By Carolyn Fraser Rachel Smith is my cousin, and, as you well know, a highly accomplished musician who happens at present to live very far away. So, if in order to see Rachel I’d have to leave cold, grey Melbourne and travel first to balmy Brisbane and then across a sparkling expanse of sea to …
Music can be wondrous and intoxicating. For performers, though, sometimes it’s easy to become embroiled in the details of an everyday existence of performing and practising: Why can’t I get all these notes? I practised them last week…This conductor really should give it up! What shall I have for lunch? This rehearsal is too long! …
Carpets, batteries and coffee. Yes, it is a strange title for a chamber music festival blog because: You might think that these particular items don’t have much in common with chamber music. As lovely and/or useful as carpets, batteries and coffee can be, this combination of things is not usually your average conversational topic. Backing …
What an amazing occupation I have: one week I’m in the Highlands of Scotland, playing with the SCO in dinky community halls to enthralled audiences in charming and remote locations (read about the tour by clicking here), the next week I’m in Australia, sitting on the ferry, on my way to visit the beautiful Stradbroke …
by Rachel “To give life to beauty, the painter uses a whole range of colours, musicians of sounds, the cook of tastes — and it is indeed remarkable that there are seven colours, seven musical notes and seven tastes.” Lucien Tendret (1825-1896) Lately, I’ve been drawn to experimenting in the kitchen. What has led …