Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Moving on














It's with great sadness that I am writing to all our blog followers that I will be leaving the New London Orchestra today. I have had an absolutely brilliant year with the NLO, putting together some truly different and exciting concerts all over the capital and starting to build a really strong base in Stratford which I have become very attached to. Some real highlights for me have been the Peter & the Wolf concert back in March, when the NLO launched its concert activity in East London with a huge gala performance. I worked on both the education project in all the schools leading up to the concert, and then ran the event on the day and had a great time with all our brilliant players and the fab staff at the Stratford Rex, who were so delighted to have us.

Another highlight most recently has been the Snowman concert, which really has rounded off a fantastic year in the East of London - selling out to over 300 families and children who were transfixed by the beautiful Raymond Briggs story. Once again, as is always the case with a small team, I organised and ran the whole event, even down to operating the film and screen on the day - very nervewracking, but totally worth it when we pulled it off!

There are so many other brilliant initiatives I have been involved in here that I couldn't possibly mention them all; from the Young Performers Concert Series at the beautiful Foundling Museum, to the fantastic folk at the Highgate Choral Society who do such a great job of putting together the concerts we are lucky to play in with them. I've listened to our fantastic players get through such a range of music this year - starting with Bacewicz recording sessions in a freezing cold church in February, to Elgar's Apostles at the Barbican, to Janeck's Glagoltic Mass in another cold church this November. Considering we often only rehearse on the day of an event, I am always overwhelmed by the incredible playing of our musicians and their dedication to this orchestra and I will miss them all very much.

But anyway, that's enough from me for now. I am pleased to hand over the reigns of both the Concert & Project Management, and the blog, to my successor Kirsten Mackay. I'm sure her blog updates will keep you entertained and up-to-date in 2010.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. Listen again to Sleigh Ride at Stratford Circus on 6th December on our YouTube channel here.