by Fraser Gordon (Principal Contrabassoon)
It’s quite tricky to not feel smug about a flight to Florida on a cold January day, something we at the RPO are lucky to experience every couple of years. But how to pack for a three week trip which starts with warm weather (Florida), goes cold for a few days (New York), then gets even colder (Indiana), and ends up warm again (California)?
by Matthew Knight (sub-principal trombone)
As the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra spends a sunny bank holiday weekend stuck inside, recording in the artificial light of the famous Abbey Road studio 1, it seems a good time to reflect on the strangeness of a musician’s life. No nine-to-five, or Monday-to-Friday for us, no fixed place of work, in fact no ‘normal’ at all. Life in one of world’s busiest and most musically-diverse orchestras is different every single day. It takes us from the recording studios and concert halls of our London home, to the far-flung regions of the UK and the most prestigious venues around the world, as we perform for over 300,000 people every year.
The RPO and Cambridge Live recently teamed up with The Phoenix Centre – a specialised eating disorder unit for young people aged 12-18 based at the Ida Darwin Hospital in Cambridge to deliver a creative music-making project. Since February a team of RPO musicians and workshop leader Sigrún Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths have been visiting the centre to work with young people currently receiving treatment. The project aimed to improve mental health, encourage self-exploration and boost confidence through creativity, and included elements of poetry and lyric writing, guided group improvisation and composition.
Since his critically acclaimed concerto debut at the age of ten, the award-winning English 'cellist Richard Harwood has performed concerti and chamber music in major venues including London's Royal Albert Hall, all of the South Bank Centre venues, Wigmore Hall, Musikverein (Vienna), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Thomaskirche (Leipzig), Auditorium du Louvre (Paris) and Alice Tully Hall / Lincoln Center (New York).
