James’ Blog / Music / Friday 1st June
From December 2011 to May 2012 I was Music Assistant at Kettle’s Yard, working on the Thursday Chamber Subscription Series and the New Music Series. My job has been to make everything run smoothly on concert day, from setting up the room to making the programmes to getting in tea for the musicians, so I’ve definitely been kept busy! I’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible performers and hear some amazing performances. I’m writing this on my last day, and the last day of the subscription series for the year, so now is a good chance for me to look back on the concerts and on my time here and pick out a few highlights.
I knew the New Music concerts were going to be a lot of fun when they started with an irrepressible quartet of tuba players in costume and character – Youtuba put on a brilliantly entertaining show which was also musically dazzling.
Two weeks later and I was holding on for dear life page-turning a monster of a piece by Michel Finnissy for Mary Dullea, performing with top contemporary violinist Darragh Morgan, and soon after I was laughing along with the vocal acrobatics of Rebecca Askew and Melanie Pappenheim’s performance of Orlando Gough’s Flam.
On the chamber music side, personal highlights were hearing Ronald Brautigam perform a treat of a programme (all Beethoven – yes please), and the wonderful humour of singers Karen Cargill and Marcus Farnsworth. Marcus, who subbed in at eight hours’ notice (!), ended with one of the funniest encores I’ve ever heard!
We made a particularly big effort in promoting the visit of top contemporary string group The Smith Quartet, and it was great to see the place filled to the rafters for their performance of George Crumb’s dark masterpiece Black Angels. A week on and we had a van load of percussion (everything including the kitchen sink) for the fabulously fun ensemblebash, but perhaps the highlight was working with John Paul Jones, the bassist with Led Zeppelin. I never thought I would be doing sound for someone of that stature but working here has been full of surprises!
Throughout it all I have had the pleasure of working with some fantastic people. Kettle’s Yard is very fortunate to have such a large community of friendly, interested and loyal concert-goers, and we’ve also been delighted to see our New Music concerts drawing in people who’ve never visited before. The staff and volunteers work really hard to make things happen here and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of things here, even if I’ve been pretty tired at the end of some very long days!
I’d like to thank all the staff and volunteers I’ve worked with but especially Ruth for being totally dependable and generous with her time and Lara for somehow managing to juggle about three jobs and still come out smiling.
I’m delighted to be moving on to a role with the Creative Learning department of the Britten Sinfonia, and I have no doubt I’ll be coming back to Kettle’s Yard soon, but maybe next time as an audience member!
