Ji and Yuka adventure part 3

here we are again in Scotland

Having had the first part of the tour last month, we were getting used to the long train ride to Edinburgh. When we arrived, we were welcomed by the wonderful Biggar Music Society.

For this tour, we prepared a different program of Beethoven 4th, Brahms 2nd, Webern four pieces and Elgar Sonata. These pieces were almost new to the audience, however it was received extremely well! Especially having an old Steinway piano, provided extra warmth in our sound - thank you Biggar for that piano!!

Next day, off to Melrose.
We were again welcomed warmly and thoroughly enjoyed performing there.
And our host family gave us Asian food after the concert.
There's nothing better than having our home food after a concert... :)

The final concert was at Kelso....but yuka had an extra fun in a nearby town called, Duns.
She gave a masterclass at high school. Two lovely girls played some Vivaldi and Debussy - followed by the school chamber orchestra playing the Piratte of Caribean! It was a great pleasure to work with such dedicated young ones, who truly enjoy music...

We were sad to finish our final concert...but the Kelso audience gave us much joy to perform.
The acoustic in the venue was marvellous!
Ji and I had some fun playing the organ (first time for Ji)... Gave us the inspiration to perform the Chaconne by Vitali...gorgeous music!

Just want to thank ALL who helped us get through the tour and Tunnell trust for giving us this exciting opportunity.
Hope to see you soon again, Scotland!!

Total Brass in Scotland!

It’s time for our second Tunnell Trust Tour to Scotland and after the success and fun we had on our last tour to the Hebrides in November, we expect to have an amazing time. The first day however is the trickiest with lots of super quick packing, sorting out the car including the jigsaw challenge to fit everything in the boot and then the 7 ½ hour drive up to Livingston where Ross’s wonderful parents are housing us for a number of nights. The drive was long but it was made much more enjoyable with the 2015 edition of the Total Brass Tunnell Trust Car Quiz! Rob was very happy to have won on this occasion. A fantastic meal courtesy of Valerie and Alan Learmonth was a perfect welcome to Scotland and we all retired for the evening (after a customary wee dram of Alan’s finest whiskey) really excited about the coming days.

Our first concert was in Glasgow at the Merchants’ Hall with Westbourne Music. A rather rainy morning didn’t dampen the mood as we travelled to the venue and we were welcomed into the hall with a fantastic high ceiling, intricate wood decoration and beautiful stained glass windows.  After a quick rehearsal and a spot of lunch (with an amazing chocolate brownie) we were ready to start the concert!

The hall was almost full and we received a marvellous welcome from the audience. It is sometimes tricky with a brass quintet as much of the music will be completely new to the listeners but everyone came with open ears and we hopefully provided a programme with something for everyone. We started with a typical brassy fanfare courtesy of Paul Dukas and then we weaved our way through a maze of French romantic music, a Bach fugue, some jazz, aboriginal style tuba beat boxing, brass band classics with time even to stop off at some classic pubs in Ewazen’s Colchester Fantasy! We chose to send people on their way with a calming and lush encore of the familiar Scottish tune Loch Lomond that upon its introduction (although apparently mispronounced by Rob) induced a pleasing and welcoming sigh of content from the audience.

The concert was extremely well received with everyone thanking us greatly at the end and wishing us luck for the rest of the tour. Massive thanks to Westbourne Music for a brilliant concert in Glasgow now it’s time to go off to Inverurie!

Ji and Yuka adventure part 2

Edinburgh! 

The concert was at a very intimate setting - Edinburgh Society of Musicians, where the place was full of paintings of musicians. 
We were playing the Brahms Sonata with Brahms and Joachim staring at us...! Pressure! 

The lovely atmosphere was created by the enthusiastic audience, and the interview after the concert made us feel at home. 

Next morning, we took a short train ride to Haddington. 
A pretty town hall was full house! Even one of the audience from the night before made a second visit - we felt privileged to have such a supporter. 

The moment I arrived at London - made me miss the fresh air in Scotland!! 

Bye bye Scotland for now... Until our second tour in March :) 

Ji and Yuka adventure part 1

February in Scotland. 

Tour began in Glasgow University 

The audience welcomed us warmly with the hall being full! 
Beautiful piano...and nice acoustic. 
For a surprise, we added the Fantasie by Messiaen in the programme last minute. 

Yuka's new CD, "Brahms, Faure and Grieg" made its first appearance on sale!! 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Yuka-Ishizuka-James-Baillieu/dp/B00TKVTH72/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1423924064&sr=8-1&keywords=Yuka+ishizuka



Then to Isle of Bute! 

We were fascinated by the name, Bute! But the fun of taking the ferry was even better. 
The concert was received with success and was great pleasure to perform for the people in Bute! 

Now...in Edinburgh. 
The city is so busy because of the Rugby match Wales vs Scotland... 
Excitement in the air of Edinburgh!

Lochaber Jolly Nice Time/Linlithgow-ing South/West Linton the way home

West Linton

Another pleasant surprise when we reached the venue – a perfectly set-up projector, screen and PA awaiting us. This was fortunate because the trusty Citroen had got stuck in the car park. Ian was eventually rescued by some kind locals, and we were able to set up and perform an emotional but very enjoyable final concert.

We would have been more nervous before we played had we known that the audience was made up of some kind of MENSA-on-steroids, consisting as it did of a dizzying collection of poets, musicians, artists, architects, professors and to top it off an expert in instrumental acoustics.. Fortunately we were ignorant of this until afterwards, but were then able to enjoy their fascinating company over dinner, and try out an amazing array of obscure wind instruments into the bargain. A highly memorable end to the tour.

So some final thanks: To all our hosts for their hospitality; to the many music societies for having us and battling through terrible weather to see us; and of course to the Tunnell Trust for their sponsorship which made the whole thing possible. See you again Scotland.

 

Linlithgow

 

Unfortunately, with it being day 6 of our tour, I have run out of new words to describe the Scottish countryside. So here are some photos instead.

In the course of our journey down to Linlithgow we also hit temperatures of -7, which caused the condensation on the inside of Sally and Ian's windows to freeze.

The return of 4G network to our phones signalled our departure from the Highlands, and arriving in Linlithgow we retired to a pub for a meal and a brief internet binge. We then made our way to our venue, the local academy, and made the delightful discovery that the hall had its own PA and projection facilities, as well as ex-BBC techie John to man it all, meaning we could leave most of our gear in the car and concentrate on the playing.

After a lovely veg-filled meal (much needed after our marvellous run of Highland cooked breakfasts) we really enjoyed playing to our largest audience yet. The evening finished with a drink and a chance to chat with the audience, including a number of Tunnell trustees (we were extra nice to the treasurer). It was then time to return with our kind hosts for the night Nora, John and Janet and get some sleep in preparation for the trip to West Linton, our final stop of the tour..

Lochaber

The weather on the morning of our trip to Fort William was somewhat changeable.

By the time John had returned from a fruitless amp search in nearby Kyle the snow had closed in, so we set off south at a tentative pace. Fortunately the trusty Picasso laughs in the face of snow and ice, and our only stop was to stretch our legs and set up a snowball ambush for Ian.

The Ben Nevis Hotel had one feature that particularly excited us after our snowy drive – a swimming pool complete with sauna, steam room and hot tub. An hour of pure bliss ensued, reclining in hot bubbles while watching the snow fall outside the window.

Fortunately John's magic amp had repaired itself on the journey, so we could proceed straight to the venue for a relaxing set up, and a picnic featuring Ian's trademark corned beef sandwiches.

 

Having managed to forget my black socks, I was forced to swap with John (he could hide them under his longjohns), which gave rise to the highly unusual sensation of putting on socks which are residually warm from another man's feet. John and I overcame our discomfort and we enjoyed another successful concert with a great audience, with the highlight for us being Ian mischievously stealing Sally's demonstration tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow without warning, forcing her to come up with another on the spot. Many thanks to Jim for his help at the venue, Clare for her administrative and organisational help, and Elaine for waiting patiently to lock up while we packed down our endless equipment after the concert.

We retired to the hotel for an epic game of hearts in which the inebriated did battle with the inexperienced, with the latter sadly losing out at the close. Our last night in the Highlands .

Lochan Load

It was a refreshingly short journey from Skye across to our next stop, Balmacara Mains Guesthouse. Even by the ridiculously high standard set previously on this tour, the view from outside our room was amazing. 

After a short wi-fi binge we adjourned to Beth's Cafe for some food, enjoying the unfortunate misuse of quotation marks in the cafe's request for donations for people in 'need'..

Upon reaching Dornie Hall, two things became clear: firstly, that the hall was superbly kitted out and featured a lighting rig, stage and sound system; and secondly, that John's trusty amp had tired of its bohemian existence and had packed up, resisting all his attempts to revive it and feebly flashing 'protect' in small font on the screen. It took an epic effort by John to rig his gear to the existing system but we managed to be ready on time, and once again thoroughly enjoyed the concert and the support of all who braved the weather to be there.

Unfortunately all this excitement had left us rather peckish, and we had forgotten that we couldn't rely on the London-style 24 hour takeaways to give us a post-concert meal. After some frenzied calculations and some sweet-talking on the phone from Ian, we dispatched the luckless John to the nearest Chinese takeaway with the vague direction of 'somewhere near a swimming pool'. Aided by divine guidance he returned some time later with a boot full of nutritious goodness, and we retired to the guesthouse to feast and enjoy a nightcap by the fire with the excellent Norman.

Many thanks to all at Balmacara for their hospitality, and to Melanie, Mary, Kate and Di at Lochan for their help and tireless promotion of the concert (and a retweet from Charles Kennedy!). We leave you en route to Fort William - more soon.

Skye-high

The early highlight of our drive to Skye was an extended encounter with the fabled Loch Ness, which was so stunning that our progress slowed to a crawl as we kept stopping for non-negotiable photo spots. 

John tried calling for Nessie but to no avail – fortunately technology filled the gap, with a stunning new image which will give heart to conspiracy theorists across the globe. 

We stopped in Kyle for fish and chips, while John made friends with the guys in the local hi-fi shop and we enjoyed spotting the classy posters up around town for our Dornie Hall concert. The drive across the Skye Bridge, accompanied by KSQ choir's predictable soundtrack, was the precursor to some of the most remarkable scenery yet, prompting further speculation about whether a freelance music career might somehow be sustained from a remote hut in the hills.

Our trusty satnav got highly confused about the location of our host Bill's house, but we finally tracked it down and were soon installed in front of a roaring fire with hot drinks, watching the downpour outside smugly. Sadly this could not continue for long as we had to get on to Portree and our venue for the evening, the beautiful St Columba's Church. Again we were thrilled with the turnout, as many braved the frankly horrible conditions to hear us – very much appreciated.

After packing down we were led back to Bill's, where we were treated to an incredible meal featuring homemade soup, home-grown vegetables and fish caught by the man himself. Wine, whiskey, memorable anecdotes and after-dinner games made us ready for bed.

Many thanks to Bill and Dierdre for their incredible hospitality, and to all the friendly islanders who made us feel welcome. Onwards to Dornie!