Last weekend, Britten Sinfonia Academy performed as part of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Sunday concert series. Britten Sinfonia Academy is a new ensemble giving young classical
musicians from the East of England an opportunity learn and develop their
chamber skills alongside some of the UKs top chamber musicians. In addition to performing at the Fitzwilliam, the ensemble were
resident in the museum for the weekend, giving more time for the young
musicians to explore the museum and to explore the context and relevance of its
artifacts to their music.
Britten Sinfonia Academy member, Andrew reports on the
weekend:
"Last weekend Britten Sinfonia Academy made their way
to the Fitzwilliam Museum for rehearsals, which culminated in a concert on
Sunday afternoon. On arrival on Saturday morning, we started to rehearse some
small ensemble work in the grand spaces available to us in the museum. We ran
through and refined previously rehearsed works during the morning, and progress
was greatly enhanced by the discovery of the kettle midway through the morning!
We worked especially on Stravinsky’s Suites
for Small Orchestra throughout the day, for which we came together as a
large ensemble.
In the afternoon we were guided on two tours around
the museum, in which we studied paintings from the time of the composers of our
works, to give us context on the music that we were preparing to perform. I
think everyone found that this helped us to find character in our pieces, and I
was surprised at how much that I learnt on these tours.
After battling through hoards of keen participants in
the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday morning, rehearsals commenced with final
tweaks being added to our performances. We made the long trek upstairs to the gallery
where we were to perform with our instruments in the early afternoon, after
eating far too much cake in our break beforehand! The hall was full for our
performance, with spectators even gathering at the back of the hall to get a
glimpse of the chamber music that we were presenting. Everyone really enjoyed
performing in the concert, and felt that all of the pieces ran smoothly. The
concert ended with an arrangement of Piazzolla’s Oblivion, which was rehearsed and performed solely by members of
the Academy."
To find out more about Britten Sinfonia Academy click here
To find out more about Britten Sinfonia Academy click here
