Tyburns On Tour

Wow what an experience! We have recently returned to London from a four day tour of Dorset and its surrounding area. The tour was organised by Artsreach along with Jill White and Lady Dione Digby and saw us giving workshops in primary schools, performances in day centres and hospices alongside formal evening recitals.

We visited schools in Child Okeford, Evershot and Broadmayne where we were able to provide the children with interactive sessions which included an insight into the art of a string quartet, a selection of educational games and songs and finally a ‘mini-concert’ showing the wide variety of repertoire a string quartet can cover. These sessions were a huge success – education is an area that all of us are extremely interested in and it was an absolute pleasure to share our knowledge and experiences with young children. We had very positive feedback from all of the Head teachers and staff from the schools and hopefully we inspired some future string players!

During the mornings of our tour we gave some informal and intimate concerts in Stour View Day Centre, Dorchester Hospice and the Dorset County Hospital. All three of these performances proved to be highly emotional but rewarding. Our programme included a chronological journey of music from Bach and Handel through to some Cole Porter and even a song by The Beatles! We had an overwhelming response from all three visits, especially from the Day Centre; it was a brilliant feeling to know that we had brightened everyone’s day. Finally, our performance in the Hospital was aired live on Ridgeway Radio for everyone to hear and the performance and interview will be stored in the Radio archives for future programmes.

We gave evening recitals in Nethercompton, Melbury Osmond, Alton Pancras and West Knighton where our programme was Mozart String Quartet K575, Elegy by Elliott Carter and Schubert ‘Death and the Maiden’. Unfortunately, during our first concert Sophie our viola player was taken ill with a post viral cough and so returned home for complete rest so she could recover. Fortunately, Liam Buckley was able to play for us instead for the final two concerts. He did a brilliant job and we were so lucky he was able to come at such short notice. All of our recitals were well attended and it was lovely to play to appreciative audiences at all venues.

Overall, our four days in Dorset were absolutely brilliant. It was so refreshing to give such a variety of performances to some truly amazing people. We felt proud and privileged to have had this opportunity and it has given us an insight into the type of careers we would like to have in the future and the determination to continue on this path.