| Musical Interests |
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 Kathy aged 14 with the Art Master! |
Music is such an important part of our lives - both performing and listening. Kathy was the early starter and Roland the late developer! As a teenager Kathy starred as Josephine in her school production of HMS Pinafore. Roland's musical achievements at that time amounted to once holding a French Horn, but never getting a note out of it! David and Joanna have also got the bug - see their Family pages for what they have done. |  |
| Kathy and Music |
| I learned the piano from 11 - 16 but never got very good - when I retire I want a digital piano so I can vent my emotions without the neighbours having to hear! Also had a go at the 'cello at school but was even worse at that, and various recorders which gave lots of fun playing in ensembles and with the family later. When I was "discovered" for HMS Pinafore, performed jointly with the Boys' School (great excitement!) a whole new world was opened as I found I could sing well enough to be in the County Youth Choir and various groups at school. That carried on at University in its choir where I had my first experience of singing with the CBSO in the old Birmingham Town Hall. |
| After
the kids were born I joined another choir and on
moving to Wolverley I
was grabbed by the Playgroup leader and have sung in
the Wolverley W.I.
Choir ever since under her conductorship - 26 years
now. We had some
great
times doing entertainments and pantos as well as
concerts and contests
- we even got to the National Finals of a W.I festival
in London,
eventually
coming 4th in the country. Sadly the choir is
dwindling away as new
singers
are not forthcoming, but those of us left still get a
lot of enjoyment
out of singing therapy! Applause
at the end of the CBSC and CBSO's contribution to
the opening festival
of the newly restored Birmingham Town Hall, on
October 8th 2007.
Jane Irwin, in red, was the soloist in Elgar's "The
Music Makers". |
 Woverley W.I.Choir at its finest. In 1984 and jobless I felt the need for something new and to my surprise I was accepted for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus, now CBSC. I had no idea what I was taking on, didn't even have a car of my own to travel in so arrangements at home were complicated, but with lots of necessary support from Rol I am still with them. It has been a fabulous experience, from Llangollen to Granada, Simon Rattle (bless him) to Sir Charles MacKerras, via over 20 recordings plus radio tapes to remember it by - see my Family page for more memories. My days are numbered - normal age is 18 - 50 and they keep a very close eye on you after that. It's hard to imagine life afterwards. Singing Beethoven's 9th in the Granada Alhambra palace open air arena at 11pm in July, and Tippet's A Child of our Time to an audience in Vienna which didn't stop applauding until everyone had long left the stage and Rattle had to come back on, have to be the highlights. Lucky me. I still have to pinch myself! |
| TRIP
OF
A LIFETIME TO VIENNA!
5 days in Vienna in May 2002 lived up to expectations - 2 wonderful concerts with Simon Rattle conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with the CBSC and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in the Musikverein, Vienna's most famous concert hall. Simon's "dream team" of Soloists included Barbara Bonney and Thomas Hampson. One concert was broadcast live on Austrian radio, both were recorded for a live CD by EMI. Rol came too and sat in on most rehearsals and the first concert at 11am on the Sunday - a wonderful experience for both of us. The enthusiastic (and rich!) audience (tickets £32 - £47) gave a 10 minute standing ovation. Experience of a lifetime! And Kathy had "Happy Birthday" sung by the choir on stage! The
trip
also
gave plenty of time to explore the delights of
Vienna. Here's a link to Vienna,
also found from the
link on the Europe page in Travel, where you can go
to a Yahoo Gallery
of some of our Vienna pictures.
The
pink
tiled Hong Kong Cultural Center on the Kowloon
Waterfront opposite Hong
Kong Island. The Star Ferry Terminal and Kowloon
Railway Station
preserved clock tower are in front. |
 The applause after the concert. Click
for bigger
picture of the golden Musikverein.
CBSC in Helsinki - January 8th to 13th 2004 Sakari Oramo, the Music
Director of the
CBSO is also Principal Conductor of the FRSO, and his
dream was to get
the CBSC to sing with his Finnish Orchestra. Two
stunning
performances, Beethoven's 9th and the Finnish premier
of Dream of
Gerontius in Finlandia Hall were the result. Rol was
able to come again
and was given free seats for the concerts by the
generous Finns. An
extra day enabled some sightseeing too. Here's a link to some
Helsinki
pictures CBSC in Hong
Kong -
February 13th to 18th 2006 The Chorus were
invited to perform two
concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
in the Cultural
Centre as part of the Hong Kong Arts
Festival. Mahler's 2nd
Symphony, with Edo de Waart in charge, was its
usual stunning self,
despite a rather insecure Chinese Soprano soloist.
The second concert,
under Simon Halsey, was a restrained affair
involving Brahms' Song of
Destiny, Vaughan Williams Five Sacred Songs and
Faure's Requiem in the
Second Half. It went down very well though. Rol
snatched a couple of
pictures despite the remonstrations of the very
"efficient" ushers. In
between rehearsals we got down to some serious
sight seeing and had a
whole day to ourselves at the end before the night
flight back to the
UK.
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| Roland and Music |
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My first piano lesson was when I was five. A complete disaster, but fortunately brother Christopher came up trumps and made good use of the piano. When David came home from school aged 11 with a trombone the childhood memories of the French Horn prompted me to have a go and I discovered I could cope with one line of music at a time. So after closet practice with a sock in the bell and graduation to a college course for beginners I became a member of the Bell Inn Brass Band from Cleobury Mortimer, playing Baritone Horn. The urge to improve involved taking grade 6 on the Horn and Grade 5 theory - an unnerving experience being surrounded by youngsters but well worth the effort as a distinction was the result! So mid 1990's saw a move to Stourport - on - Severn Brass Band to join David and Joanna and a whole new world opened up of contests and quality music making. A spell as Chairman resulted in a successful Lottery bid so the Band now has a fine set of Instruments. |
|
 Final bow at the Rep 72kb Click for a bigger view |
2003 was a
fantastic year
for the Band. In March we qualified for the
National
Brass Band Championships in the 2nd section and in
early summer we
played
at the Birmingham Rep in Brassed Off - specifically
asked to be the
rehearsal
band by the producer who had worked on the touring
production in 1998
when
we played in the show at the Wolverhampton Grand
Theatre. Our
appearance
at the Nationals in Dundee was a fantastic event even
if we weren't in
the prizes! 2004 started just as well with the Band qualifying AGAIN (!) for the Nationals, though this time we are going to Harrogate. We cut a CD just after Easter as well. It's all go!! Then, to cap everything, we were promoted to the 1st Section from March 2006.  If only it could walk! |
