Trio

This lunchtime, my flute, viola and harp trio played in a lunchtime concert at Manchester University.  We performed Debussy’s Trio Sonata – a beautiful piece and definitely a classic for this ensemble.

Our trio is relatively newly formed, and it involves myself, Matthew Howells on flute and Joe Bronstein on viola.  We get together about once a week to rehearse.  Chamber music is something I didn’t do too much of at college, but I’m finding it can be a really refreshing way to make music and get to know other musicians… it’s almost like socialising!  Even though this was unpaid, it was definitely worth doing for the experience of playing this beautiful music.

A couple of things happened that are worth recording.  Getting the harp there was a little fiddly as Manchester Uni don’t let humble musicians park at all.  So my morning was spent doing the following:

  1. Pack up harp watch that velco!  Remember, you are wearing tights.
  2. Load harp into car
  3. Drive car to uni
  4. Unload harp and find someone to guard it
  5. Drive back home
  6. Contemplate the ridiculousness harpists have to go through sometimes
  7. Walk back to uni
  8. Unpack harp careful with the velcro covers near tights! – be ready to start rehearsing.

This process can be reversed to describe accurately what to do after the concert.

The playing actually went really well, the audience was enthusiastic but sadly quite few in number.  I guess you can’t have everything.  Better to have a small welcoming audience than a large, hostile one.

I did manage to put the piano stool on my dress as we were setting up during the concert, only to try and walk away and find myself rooted to the spot.  I finally freed myself and tried to push the wrong door to get off-stage.  Slightly embarrassing – but nothing compared to what happened after the concert.

So there I was, getting changed out of my dress, and I’m told that I need to move the harp now,  the hall is needed for another rehearsal.  Cue me, trying to get dressed allegro molto only to be told by Joe a minute later that I’d forgotten to fasten my skirt!

I think ‘mortified’ covers it pretty well.

The things we do for our art…

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