Kathy Holmes, violinist and Leader.
I used to ride on the back of a motorbike to the Guildhall School of Music. What a way to travel, weaving in and out of the London traffic with my two hundred year old violin wedged between my foot and elbow.
Three years of intensive study with Joan Spencer and the formidable Max Rostal, pupil of Carl Flesch, ensured that I was more or less ready for anything on the violin. However I declined a further scholarship year and set off in another direction, for I had been playing, competing and taking music exams since the age of four and was ready for a change.
So I found myself working in Whitehall as an executive in the Navy Department. This rapidly broadened my experience of the world, and it was here that I met my husband, Adrian. When our two children were very young I was persuaded to start instrumental teaching - something I had said I would never do, having deliberately chosen a course in violin performance rather than teaching, to avoid any such possibility.
Since then I have enjoyed tutoring, accompanying, playing orchestral, chamber and folk music as well as giving solo performances.
The violin is a constant source of amazement to me and I feel privileged that four successive generations of my family have been inspired to play this extraordinary instrument. I am also proud to say that research has shown that the line of my violin teachers stretches all the way back to Vivaldi.
Dorothy Wilson, viola player
My earliest musical recollection was of my Dad and his Father playing violin duets and violin and piano duets when we visited my grandparents in Co. Durham. My maternal grandparents met when they both sang in a “concert party” during the First World War and my Great grandparents were band leaders and orchestral players. Later I appreciated sitting on the stairs, after I was supposed to be in bed, listening to my parents playing piano duets. A common interest in music brought them together as it did my husband Graham and me when we met at University - and we’ve been playing duets more or less ever since!
I started playing the piano and violin when I was about 9. I recall my frustration when I had to ride my bike to violin lessons with my fiddle and music bag around my neck – the frustration because my 3 years younger brother played the ‘cello and bassoon and somehow the car always came out to take him to lessons! He went on to become a bit of a star ‘cellist and I swapped the violin for the viola when we moved to Worcestershire, 25 years ago now, and I fancied a change. So viola is my instrument now though I do also sing a lot, sometimes as a soloist with Volante Strings, which is both a huge pleasure and a bit of a responsibility. Graham often writes and arranges songs for me to sing with Volante and I’ve done a few arrangements myself too.
Our daughters are also musicians, all three playing violin, piano and singing, and each another orchestral instrument – viola, flute and oboe. We hope the music bug will carry on to successive generations.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 01 November 2011 16:22
