music Archives » Page 4 of 5 » Angelina Egerton

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

Doncaster and Fairfax House

7 November 2013 3 Comments

So after the last couple of posts were becoming dangerously philosophical, I thought today’s post should be more harp-related. I am writing from the waiting room where my car is undergoing its MOT. It was this time last year that my beloved ford died and I had to spend every penny I then had to get a new car. I’m hoping history doesn’t repeat itself today. I’m secretly cautiously optimistic.

My harp is very happy at the moment. Nicely busy without being too frantic (yet). A week last Wednesday I had a lunchtime recital in Doncaster’s Museum and Art Gallery, which went very well with a cosy audience of about forty (that’s forty people – I think their average age was somewhat older). They actually booked me for another recital in December 2014 so I must make a note of what I played to make sure I don’t play the same programme again. I thoroughly recommend the art gallery, I wish I’d had more time to look around but straight after the recital I was whisked away for coffee and crumpets at Woods Tea Rooms with the concert organiser – Philip Scowcroft.

Instead of returning to Manchester I decided to go and see my parents in York as I had a gig there a couple of days later. On Friday night I was booked to play 45 minutes of background music for a drinks reception in York’s Fairfax House. A beautiful Georgian house right in the city centre near Clifford’s Tower. As it happens, the guests were a quarter of an hour late so I only played for about half an hour. In any case, it was very well received. My playing was followed by a tour of the house, which I would also recommend if you are ever in the area.

Lastly, on the Sunday of last week I did something I hardly ever do. I played for free. Actually you can hardly call it a gig because I volunteered to play. The church choir that I sing with was performing Faure’s Requiem. I am completely in love with this piece so I asked if they wanted me to play the harp for it. If I was going to be there anyway I may as well bring my harp. Also it’s good practice for this Saturday’s gig, which is the same music, except this time in York Minster – exciting!

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Freelancers’ Guilt, and what we can do about it.

17 October 2013 No Comments

This week’s post is addressing something I think a lot of freelancers feel. That is the guilty feeling hanging over us, telling us we’re not doing enough, should do more.

I hate the word should, I should get up earlier, I should be doing this or that, I shouldn’t go out because I should be being productive, eugh, it’s awful. It SHOULD be banned from our internal monologue (I know we all have one).

I have some theories as to why we feel this (I’m assuming I’m not the only one). Here they are:

We often work from home, so there is little work/home separation.

There are no immediate negative consequences for getting up late/having an unproductive day.

Obviously long term there are consequences for lack of productivity – but there is a time delay – we pay for laziness later in ways we often can’t predict.

There is never a point that we can say ‘I have finished everything I have to do!’ There is an infinite amount to be done, freelancers are never finished, sometimes it can feel like a huge mountain to climb each day.

If there is nothing set in the diary, it’s easy to feel we can start later and before we know it, the day has gone.

With constant interruptions from phone calls/emails/technology/social media – it’s very easy to get distracted and not realise how much time is passing.

What can we do about this? Now I’m no expert, I only graduated a couple of years ago but I’m learning a few tricks that help my productivity immensely. This is obviously written from the perspective of a musician. These tips may work for you or they may not, but when it’s really important that I get as much as I can done, here’s what I do:

Write a schedule for the day, the night before. Begin by listing everything that needs doing (I include things like ‘pay electicity bill’ and ‘laundry’ as well as ’emails’, and ‘admin’). Decide when to get up and what is going to be done each hour. For musicians – don’t just write ‘Practice’ actually write what is going to be practised, be specific. This helps because if you have scheduled 3 hours for practice, it doesn’t seem to matter so much if you miss one. But, if each session has a specific purpose, you’re more likely to get it done, as it might be the only chance you get that day to look at that certain piece/section/excerpt.
Set an alarm and put it far away from your bed! This helps so much I’d actually say it’s the most effective way to increase productivity. When the alarm is right next to the bed, it is too easy to snooze, then before you know it hours have passed and you’re still in bed. Great. This has another advantage as well, for most of us, our smartphone is our alarm – by placing it on the other side of the room it means we don’t google/facebook/tweet away half the night and can actually get to sleep a lot quicker. I am a real sleepaholic (sleepophile?) so this one is difficult for me but it is so worth it!
Actually stick to your schedule. Hopefully you’ve made it realistic and given yourself plenty of time to do what you wanted to. Tick things off as you do them, and if you get ahead of schedule – great! Time to chill later. I generally do mine in hour blocks but half an hour can work too.
(This may be controversial) Keep your phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ during working hours and set a time in your schedule to ring/text people back or listen to voicemails (put your email address in your voicemail greeting so people have another way of contacting you). This also has the added bonus of stopping your phone going off every time something happens on Facebook – a potentially huge time-sap. If you need to – schedule an hour at the end of the day purely for social media – particularly for freelancers who are trying to build an online presence.
Try and get up at the same time each weekday. For those of us who work from home (can be a blessing or a curse) it’s good to have a routine. For example, you could get up at 8am every weekday, 9am on Saturdays and whenever you fancy on a Sunday… that way the weekend still feels like the weekend rather than each day feeling exactly the same.
If you can work somewhere else, do. It is one of my dreams to have a separate bedroom, office and music room. Three rooms. Or maybe even an out-house where I can go specifically to do admin or practice. Unfortunately this is the real world and I live in a small flat. My bedroom has my harp and all my music in one corner and my desk and laptop in another. It takes self-discipline to go to one zone and not get distracted when everything is just there – being all distracting. You just sit down to practice but oh! laundry needs doing, ooh so does this morning’s washing up – ahh while I’m here I may as well tidy the kitchen… you can lose days like this so we must be strong and do one thing at a time. Schedule a time for housework and do it later.

*My mum will be reading this and realise that I am in fact, turning into my father – I’m so sorry*

So these are the things I try to do, but I also try and remember the following:

Nobody is perfect. We’re all just trying to make a living. Let’s all just do the best we can, get stuff done then get on with enjoying ourselves. None of this ‘should’ nonsense. No more guilt. You Only Live Once.
Mealtimes are rest times – no emails/phone calls during mealtimes. It seems like ages but I always try to give myself an hour for each meal – it spreads the day out and gives time to prepare something vaguely healthy.
All hail wondrous coffee – there’s nothing like it to regain focus if you’re flagging mid-afternoon – or just struggling to wake up mid-morning. I bought my first coffee machine a few weeks ago and have been more or less wired ever since.

So there we have it – freelancers, how do you increase/maintain productivity? Please share tips & tricks in the comments!

Career, Music

Video from Festival Number 6

11 October 2013 No Comments

Here is a video of Cathal Mo Chroi with the Festival Number Six Ensemble under Joe Duddell. Lovely people and a pleasure to perform with.

Career, Music

Festival No. 6 2013

3 October 2013 2 Comments

Between the 12th and 15th September I was in Portmeirion playing for Festival Number Six. This was a real experience and, considering I hesitated a little when originally asked to do it – I’m so glad I did.

The first day was chaos. There’s no other way to describe it. I thought I’d be clever and set off super early to allow for ‘getting lost’ time once we’d arrived. I was giving a lift to horn player Joel Roberts – hi Joel! – and we set off around 8am. The postcode we’d been sent to was an empty business park (later we realised it was only empty because we were so wonderfully early) – so we drove on to the main festival site – which I later realised I wasn’t allowed to drive on to … naughty me.

Anyway, fast forward about an hour of wondering if we’re in the right place we’d managed to find the Cassia String Quartet, fresh from driving up from the South of France, as well as our artist wristbands:

After being given wristbands I was told there was no way I was getting my car on to the Festival site to drop off the harp. Just no way. They offered to take it by golf buggy – I politely declined. I ended up having to put my harp into a Volvo four by four. I couldn’t believe it fit! The driver of the Volvo – Sid – was lovely and said they were there to give lifts to the artists when we needed them. I think he somewhat underestimated how busy they were going to be over the next few days as I was only able to use a Volvo at the beginning and the end of the Festival.

I left my car on the football field in the photo above – unfortunately due to the crazy weather this field turned into a muddy mess – it took me ages to get my car off the mud and onto the safety of an actual road. Getting off the field involved taking a ‘run up’ to the curb in order to get up the muddy slope and onto tarmac. There were three Welsh car park attendants egging me on telling me to go faster – I was so not in the mood for that.

My harp’s home for the next few days was the Town Hall. It wasn’t until later that evening that we (the ensemble) found our home for the weekend. ‘Artist Camping’ – when we eventually found it, was about 15 minutes walk from the main village, and completely devoid of showers/toilets. Not to be deterred though, we set up our tents in some sort of circle – some quicker than others. Joel had the unpleasant experience of a drunk festival-goer tumbling into his tent in the middle of the night, who somehow managed to crawl in between the inner and outer part of the tent… how? I have no idea.

So the camping part of the trip was cold. I won’t lie. It was cold, windy and damp, but I had my inflatable mattress and memory foam pillow, as well as lots of layers for the night. We’re talking strappy top, t-shirt, long-sleeved top, hoody AND blanket as well as sleeping bag. The weather got progressively worse as the weekend went on (Saturday – lovely then rain, Sunday – rain and so windy I saw three tents blow away).

The playing part of the weekend was great. The Cassia Quartet, formed of Amy, Tori, Laurie and Josh, as well as horn player Joel and percussionists Delia and Graham, along with myself we formed the Festival Number 6 Ensemble directed by Joe Duddell:

The ensemble was to accompany a few different acts during the festival. Daughter, Jackie Oates, and Cathal Mo Chroi (aka Chas Smash from Madness).

Working with Cathal was certainly fun. He did a set of six songs: Love Songs No. 9 and 7, A Comfortable Man, Do you Believe in Love? Goodbye Planet Earth, and The Wren’s Burial. The harp was needed for everything, yay! There’s also a youtube video of my favourite, which can be found here.

I remember during one of the breaks, Cathal met up with us in the cafe and showed us some poetry he’d written and recorded – very amusing and well written (and naughtily rude). The overall vibe I got from working with Cathal is that he’s very chilled out, and definitely doesn’t take himself too seriously. It’s so nice when the people you’re playing for actually make the effort to hang out and talk to you backstage. It doesn’t happen all that often.

Playing with Daughter was amazing as well – not only were they incredibly professional, punctual and efficient in setting up all their equipment – they also had a pleasing attention to detail in rehearsals. As well as that, they are absolutely lovely people, a real pleasure to work with.

The Daughter gig was on the Saturday night, which was followed by some drinks and dancing – loads of fun. On Sunday the weather turned really nasty. I was so worried my tent was going to blow away – I actually saw several tents blow over in the wind. It turned out that I wasn’t actually needed for any rehearsals or sets that day so I set about trying to take down the tent and pack all my things. By some miracle I was allowed to bring my car back on to the festival site to pick up my harp. Hurray!

On returning to Manchester, I had a new-found appreciation for lots of little things: getting dressed standing up for example, rather than awkwardly lying down in a confined space. The first night back in my bed was amazing! I think my harp was very happy to be back – I’d booking it in for a service the following day as a much needed treat.

So, lots of good things from the Festival, fun music, lovely people in the bands and the ensemble – but the weather could have been better/less muddy. Definitely an experience I’ll remember.

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Lovely CLOUDS review

16 August 2013 No Comments

As part of the CLOUDS tour that happened a few weeks ago, we did a concert in Eastgate Theatre in Peebles. This concert received a wonderful review and we are all really proud. I wanted to share this with you…

‘CLOUDS ARE STARS!

A feeling of expectation fills the darkened room, lit by tiny flickering candle flames. A young woman floats in, the candle in her cupped hands lighting the folds of her many coloured silks. She asks us to go with the stars to the furthest cosmos and, like a butterfly, flutters down behind one of four huge harps, where her fingers pluck out a tinkling ostinato. She is joined by three more beautiful silk butterflies and the four harps blend the magical sounds of ‘Interstellar Clouds’, transporting us all to stars beyond imagination.

It is two years since I heard a concert by Clouds Harp Quartet. Then their music delighted, intrigued and moved me. I looked forward to hearing more. The four harpists, Elfair Dyer, Rebecca Mills, Esther Swift and Angelina Warburton, have grown up and developed with their music. They have been together for four years and have built a strong ensemble in which the chemistry between then is almost visible. They give more than a concert. It is a complete performance, the music enhanced by subtle lighting, costumes, props and seamless introductions with charm to draw us into the magical musical world of Clouds. These four lovely girls still look absurdly young, which belies their assured adult musicianship – for it is not simple music that they play.

Peebles’ own Esther Swift has composed much of the music, which makes use of the many voices of the concert harp – not all of them familiar or traditional. The extended technique uses plucking strings with fingers, finger tips or nails; glissandos; harmonics; sliding and striking the strings; tapping or banging the soundboard; even slipping card or metal inserts behind the strings. One harp creeps in with an insistent ostinato, which grows until all four harps play as one, the give and take of rhythm building sound and mood. The regularity of the ostinato lulls us into a false sense of security to be shattered by a sudden intense volume of sound – hands urgently slapping strings and soundboard. It is exciting, strong and dramatic. Esther’s music is not just pretty tinkling harp strings – from tiny, almost inaudible
sounds to huge crescendos; lilting folky rhythms to jagged syncopation – she makes the 188 harp strings speak and sing…

‘Interstellar Clouds’ was composed by Esther and it was excellent to have another chance to hear her ‘Clouds’ inspired by a walk up the Sware and her father’s poem about the clouds.

And whose mother would not be delighted with a Mothers’ Day gift of an original composition – a song for voice and harp? Deeply moving.

The main work performed was Esther’s latest composition ‘Water’, which took us from
the single raindrop that starts a river, through a delicate snowstorm to the ocean. From the rippling burn to the strong river currents the music really sounded wet, climaxing in the strong and aggressive pull of the moon on the high tide. Finally, as earth and water come together, all four players left their harps to sing softly in harmony close to their rapt audience. It was an unforgettable musical journey full of colour, drama and mood swings.

Throughout the concert we shared the fun and joy that the players obviously get from their wonderful instruments. A quartet of concert harps is unusual (and must be a logistical challenge!) but this girl band really is something special, as many will discover on this tour.’

Claire Garnett – thank you so much for this wonderful review!

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CLOUDS, Les Mis and Summer

25 July 2013 3 Comments

Summer 2013 is turning out to be very busy indeed!

Last week was the first leg of the CLOUDS Harp Quartet tour. We did five concerts in and around Manchester and had a great time, rehearsals were at my flat, rather interesting fitting four pedal harps into an average-sized lounge:

The tour is to promote our new CD entitled WATER:

We are all so excited about this new piece. It’s written by Esther Swift – but I use the term loosely – nothing is physically written down. Esther composes the piece, then teaches it to us aurally and by demonstration. When we first started playing together about four years ago I’d never done anything like it, but now I love it. The music is so free because we aren’t bound by sheets of music, we have to communicate a lot during our performances and I think it makes us much tighter as a group.

*At this point I’d just like to say anyone wishing to purchase WATER can do so by clicking here http://www.cloudsandharps.bigcartel.com/product/water *

Also, here are the dates for our 2013 tour – catch us in Edinburgh, Peebles, Newcastle or North Wales:

On the first day of rehearsals with CLOUDS, my new lever harp arrived! I’ve hired one for the year, and it arrived like this:

It’s a Dusty Strings Ravenna 34 and so far I’m really happy with it – I even went busking earlier this week! I hadn’t really realised how heavy these things are, yes it’s easier than a pedal harp but too much walking around with this on my shoulder results in a lot of pain. Definitely an interesting experience though.

So this week I’m playing for Les Miserables over in Runcorn. Same company that I played for when they did Phantom of the Opera last year. It’s a group of 16-19 year olds and it’s in The Brindley in Runcorn. I do love playing for shows and I’m lucky enough to be doing three this Summer, this one is a bit different though because I’m playing from the guitar part. Shaun Chambers, the conductor, thought (quite rightly) that some of the melody parts would sound really good on the harp – however, it also means I have to play from guitar notation eek! It has been so good for me though, playing from chord symbols – a bit time consuming to mark up in terms of pedals but once you get used to it it’s nice having the flexibility to slightly change what you play each time. Usually playing harp for a show you can expect to be in five or six numbers. I’m playing ALL THE TIME – it’s great! Although it doesn’t leave enough time to eat my minstrels during the show. I made friends with the brass players during the interval last night over chocolates and warm lager. Classy.

The final show is this Saturday evening, after which I am driving straight up to Edinburgh to start the second part of the CLOUDS tour. Someone remind me how I ever managed to fit in a day job?!

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Both sides of the coin.

1 July 2013 1 Comment

Well again it’s been too long since I’ve posted, but I can promise that from now I’ll be blogging much more regularly because…

I QUIT MY JOB!

That’s right, I’m giving up regular income and easy work to become essentially a wandering minstrel.

I have three shifts left – I actually cried when I handed my notice in, but I know it’s for the best. Saturday is my last one, it’s going to be weird. Long Tall Sally has taken up so much of the last 6 months it’ll be very strange having time to do other things.

The fact is, it is too hard to fit my musical life into 3 days a week. I’ve tried, and I can’t do it. Yes I can do my Saturday gigs but I never have time to practice (I actually miss practice – what’s happened to me?!) My flat is always a mess because I never have time nor energy to clean and tidy, my repertoire is dwindling as I don’t have time to learn new pieces and I’m way behind on general life admin (sorry to my parents who still have my deceased car on the driveway seven months after I get a new one!)

Yes, the income was OK, the girls I work with are lovely and I feel very lucky in that respect. But, I didn’t study for four years for a music degree and undertake years of practice and hard work just to spend my days manning a shop floor for minimum wage.

So here’s the plan:

1. Summer is pretty booked up with gigs so income should be ok for a while.

2. Hire a lever harp and try busking to see if it’s a realistic source of extra income. If it does turn out to be good money, try lots of different cities/save up to purchase the harp. Maybe even drive to France and do some busking on the continent?!

3. Keep any spending to a MINIMUM – essentials only – bye bye gym membership, clothes from Primark and food from Aldi – get a cheaper sim-only contract when my current contract runs out AND my car insurance should be a lot cheaper when I renew.

4. Write to all the cruise companies I can google and try to drum up some work.

5. Chop up credit card (I actually already did this)

So I named this post ‘both sides of the coin’. Before I got my job at LTS, I needed income – desperately. When I got the job, I realised I’d actually given up the freedom that comes with being freelance – and the price I had put on my freedom was a little over £6 an hour. I can now see that having the ability to work for myself and to rely only upon myself is worth so much more than that. Yes it’s risky and scary, but I remember at RNCM in one harp class with our teacher – Eira – we discussed the poem by William Arthur Ward ‘To Risk’ and in particular the line the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. I simply have to be free to sort my own schedule, to come and go as I please and not have to ask anyone’s permission before taking on work that is good for my career.

But, I honestly think, having seen and experienced a ‘normal job’ for the past six months, I am more motivated than ever to take my music career as far as I possibly can. This has been a real wake up call and shown me that it is my passion – and the only thing I can really see myself being happy spending my life doing.

To Risk by William Arthur Ward

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.

To love is to risk not being loved in return,

To live is to risk dying,

To hope is to risk despair,

To try is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,

But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.

Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

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Back after a break!

10 June 2013 2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here. I have been insanely busy. I knew this would happen – I’d get a job and lose all my spare time trying to juggle everything.

The income is great though, I’ve been on holiday with some lovely friends to Cyprus for ten days. I’m starting to slowly climb out of debt (the pace of the climb has increased since the holiday) and there is light at the end of the tunnel!

What I’m focussing on now is the fact that I reallllly really want to do some travelling – or at least live abroad for a while. Playing on the ship in Southampton that went nowhere has made me desperately want to play on a ship that does in fact travel with me on it. I’m also chasing the possibility of doing some sort of residency in a luxury hotel in Dubai – the money would be great and the lifestyle would be fabulous.

So I work in the shop four days a week, that means I have to squeeze the rest of my life into three days (plus evenings when I’m not in the gym/too tired to function). It is so challenging – and this Summer is going to be busy. I’m playing for Les Miserables in Runcorn, The Sound of Music in Newcastle, various weddings, as well as a tour with my wonderful harp quartet CLOUDS (more about that to follow in a separate post).

Juggling work + music is going to be very tricky for the next few months, but I daren’t hand my notice in because September, October and November are looking pretty shocking gig-wise at this stage. I’m waiting for an email/phone call regarding a cruise or an international residency sometime in the next few weeks, until then I’m going to try and not act rashly. Keep up with life admin (letters, emails, staying organised), practice (for gigs as well as various concerts and recitals coming up) as well as working in Long Tall Sally.

Main challenge will be to hang on to my sanity. It’s not going well.

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April 18th

18 April 2013 2 Comments

Last week I spent five days aboard the Saga Sapphire in Southampton:

While docked, it acted as a hotel, allowing passengers to experience what Saga have to offer. I was booked to play for them, but I had no idea what would be expected when I got down there.

I gave a lift to the trombone player in the band – Matt – and we set off from Manchester at just after 5am on Wednesday. We arrived pretty much bang on time but had to wait a while before boarding. I got numerous comments of ‘don’t you wish you’d played the violin?’. One day I swear, someone will say that and I will respond ‘wow, YES! Why did I not think of that before, here, take my harp, I’m leaving to find a better life!’

Basically, I had no idea what was going on, how long I would be playing each day, where I’d be staying (i.e. in a ‘crew’ room or a ‘guest’ room) or where I’d be eating. Once on board I was told the lifts weren’t working and I was to take my harp to the 8th deck (are you KIDDING?!) they sent me down to 4th deck to find my cabin, only there was a man in there watching telly, so I trundled back up to reception and asked for another room. They gave me this lovely room on 8th deck:

Not sure why I got a twin room but at least my bags had somewhere to sleep. The weird thing about it was, as it was an inside room (no windows) you can turn off the lights at any point during the day and it feels like night time! Ideal napping territory.

I was told that I was to eat in the restaurant, with the guests, and oh my, the food was divine. Wine was included with dinner (dangerous):

The steak was also to die for, I had chocolate cake, lots of chocolate cake every day and it was amazing. And yes, I may have gained a little weight while I was there but I was having such a lovely time it didn’t matter!

So my job on the ship was to play background music while the guests were having afternoon tea. Every day we had different guests and every day they were really receptive and I got lots of applause (rare for background music) and I was also thanked by the Cruise Director several times, which was lovely. So I would play for an hour, have some coffee and pastries, then play for another hour, have some cakes, then play for the last 45 minutes or so. Dream job? Yes. Here’s my harp on stage:

In the evenings, from around 6.30, there was a cocktail party in the lounge where champagne was on tap – uh oh – and the guests were welcomed by the Captain and the Cruise Director. Dinner was after that (did I mention the amazing steak?) Then at 9.30pm Steve Terry would sing his Cabaret set, Bobby Darin, Michael Buble, things like that, I loved it! At around 10.30pm the dance troupe would start their Mo-town show, all singing, all dancing – I saw this maybe twice or three times while I was there and really enjoyed it, then at 11pm the UpBeat Beatles started playing and everyone danced. They finished around midnight, when I would go up and listen to the cocktail pianist/piano entertainer Martin Orbidans play until around 1.30am. Any song you can think of, he knows – he even managed to get me behind the microphone singing Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man – I was having a great time and no one walked out, amazing! On the last night I managed to get a photo with Steve and Martin so here we are:

So the evenings were pretty full, in the mornings I was either sleeping, or having a swim in the spa on the second deck, which I pretty much had to myself…

So yea, had a lovely few days and didn’t want to return to normal life really – I wanted to stay on the Sapphire and sail to the Med! Never mind, I would jump at the chance to do some more work for them. It’s also got me thinking how much I’d love to travel and play – I’m discussing the possibility of going out to somewhere in the Middle East/Asia to play in a luxury hotel for 3-6 months. I mean, it sounds too good to be true, all food/accommodation/flights/visas paid, I would get to stay in a swanky hotel and play every day – and I would earn good money doing it – more than I make now, working every day either in the shop or teaching or gigs. I’m seriously thinking about it. I turned it down last year, don’t think I’m going to be turning it down this time. Watch this space!

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