having someone else in the section brings a social aspect to the day too. We chat about how we want to play certain sections, which chords to spread and which to leave straight, we help each other unpack and move harps. It becomes a team game. Harpists are often only in one or two pieces in a concert, so this means a large proportion of the day is spent alone. Now, I’m not about to start complaining about that, I happen to like my own company, thank you very much. But it makes a wonderful change to be part of a section – maybe go for a meal together in the break and share stories of bizarre gigs we’ve done, things we’d like to do etc.

So all in all, this was a lovely day, I’m playing in York again in early April and I’m looking forward to it already – or I will be, once I’ve learnt the notes.

Valentine’s Day. What’s the big deal? Restaurants are packed and more expensive than usual, everyone seems to feel this pressure to do something. I’m secretly glad I usually have a gig on this day. My boyfriend and I went for dinner the previous Tuesday to celebrate an anniversary. He proved the theory that the most exciting gifts come in little packages…

But anyway, I’m going off-topic. For Valentine’s Day I was booked to provide background music at The Florentine restaurant in Sheffield. I did not enjoy the drive there. I opted for Woodhead Pass as it’s a little less snakey than Snake Pass. However, once I got to Sheffield, my satnav took me up Hagg Hill. A word of advice – avoid this hill! I attempted it in second gear and immediately stalled. In the dark. A car behind me also turned onto the hill and followed me as I crawled up to the top, where I had to turn right.

The restaurant seemed really lovely. I was given a divine meal of beef with parsley risotto and goats cheese bonbons, and the staff were very friendly and helpful with the harp. I played for a couple of hours then drove back to Manchester. It is so interesting watching couples having dinner on Valentine’s Day. I saw at least one couple arguing. One woman was despairing because her man was so drunk. One couple brought two young loud toddlers to the restaurant (why??) and many couples were turned away because they hadn’t booked a table (rookie mistake on Valentine’s Day).

Personally I prefer to stay away from the expensive meals out on February 14th and cook something really nice with someone special, maybe get a nice bottle of wine, and just spend some time together… Cash definitely does not need to be splashed in order to incite romance.

But that’s just my opinion.

Well that’s it for this post but more will be coming soon! I’m not even close to being up to date with gig reports… As always, watch this space.

Career

How to make your grass greener.

6 February 2014 3 Comments

Ok, this isn’t a post about gardening, sorry to anyone who stumbles across this post looking for lawn maintenance tips.

Having worked in retail, and in various roles as a musician, the phrase the grass is always greener on the other side comes to mind from time to time.

When you’re a freelancer, it’s so easy (pretty much unavoidable) to dream of the pension plans, stable income, job benefits, and general security that come with a full-time job. I’ve been there, I went and got the job. But when you’re on the other side of the fence expecting the wonderful life of having a payday each month, suddenly you begin to dream of the freedom to follow your passion, to travel, to be creative everyday, to not have a boss to contend with (my boss was lovely by the way!)

Basically, whatever you do, there’s always going to be a tempting alternative. So I think, instead of always looking around the next corner to see if something better is on the horizon, why don’t we look around us now and think ‘ok, how can I make my current situation better for myself?’ That way we won’t end up running so far from one extreme that we tumble off the other.

Do you remember that film called ‘The Secret’? A lot of people dismiss it as nonsense but in my opinion a lot can be learned from its principles. We have to be grateful for all the good things in our lives in order for us to have more to be grateful for. We need to do more of what we love and move in that direction. So for me, I love orchestral playing, I also want to travel. I love writing my blog and may someday investigate doing some sort of freelance writing. I love the freedom of setting my own schedule, fixing my own diary and taking responsibility for myself. I need to focus on these things that I love and do as much of them as I possibly can.

Things I’m not so keen on – feeling skint all the time. Well… I was still skint when I had my retail job. Also, you don’t need money to be happy – it helps – but I believe you can be happy when you’re low on funds. The skint-ness can be fixed by careful spending (check) and working harder (an ongoing process). As I’ve mentioned before, I have a wonderful app on my iPhone called Budget – Back in Black. So as long as I keep a record of income and outgoings, and stick to my savings goals, I can sort of trust that the money will come if I keep focussing on doing what I love. To a certain extent I can stop worrying about the money side of things. Worry is such a useless emotion.

Anyhoo…

I guess a good goal would be to stop wishing to be on the other side of the fence, and instead for each of us to cultivate our own side to the extent that we wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.

Career, Music

ready for my close-up…

16 January 2014 2 Comments

After having driven back from London last Wednesday night, I hoped in vain for some sort of lie-in on Thursday morning. This was not meant to be, however, as I was booked in for a Skype meeting at 8am with my lovely fellow members of CLOUDS Harp Quartet. I can’t complain too much though, how many of us can boast the fact that we can have an early morning meeting from bed, complete with dressing gown, coffee and Alpen?

We have a lot to talk about. But first thing’s first. We had this weekend to sort out. My role in CLOUDS is something of ‘tour manager’ when we are together, so that means I get to do the schedule! I love schedules! Sadly I’m not being sarcastic, I actually do. So we needed to talk about who is staying where, whose harp is staying where, and when we are going to rehearse, eat etc. – organising the logistics of four harps can be challenging!

First thing Sunday morning we went for a photoshoot with the lovely Julie Harris.. We needed some publicity photos for an upcoming concert in April in Caernarfon as part of the International Harp Festival (yes we are super excited). We thought we could get it done in an hour. We were slightly deluded. Three hours later we left the building. Julie taught us how to stand and look good in a photo. It felt quite awkward at times, but then you look at the photo and somehow you’ve become thinner, but with curves in all the right places… I think Julie might be some sort of wizard. In fact I went back to see her on Wednesday morning for some solo shots.

After CLOUDS’ photoshoot we immediately went for a meal as Esther was about to keel over. We went for a spot of Thai food at Manchester restaurant Umami, then went back to my place to rehearse. But how do you rehearse when you’re so full you just want to sleep? We couldn’t stay lazy for long though, we have new music to learn! Esther has written a four movement piece for Caernarfon and, as is the CLOUDS way, none of it is written down. Esther teaches it to us by demonstration and explanation and we try to cram it all into our brains. But it’s fine, we’ve been learning music together this way since 2008, and we love the freedom it gives us.

Monday morning we rehearsed again, 9-12. We were reminding ourselves how lucky we are that this is our Monday morning, no hideous traffic, no getting up at the crack of dawn, just learning some great music and playing together over coffee and good company.

We had a meeting Monday evening with our fantastic teacher Eira Lynn Jones. A couple of hours later we left, stuffed full of home-made macaroons (thanks Bec!) and bursting with new ideas for future projects… I can’t wait to share some of them when the time comes!

So that’s about all my news for this week, it’s been another busy one! Maybe things will calm down soon… not that I would want them to of course!

Career

Erm, where’s my time off?

10 January 2014 2 Comments

I hope everyone is settling in to the New Year nicely, who is keeping their resolutions?

So I just looked back to my ‘Week 2’ post of last year. It makes rather depressing reading. I was struggling financially and needed a part time job to tide me over. I felt out of control regarding my earnings and hated living month to month, not knowing if I’d be able to pay rent next month.

Well, a lot can change in a year.

I had so much work in November and December of 2013 it was absolutely fantastic, as well as a bit frantic. I admit I was looking forward to the quiet of January. I knew I’d made enough money to feed myself even if I got no work this month – which happily isn’t the case. I also feel a lot more in control of my finances since using the iPhone app ‘Back in Black’, which I talk about in the post Will We Always Feel Skint?

So rather than wallowing in the lack of work and freaking out about the future, I’m taking a different approach this year. I’m being generally a bit more on it, getting stuff done regarding admin, practice and other life-stuff that needs doing. I’m also using this time to take stock, to think about possible projects for the upcoming year and setting myself some targets. More info coming on those projects as and when… but I’m pretty excited already! So basically, when I thought January would be something of a holiday, I was wrong, it’s a holiday from three gigs a week but there’s still so much to do!

This last week I’ve been playing down in London, but annoyingly I’m not allowed to say what I was doing! This will definitely be the subject of a post around April time so keep your eyes peeled. This photo was shared on Facebook so I guess I’m allowed to share it here, check out the beautiful paper birds:

But that’s literally all I can say at this point, so watch this space!

In other news, my harp quartet have been brainstorming ideas for this year too. 2014 is going to be an exciting year. If you haven’t seen our website yet you can visit it here.

Career

Merry Christmas!

23 December 2013 1 Comment

Well that’s it. I have finished all my gigs before Christmas!

It’s been pretty frantic over the past few months. Five Ceremony of Carols, a week of concerts with my harp quartet CLOUDS, and several other background and orchestral gigs too. I have two more engagements in 2013 – a funeral on December 30th and a New Year’s Eve Gala in Buxton.

My last gig was in Bradford Cathedral doing Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, which was being conducted by the lovely Alex Woodrow – an old school friend of mine from St. Peter’s in York. I was looked after exceptionally well. Convenient parking, coffee on arrival, a leisurely rehearsal schedule, a successful performance and pub&curry afterwards! Met some lovely people and generally had a great day. Good gig!

Just thinking back to this time last year, I had such a quiet Christmas it was unbelievable, I cried numerous times over having no work and worried constantly about the lack of money coming in. Compared with this year the difference is like night and day. I know that, even though January is quiet I won’t be living off couscous and frozen vegetables. Hurray!

2013 has definitely been a learning year. The first half was dominated by my job in Long Tall Sally, the second half dominated by lots and lots of work. In amongst all that there’s the constant uphill struggle of trying to ‘sort my life out’ – which is often on my to-do list. Is any musician’s life truly sorted at this stage? Looking back, some decisions I’ve made this year have been for the best and some have been downright silly. But all we can do is learn from the mistakes and do better next time. I’m so lucky that I have such a supportive family… and someone special in my life who I can talk to and lean on (gently) when things feel difficult.

So I’d like to wish all those who read these posts of mine a very Merry Christmas. I hope those of you who need to travel are able to do so safely despite the stormy weather, and let peace, goodwill and festive cheer be with us all. Somebody pass the mulled wine…

Career, Music

December …

7 December 2013 2 Comments

Well, Thursday of this week came and went and I couldn’t find the time to post. Naughty.

I am writing this from a rehearsal in Holy Trinity Church in Southport, with the Southport Bach Choir – I should say that I’m not rehearsing right now – that would be rude.

Everything I’m involved in has been rehearsed so now my job is to amuse myself until the second half of tonight’s concert – I’ve been told there’s a Wetherspoons nearby so I’ll be fine.

But enough about today, let me take you through the adventures of the past week-and-a-bit.

A week last Friday I was doing some background music in Ormskirk at the Chapel Gallery as part of their Christmas celebrations. The staff had all come in fancy dress (including elves, witches and two ugly sisters). This was an exciting background gig for me as it was the first time I used my iPad instead of sheet music. A while ago a spent an afternoon scanning all my background music into the computer so I could put it on an app called ForScore. This handy app allows me to crop the music to get rid of white space around the edges, I can also make setlists (currently I have two; ‘background’ and ‘background – no Christmas’).

I received some lovely feedback from this gig and I think it was partly due to the fact that my presentation was neater than usual – no piles of music, no flicking through books trying to decide what to play next – it was all very slick.

I’m still waiting for payment from this gig – quite tempted to name and shame the person who booked me for this as they are also a musician! If payment is going to take two weeks or even a month – fine – I’ll manage. But don’t tell me I’ll have it in five days when that isn’t going to happen, I just want an honest date on which I’ll be paid. Grumble grumble.

Saturday’s gig was at Leeds College of Music with the National Festival Orchestra. I had a great day. The programme was fabulously harpy, as you can see I had pride of place – centre stage:

We were doing Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Franck’s Panis Angelicus, Faure’s Cantique de Jean Racine and Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio (plus some Rutter that I wasn’t involved in). The Saint-Saens was quite a challenge but I thoroughly enjoyed it, I got some wonderful feedback about the Britten too. I just wish they had attracted a bigger audience because they deserved to have the place sold out.

…continued from the previously mentioned Wetherspoons…

I have left the cold of the church for the local pub. In a bit I will face the tricky situation of leaving my table to order food and hoping no one will claim said table before I sit back down.

Last Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was playing for a concert version of Phantom of the Opera at Cowley International College in St. Helen’s.

Sunday rehearsal then Monday and Tuesday performances. It was the same group who did Les Mis this summer and Phantom early 2012 (right about the time I started this blog). I do like going back, the conductor – Shaun – and Danny the director are both absolutely lovely and we always have a good time. Again they deserved much bigger audiences simply due to the passion and enthusiasm that the staff and performers bring to the show. There was an unfortunate incident on Tuesday that involved the smoke machine causing the fire alarm to go off but apart from that the shows went smoothly. The appalling traffic on Tuesday caused me to be late – very unlike me, but I only held up the show by ten minutes…

So that brings us to Wednesday, when I was booked to play more background music at the Lowry Hotel, Manchester.

Another outing playing from the iPad. Another gig where I was told I would be paid ‘by 10am tomorrow’ and am still waiting – four days later – for my money. The organisers brought in some arcade ski-simulator games, there was quite a surreal moment when I realised that we are all, in fact, still children at heart. I was playing Disney on the harp while grown men in suits played arcade games.

So a very busy week, but on Thursday I was taken to Cloud23 in the Hilton for cocktails. We got very dressed up and drank our drinks while enjoying the night time view of Manchester. Here’s the obligatory photo of me with my exciting cocktail that included chocolate covered raspberries.

So that’s it for this week, thanks for reading, and hopefully I will have been paid for some of these gigs by the next time I post!

Career, Music

December is looming!

28 November 2013 3 Comments

There are two gigs to report in the last week. Today is – scarily enough – the last completely free day in my diary before Christmas! This thought is terrifying. I made the most of it by eating seashells in bed until lunchtime (chocolate seashells – before someone carts me off to the nearest asylum) and then spending the afternoon practising with the aid of copious amounts of coffee.

Last Saturday was the same repertoire as the week before, Verdi, Britten, Wagner – we know all about it. The concert was in Knaresborough. Quite a long drive from Manchester but it meant I could pop home for a quick drink and a chat with my dad in the afternoon.

On Sunday morning I was singing with my church choir, before dashing off to Crewe for an insanely last minute gig. A Viennese Christmas Gala with the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Luckily I enjoy sight-reading (adrenaline!) as there was no time for me to get hold of the music before the day of the concert. I knew we were doing to be doing excerpts from Merry Widow, hurray I thought, I’ve done that before! But alas, we were doing a different arrangement to the one I played in summer. So before I was happily doing my Lehar style um-chas but on Sunday I was relegated to counting bars of rest. Shame. We also played lots of Strauss, waltzes and polkas, think New Years Day in Vienna. There was also, I’m ashamed to say, Christmas music, it’s not even December yet! Way too early for Jingle Bells – ~~although I did secretly rather enjoy it~~.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week have been free in my diary, yay! It feels like a weekend, which I probably need as my next gig-free day is a week today! Busy busy! Looking back to this time last year, I had hardly any gigs over Christmas at all – which ultimately led to me needing a part time job (and going home to cry to my parents and seriously considering a change of career). But here I am a year later, working like crazy! What’s changed?

So not much to report this week – but Christmas is looming on the horizon and there is A LOT to do before then!

Career, Music

Success

20 November 2013 3 Comments

Even though I am busy with gigs at the moment, it still feels like the calm before the storm. It seems that every day I get calls asking for last minute gigs before Christmas, my diary is bulging at the seams – which is great.

Last Friday was slightly manic. I was performing some background music for the annual fundraising dinner and awards ceremony for Christians Against Poverty at the Royal Armouries in Leeds – there were about 400 people there and the place looked great…

I had to dash off after the main course for a rehearsal with Leeds Symphony Orchestra. I felt slightly silly turning up to a rehearsal 20 minutes before the end – but the programme had lots of harpy moments so for the sake of the conductor’s sanity I thought it was important to go so we could chat about important entries, the speeds of different sections etc.

The concert was the following evening in St. Chad’s, Headingley. It started with Verdi’s Force of Destiny Overture. This is one of my favourite harp parts! It’s an excerpt that all harpists learn as early as possible so we can perform it at a moment’s notice without too much stress. In fact, the best thing to do is memorise it so you can just stare at the conductor and still hopefully get all the notes in the right place (the excerpt is fast triplets with lots of pedal changes but SO much fun). I will always remember performing it in Italy in 2010 with the RNCM Symphony Orchestra on the Piazza in Montepulciano. I remember the warm Mediterranean breeze causing the harp strings to sound, and the promise of ample Montepulciano d’Abruzzo for us all to drink each evening. It was a fantastic time.

The next piece in the programme was Britten’s Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. I’m doing so much Britten this year due to the fact that this Friday would have been his 100th birthday. I feel a great affection for Britten’s music and am very proud and happy to be able to perform it so often (on the last count I am doing five performances of his Ceremony of Carols this year). I first did the Sea Interludes with the Yorkshire Youth Orchestra in the summer before I started at RNCM. Back when I was a sweet young thing of 18 – hitting the pub with the brass players every night for a week. There was no harp tutor on this particular course and I remember being really nervous about it! But actually it was a great introduction to a wonderful set of pieces.

The final piece I was involved in on Saturday was Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde. Now, Wagner has caused me a lot of stress these past few months (from beyond the grave – so rude). So he’s not my favourite person, but actually, I have to say the Liebestod is probably the most charming music by him that I have played, it’s not easy but it sounds nice – maybe you have to grow into liking Wagner and I’m just not mature enough yet. We shall see. Was it Edgar Wilson Nye that said ‘Wagner’s music is better than it sounds’? I know what he means.

Saturday’s concert was highly convenient in that I wasn’t needed after the interval so I could dash off home… and prepare myself for Sunday.

On Sunday I was to drive to Nottingham from York to take part in An afternoon of Britten – yay more Britten! The only annoying part of the day was getting to Nottingham and realising I’d left my purse in York – I won’t repeat what I said when my mum called to inform me of this. Suffice to say my wonderful daddy met me at Ferrybridge Services to drop off my purse so I could get straight back to Manchester in time for my planned evening of carbonara and wine.

The only piece I was involved in was the Ceremony of Carols. The cathedral was almost full, a really good audience. I want to know their secrets of such successful concert promotion. Maybe I’m not alone in feeling very proud of the English music being performed. Neil Page and Alex Patterson both conducted wonderfully, and the pianist, Peter Williams, was particularly good as well. The concert started with the Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury before going on to Ceremony of Carols. The next few pieces I had honestly never heard so this was a fascinating afternoon. First up was Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, for countertenor, tenor and piano – a really moving piece of music and excellently performed by Tom Williams, James Lister and Peter Williams respectively. Next were Six Metamorphoses after Ovid with Anna Williams playing the oboe.

The next piece was The Ballad of Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard, which tells a grim tale of betrayal and adultery – the music of which was apparently parachuted into a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1943 where it received seven performances. The concert ended with the whole choir coming together to perform the Hymn to St. Cecilia – how fitting to end this wonderful, at times emotional, afternoon by honouring the patron saint of music.

So that was last weekend. There are so many gigs coming up between now and Christmas, things are going to get a little crazy! A friend of mine recently described my harp career as ‘taking off’. This was a really sweet thing to say, but, as musicians, what does a ‘successful career’ mean? Right now I feel successful if I can afford to cook myself decent food, run my car, keep warm in my flat and stay within my overdraft limit. I wonder, is it the number of gigs that defines success? Or is it the fee for those gigs? Or, more likely, the caliber and reputation of those you perform with? It’s not like there’s a promotion I can go for. I’m just ‘harpist’. But the best thing about doing lots of gigs is that it will lead to lots of gigs, this Christmas I’m also invading areas that I’ve never played in before (Bradford and Ilkley for example) so hopefully that will lead to more work for me in these areas. We shall see.

As always, a big thank you for reading these posts of mine, if you have any comments or feedback… get in touch!

Career, Music

Remembrance, York Minster and birthdays!

14 November 2013 No Comments

Last Saturday I was playing the Faure Requiem in York Minster with York Musical Society. I seem to be flitting over the Yorkshire/Lancashire border very regularly at the moment, but it’s lovely to get so many chances to visit York. I arrived just in time to nab the last parking space in the tiny Minster car park, and wheeled my harp into the building. York Minster is absolutely stunning, maybe I’m biased because I’ve grown up in this city, but I think it’s just gorgeous. It has a window the size of a tennis court!

Before the concert we had a few seconds of silence for Remembrance Day. The silence was so different from the ‘silence’ you usually get at a concert – there was no shuffling, no coughing, just heavy, thick, silence. In that huge space this was absolutely amazing. Before the concert I had gone for some food with my dad, and afterwards I gave him a lift back to his car. Now, I know the roads of York… I do, honestly! So I have no idea what possessed me to turn the wrong way down a one way street. It was only the beep of a taxi driver that alerted me to the situation. So I’m sorry ladies, but I did nothing for our reputation as competent drivers that night!

This was also the week of my birthday! I couldn’t help but think of that scene in Some like it Hot where Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe) laments the fact that she’s turning twenty-five – ‘that’s a quarter of a century, makes a girl think’. I celebrated with a gorgeous meal out followed by some quiet drinks in town. The following day I went for a walk in Heaton Park, North Manchester. I’d never been before but it is lovely! All the people walking dogs made me really really want one of my own, one day! We got the perfect autumn day as well – sunny, and feeling crisp but not too cold. I couldn’t resist taking some snaps:

Next week is due to be another busy one, with gigs in Leeds and Nottingham. I have also added a new page to this website, ‘Upcoming Concerts’ – with details of where I’ll be playing over the next few months. Please also check out the updated site for my Harp Quartet CLOUDS as details are coming very soon of our exciting December concerts!

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