Newsletter Cherubim in 2020 – so much to look forward to
We are pleased to announce that the Trust’s ‘Brexiternity’ is that they’re all eligible for turnover rose to a record £46,000 in our another year – an ‘unintended consequence’ recent accounts, with more than half this that will pass unnoticed in Downing St. figure spent on the new flute and bassoon announced in earlier newsletters. Our Equally interesting, Hannah Harding’s instrument bank now stands at 31, including tour to Poland with a Cambridge orchestra three instruments placed demonstrates the Our headline picture shows with us for onward loan. contribution that Catherine Milledge & More on page two. Cherubim instruments Cherubim musician Jenni Moss at our recent Spitfire Clarinet make both to our soirée introduced by Wing We have extended this issue awardees’ musical careers Commander Ian Kendrick. in order to print Nina Kiva’s and to the commonwealth fascinating account of her recent tour with of music. If you’d like to support us the back the European Union Youth Orchestra. The page tells you how. EUYO used to be based in the UK, but was obliged to relocate to Italy; and this was to Future events are on page two. Including the have been the last tour for the seven young launch of a project to make a Cherubim CD British musicians. However an upside of the of french harp music on December 13th.
Coming up shortly
Available Instruments
We have an exciting slate of events involving Cherubim musicians as part of the programme of Aperitif Concerts at the Savile Club. These take place at 12:30 on the first Friday of the month at 69 Brook St, W1K 4ER. Entry is free.
Presently available are
Cherubim’s Lorée cor anglais
Friday 1 November Cherubim’s Oscar Holch performs Rebecca Clark’s Viola Sonata with JongSun Woo, piano. Friday 13 December sees the launch of our french harp music CD project with a performance of Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur’s Suite Médiévale given by the Cherubim Ensemble. Heather Brooks harp, Octavia Lamb flute, Gabriella Jones violin, Oscar Holch viola, Nina Kiva cello. Then on Saturday 15 February in Tisbury the Eos Flute Collective, led by Octavia Lamb, present a Valentine’s Evening of Romantic Flute Music. Looking further ahead: the bank holiday of 23/24 May is our third choral weekend in Tisbury church. This year’s featured composer is Henry Purcell, and the Cherubim Chamber Choir under Greg Skidmore perform a delightful mix of familiar sacred and secular music, including Rejoice in the Lord and scenes from Dido. The organ and harpsichord accompaniment by Michael Maxwell Steer will be supplemented by a quartet of Cherubim string players.
B&S concert tuba in F,
Davide Chirone violin. Thanks to the Wallace Curzon Trust for a set of vibraphone bags. Glamorous? No. Life preserving? Yesss! Our new Instrument
Our latest accession is a fine 1901 violin by Davide Chirone loaned by Alan & Muriel McIntosh, seen here with Gabriella Jones. It was used by Alan’s father and has been refurbished by Eckhard Kropfreiter for the next generation.
Recent performance videos Percussion Picnic, where the audience heard a wide range of tuned percussion, including the Cherubim marimba and vibraphone. September Concerts In place of our Autumn Festival we held two concerts: one by Cherubim harpists Heather & Fern Brooks (L) and Octavia Lamb (R) in Stephen Dodgson videos Cherubim was commissioned to video two compositions by Stephen Dodgson in July 2019. Former Cherubim guitarist Daniel Bovey (L) and current cellist Kieran Carter (R) performed his Duo for guitar and cello in the late composer’s house. Kieran also recorded Partita for solo cello.
MidSummer Music Also in July as part of our MidSummer Music at Compton Marbling, near Tisbury, there were fine performances by the brass group Quartet Menine, featuring Cherubim tuba player Adam Collins (R). The following day a completely different experience was on offer from Sehyogue Aulakh (L) and Toril AzzaliniMachecler (R) at our
the concert hall of St Mary’s School Shaftesbury, kind permission of the Headmistress: the other was in a private drawing room in Hindon, by gracious invitation of Marion Bolton and Catherine & Colin Dathan, which Find Cherubim’s featured Jenni Moss beautiful recordings performing on clarinet on YouTube. Just 28 more subscribers and and Savile Club bass we can name our own clarinet accompanied channel. by Catherine Milledge. This concert featured a helpful introduction to the music by WingCdr Ian Kendrick. Meanwhile at Savile Club Aperitifs earlier in the year Grace Callaghan gave a recital on Cherubim’s Powell flute in the presence of the donors; and Gabriella Jones gave a solo recital of Bach and Telemann on our 1752 ‘Keith Dale’ Kloz violin.
Cherubim musicians Butterfly Paterson ‘Bolton’ cello
Danielle Lee Violin
Butterfly has been loaned the Michael Lindsay cello belonging to Marion Bolton – to whom we wish a speedy and continuing return to good health.
In May Danielle won a silver award for solo violin at the Tymbark International YM Competition in Poland. She was recently appointed the youngest ever Leader of the Watford School of Music Youth Orchestra, and is working towards her NYO audition. In the summer Danielle played twice in Paris, and also performed as solo violinist in British Youth Music Theatre’s production Alice in Wanderlust at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.
Ethan Clarke Oboe
Bethan Cole Flute
‘I am very excited to be going up to read music at Durham University and keenly looking forward to the orchestral and choral opportunities. This past year I have been a Choral Scholar at Portsmouth Cathedral singing seven services a week, including choral evensong on Radio 3 and a solo on Radio 4. I was also working as a gap year assistant at Portsmouth Grammar School helping out in the Sports and Music Departments. Over the summer I went travelling in Cuba whose rich cultural and musical world has exploded the musical perspective I grew up with! Now I have to see how to make sense of it all at Durham.’
Bethan plays with the Gwent Youth Wind Orchestra and enters the Gwent Youth Orchestra this term. She did a mini tour of Wales with the Claire Jones Concert Ensemble playing harp and flute, which took them to the Welsh Prom festival, Brangwyn Hall Swansea and Musicfest Aberystwyth. She is a chorister at both St Woolos and Llandaff Cathedrals and earlier this year successfully auditioned for the Royal School of Church Music Intermediate Youth Choir, as well as traveling to Liverpool Cathedral to take part in the Diamond Fund for Choristers.
We welcome Butterfly, 15, a student at the Junior Guildhall who is a member of the NYO. She also sings and records with the choir of Little St Mary’s, Cambridge.
Sir Don Gosling central London for off-street parking. And from this seed the mighty National Car Parks grew. Gosling co-chaired the company until his retirement in 1988, whereafter he used much of his wealth to endow the Gosling Foundation, which has since disbursed hundreds of millions of pounds. Knighted in 1976, Sir Don was made a KCVO in 2004 and an honorary Vice–Admiral in 2012 in acknowledgment of his immense contributions to naval charities. It is with great regret and personal affection that Cherubim records the death at 92 of the Trust’s founding patron Sir Don Gosling. After a naval career in WW2, Sir Don used his service gratuity to rent a bombsite in Clancy Steer remembers: “There really would not have been a Cherubim Trust without Sir Don Gosling’s generosity. In 2001 our daughter Serafina had won a place as a harpist at Trinity Laban and needed an instrument of her own. As we were seeking to raise £10,000 I wrote to Don, who was a friend of my father in law, to ask for help, and received an answer I’d had from other charitable trusts: ‘we would love to contribute, but our Articles only allow us to give to registered charities’. “So, with more chutzpah than common sense I decided to ask for his help to
In 2001 the Gosling Foundation gave an endowment of £10,000 to enable the creation of Cherubim Music Trust, and has continued its generous support in the intervening years. become a charity so as to help other people in a similar situation. For us, a real fairy godmother helped with our daughter’s harp, but student loans were just coming in and it was clear that many a young musician faced the same predicament. The Gosling Foundation did not merely assist with an endowment, but Don even supplied the services of his attorney to navigate the Charity Commission paperwork. “Our paths haven’t crossed often since then, but when they have Don always assured me he enjoyed reading our newsletters, remained interested in our work, and was delighted with its progress. His unfailingly friendly and caring attitude adds to my personal gratitude for his life and the sadness I feel at his death.”
Going... going... British musicians’ access to the European Union Youth Orchestra
This was to be have been the last year a British citizen is eligible for a place on this remarkable free training opportunity for young musicians. Nina Kiva, awardee of Cherubim’s ‘Rocke’ cello, gives an emotional account of her summer as a member of the penultimate cohort of Britons. During three weeks in July initial rehearsals took place in the beautiful surroundings of Grafenegg campus, Austria where it was a joy to make music. The first couple of days were sectional rehearsals – so important, with amazing tutors coaching each section of the orchestra in how to play with unified bow stroke, vibrato and intonation. This made us all feel a lot more comfortable before the first tutti! Over these three weeks we covered the main repertoire – Mahler’s Fifth and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphonies – first with Peter Stark and then for the final week with our main conductor Vasily Petrenko, straight from the Royal Liverpool PO. The progress throughout this time was phenomenal.
One of my favourite things about this orchestra is the spirit – many people from many nations respecting one another and being so supportive and positive. During rehearsals, the whole orchestra is constantly cheering and applauding after a solo, so that you can really feel the joy in the atmosphere. A tradition in the Orchestra is to have one ‘exploded’ rehearsal. Everyone moves to an unfamiliar position to play through a piece. In this case, it was a movement of the Mahler, where everything happening all at once. My desk partner Julia Oberndorfer and I were slightly terrified as we sat to tune beside the first horn and bass trombone! But it’s a wonderful way of getting to know the music, which let us hear the
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– . work afresh with various woodwind nearby in a completely different balance. It was quite scary suddenly being without the rest of the cellos, but also was really helpful to feel more confident about the part. The first concert in Grafenegg Auditorium was sold out and received a standing ovation. An amazing start to the tour! Next to the Prague Rudolfinum on at the end of July, where we performed Mahler’s Fifth and Dvořak’s Cello concerto with Nicolas Aldstaedt, one of my inspirations. It was such an honour to
experience the Dvořak with his beautiful and sensitive interpretation. Great fun too – as you see from the cello section enjoying a beer with him. Berlin Triumph 1st August. Definitely a highlight of the tour, with two concerts live-streamed from the Berlin Konzerthaus. Not knowing when the cameras are on you, or who is out there listening, adds to the pressure! The second concert, with Beethoven 9 was a unique experience. Part of a celebration for Europe, it was live-streamed both online and
Going... going... British musicians’ access to the European Union Youth Orchestra onto big screens outside the Konzerthaus where 5000 people were watching! Vasily Petrenko preceded the concert with a short “audience rehearsal” as they were to join in the final Ode to Joy. It felt amazing to feel so connected with everyone all over Europe watching. Italian Break The following week in Bolzano was a time of change. We gave our last concert with Petrenko and went back into rehearsal with a new conductor, Stephane Denève. It was hard work to unlearn the way we’d been performing, but Denève’s interpretation of the Mahler was so different to Petrenko’s. Nevertheless it was refreshing to relearn a new approach; and it felt really good to have intense daytimes, with the evenings to rest. We also began work on the Mozart A major Clarinet Concerto with Andreas Ottensamer from the Berlin Philharmonic. He arrived fresh from the Salzburg Festival, and I felt privileged to have the experience of performing alongside such a successful artist and learning how he works with an orchestra. As part of the tour there were also many chamber music performances. Here is a photo of us looking very happy after our successful performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations arranged for chamber ensemble by one of our tutors. We performed it the Park Laurin hotel, Bolzano in a “music gallery” concert, where each room contains a different chamber group and the audience walks from room to room hearing different performances. It was a rare pleasure to play in a mid-sized group of mixed instrumentalists. The last four days were the most tough, exhausting, emotional and beautiful days of the tour, with three concerts in different cities in four days. And the end of the tour looming.
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. Four cities in four days Playing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam also added to the whirlwind of emotions as the audience appreciation made it a concert I will never forget. We received an immediate standing ovation that left many of the orchestra with tears of joy. Afterwards, we had hardly slept as we had to leave before dawn to reach Hamburg; yet everyone’s commitment to deliver their best was phenomenal. With no time to check into our hotel until after the concert, people were falling asleep in the dressing rooms and cafés of the Elbphilharmonie during breaks.
beautiful courtyard of Grafenegg castle. Playing this for the last time amongst my good friends was a strange feeling as we were all saving ourselves for the last performance of the Mahler. I felt so emotional during the Elgar that I could barely let go while we were playing. After the concert we had to run to the Wolkenturm for the concert rehearsal. By this point we all knew the symphony so well so it was just a top and tail sound check. However, I and many others were already crying tears of joy in this rehearsal. Final reflections Spirits were so high, everyone was so happy. After six weeks of growing as a family, making music and incredible friendships we knew this was the last time we could communicate so intimately before a performance. As we played I could feel that every single player was holding onto every moment. It was like nothing I have experienced before. The concert was an emotional roller-coaster, with everyone making every single note count. . . Performing at the new Elbphilharmonie had been a dream of mine for a long time, and this was my favourite concert alongside Amsterdam. It was a huge success. The EUYO always gives 200% whatever the circumstances. It was my first time playing in a concert hall where the audience completely encircles the stage. The acoustics in the hall were incredible, with the design ensuring that every single member of the audience got a perfect experience wherever they were. So back to Grafenegg. On the last day, we not only had the final concert but also our third performance of the Enigma Variations, in the
It’s a strange feeling: developing strong connections with so many people while not knowing if you will see them again. I also became so attached to the repertoire we played it was difficult to accept it could be the last time I play with this wonderful orchestra due to Britain’s withdrawal from the EU. This was the best of the four tours I have done – due to so many factors: the conductors, the music, the friendships. Each member of the EUYO was so talented that I was constantly learning from everyone around me as they respected and supported one another. Experiences like this are so important, living in such a busy and chaotic city as London where any form of cooperation is at a premium. I really hope to keep this inspired and warm feeling, as I begin my first year of Masters at the RCM.
... and last summer in Poland with the Cambridge University Orchestra in Poland Hannah Harding, left, recently took Cherubim’s ‘Rothermere-Gosling’ bassoon on a tour of Poland. She is reading music at Downing College, Cambridge This summer I was fortunate enough to take part in my first tour as part of Cambridge University Orchestra in which I am bassoonist and contra-bassoonist. After my first year of varied, stimulating and thoroughly enjoyable music-making with both CUO and the Sinfonia, I was greatly looking forward to the opportunity to explore the gorgeous city of Krakow, Poland, with an orchestra made up of talented musicians lead by the capable baton of Toby Hession, one of many conductors to have been produced by Clare College. Returning to Cambridge in late July prepped and ready for intense rehearsals of Lutoslawski’s Little Suite, Mozart’s Violin Concerto V with soloist Jacqui Martens, and— for a bassoonist most exciting and challenging of all—Tchaikovsky’s VIth
Symphony. With only two days, at times it felt dangerously close to a whistle-stop tour around this repertoire, but by the end we felt entirely pleased with what we had managed to achieve in such a short time. On our way
After 28 long hours on a coach we finally arrived in a hot Krakow – something that we enjoyed (or resented!) during the week. If I had to pick a highlight for the tour, it would definitely be our final concert in an open air amphitheatre in Rabka Zdroj. It really was an incredibly magical setting: the sun had just finished setting as our final performance commenced. Night was falling as we reached the emotionally intense peak of the Pathétique’s unusual slow final movement – the orchestra’s energy having
traditional!) cuisine: the orchestra enjoyed many a sourdough pizza from a 24-hour pizza restaurant, as well as dining on pierogi filled with various flavours. A Krakow climax
been spent in the forceful and repetitive third movement, we reached a cathartic emotional release, ending as solemnly as the symphony began.
Our final concert was in St Catherine’s Cathedral Krakow, which crowned this wonderful tour exploring this attractive European city, experiencing some of the most beautiful music in the orchestral repertoire, and making incredible friendships and memories. Another tour can’t come soon enough.
We had time to explore Poland: I particularly enjoyed my visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, with its famous underground cathedral carved entirely out of salt, as well as Krakow’s traditional (and slightly less
I return to Downing as President of my college music society, and have just joined the committee for the annual Cambridge Female Composers Festival as Fundraising Officer.
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The Trust relies entirely on public support. Apart from money, we welcome the donation of professional quality instruments, whether as a gift or as a loan, but ask donors to be aware that we can only accept instruments that are in top playing condition. We are incredibly grateful to Linda Laugher & Tony Fry of PBF Partners of Helston for our audit accounts available on the website - to Harry Sutherland-Hawes for our brilliant design; and to Eckhard Kropfreiter for maintenance and advice on our string collection. We warmly welcome Rosalind Russell’s improvements to our online presence and marketing. We acknowledge recent donations from our super-patron Tim Smith, the late David Price, Dr Barbara Gompels, Sir Raymond & Lady Jack, Anne Allinson, Tess Blondel, Dick Budden, David Ganderton, and the Stephen Dodgson Charitable Trust. Cherubim Music Trust 125 Duck St, Tisbury SP3 6LJ, UK mms@cherubimtrust.org 01747 870070 http://cherubimtrust.org Donations: cafdonate.cafonline.org/6846