Paris in the Spring

Earlier in March Britten Sinfonia musicians travelled to Paris for a performance as part of the At Lunch series. The concert took place at Musée d'Orsay and featured Schubert's Trout Quintet alongside a new work by Simon Holt entitled everything turns away. The performance was recorded and subsequently broadcast by Radio France. Below are some photos from the trip

The Musée d'Orsay

In rehearsal at the Musée d'Orsay

Jackie Shave (violin) & Martin Outram (viola)

Simon Holt (composer), James Calver (Concerts Assistant), Martin Outram (Viola) and Roger Linley (double bass) at dinner in a posh Parisian restaurant the night before the concert

Jackie enjoying a glass of wine in the restaurant

You can read the reivews from the tour here.

Jackie on Sabbatical

Britten Sinfonia's leader Jacquelne Shave is now on sabbatical for the next year. She has lots of exciting things planned including spending time at her house on the Scottish Isle of Harris working on Beethoven Quartets and other chamber music plus spending time on her boat and travelling across the Atlantic. To keep up with what she's up to Jackie now has her own blog and you can see her first post here

Our fabulous co-leader Tom Gould will be taking over from Jackie whilst she's away and his first project with the orchestra is Angela Hewitt directs. We'll all miss Jackie over the next year but wish her lots of fun and happy adventures during her sabbatical and look forward to welcoming her back to the leader chair in May 2012.