A Week of Ups, Downs, and Ups

After 15 months of working from home, during which time I could more-or-less count on one hand the number of times I had ventured further from my home than a comfortable walk or cycle, I found myself in an exciting yet somewhat tentative position: about to travel the entire length of the British Isles to Orkney, where I would spend a couple of days before returning to the South and curving immediately West to Gloucester for a bonus night away from home.

What awaited me in these locations?

In Orkney, the promise of seeing friends old and new, brought together by the unstoppable Katherine Wren to do on-site filming for the Nordic Viola concert Sagas and Seascapes, premiered at the Orkney International Science Festival in September 2021.

And in Gloucester, two world premieres of my new pieces - originally scheduled for 2020 - in Cheltenham Music Festival’s Classical Mixtape concert in Gloucester Cathedral.

Just one of many beautiful train window-enclosed views between Inverness and Thurso

My journey started on Wednesday 30th June, in the evening. After an early-for-us dinner, I gathered my things - still gently fretting I had forgotten something obvious - and set off for Euston, where I would catch the Caledonian Sleeper to Inverness. Despite the prospect of getting to enjoy several nights in other beds, and to spend hours watching out of train windows for the first time in over a year with all the mind-wandering possibilities that offered, I felt a small reluctance to go. My world had shrunk to a small collection of rooms and local spaces over the previous year. The effort of withdrawing from those ties was greater than I’d realised.

Once underway, though, I was able to settle back into the old routines of travel: keeping track of times and tickets, opening and re-zipping bags, checking and double-checking my belongings. A room-service cup of tea in my sleeper train cabin brought so much novelty that the excitement really began to kick in.

The next morning, I was in sunny Inverness with plenty of time to treat myself to a haggis roll before my next connection (there was to be no rushing or any time stress, I had decided when booking). The four-hour long Scotrail journey up to Thurso was lovely: the train was quiet, and bit by bit we rolled further and further northwards. My books and magazines sat mostly unread in my bags; the passing scenery was captivating and restful in its own right, especially for my screen-drained mind.

Orkney looms on the horizon from Thurso beach

From Thurso, to Scrabster ferry terminal, to Stromness. By now it was Thursday evening and the sun was sinking after a gorgeously sunny day (a good omen for the following days). I hadn’t taken this route to Orkney on my previous trip, and the views of the island of Hoy were phenomenal. The Old Man of Hoy showed us more and more character with each angle change as the ferry sailed past, but equally the lines in the cliffs behind invoked some prehistoric magic.

Once arrived, and after a generous lift over to Kirkwall from Katherine and David, we were straight to work the next morning, filming on-site at the Stones of Stenness, Maeshowe, and the Ring of Brodgar - just a few of Orkney’s many ancient sites, and some of the biggest inspirations behind my piece Elsewhen, although that was written before I’d visited Orkney in person. (You can read more of the detail about the filming project on Katherine’s Nordic Viola blog.) It was amazing to be back at these iconic sites after four years, in such a changed world. The solidity and continuity of the stones really was quite cathartic to experience. The mystery and wonder of the ancient stone circles and sites were still strong, but with an added layer of familiarity now on my second visit, like seeing old friends. I loved spending a bit more time at the sites on this visit, wandering slowly around and just taking them all in. Their atmosphere in the bright sunshine of Friday was quite a contrast to the views we had of them on Thursday night, where the gentle evening light breaking through the clouds had magically backlit the stones, with their striking vertical angles casting dark outlines against the pale sky and water beyond.

Spending time with the others (socially distanced and outside, of course), talking about our inspirations, music, art, and thoughts was very enjoyable, and I was pleased to find I was more-or-less able to maintain intelligent conversation with them despite the lack of practice for months and months. Nothing social can be taken for granted these days, it seems. Nor can weather forecasts - I strongly regretted my omission of sun tan lotion, and my forehead and nose quickly let me know their displeasure. We were so lucky to have Gemma McGregor, a composer and Orkney resident who shares her extensive knowledge so readily and beautifully, with us. I learned plenty of new things from our discussions! And they prompted fresh thoughts and questions about the people who had lived there so long ago, and invested so much in building homes, cairns, and stone circles.

On Friday evening, we were treated to a live music concert by Katherine and Gemma McGregor back over in Stromness. It was a lovely programme, full of evocative pieces, both for each player as a soloist and duos with them both. The encore was highly-desired and most welcome! The eagerness of everyone both to experience and commend the return of live music was incredibly touching. It was also simply lovely to be there, with others, and able to discuss both the concert and whatever happened to come up on the journey back to Kirkwall. Spontaneous discussions are rare in calendars full of video meetings and screen-based messages.

The view from St Magnus Church, Birsay, out over the sea towards the island

Saturday morning saw us bright and early heading over to the west part of the mainland, first to the Broch of Gurness and then to Birsay. As the hotel-gang approached, we saw that Katherine had somehow found a cat on this isolated beach. The cat became an unexpected but very welcome feature of our time there, and its ability to detect the rustle of a plastic bag was impeccable. Orla treated us to some glimpses into her artwork as she sketched, which brought a whole new element of living creativity to the visit. We spoke about St Magnus and Aud, and their journeys between islands and beyond Orkney. A short trip up to the Broch revealed it to be an absolutely amazing site, incredibly well-preserved and detailed. Again, the ability to see incomplete but recognisable places where people lived and worked just captured my attention. How did they live? What did they think? What human stories and dramas occurred amongst these stones? The gaps and walkways all clearly human-sized - evidence of our commonality.

At Birsay, we arrived at low-tide thanks to Craig’s good planning, allowing us to walk across to the island where St Magnus was educated as a child. The monastery was positioned almost scarily close to the cliff edge, but the views across to the mainland and out to the sea were beautiful. The sheets of rock that rose up out of the sea and sand were almost literally breath-taking: both Linda and I made gentle exclamations as we took in the scene. I loved seeing them, as the flat sheets of rock visible in each chunk so clearly seemed to me to have influenced the building approach of ancient peoples. The practicality of that - people finding a place, seeing its rocks, being inspired to utilise what they offered - makes so much sense. And thank goodness Orkney is plentiful in rocks rather than wood: the resulting dwellings and sites are that much more long-lasting for us to be captivated by today.

Some of the rock layers at Birsay

We were offered wonderful hospitality by Robin and Anne Barr in their beautiful garden, where we recuperated with snacks, pies from the nearby shop (delicious), and coffee before filming individual interviews in St Magnus Church. To avoid crowding each other, those not being interviewed spent time outside and we ended up on the beach side of the boundary wall, having a go at adding some representations of the view in Orla’s sketchpads. Always great to be reminded of the vision and skill required in another art form! Orla was very encouraging and had some excellent materials with her.

Finally, our time in Orkney together was rounded off with a delicious meal generously prepared for us by Gemma and her husband Dave, hosted in the garden of their house in Kirkwall. It was a simple but very heart-warming delight to spend time in friendly company, eating and drinking together, sharing stories and jokes. Gemma and Dave were incredibly thoughtful hosts and continued to be excellent story-tellers.

Sunday 4th July brought homeward-bound journeys for most of us. Linda and I made our leisurely way to the airport to get the plane to Glasgow. We couldn’t have picked our filming days better, as by the time our bus arrived (exactly on time) it was raining. The rain continued in Glasgow, although thankfully not continuously and I was luckily able to avoid the worst of the showers for the rest of the day. For safety, I had booked myself onto the sleeper train back down to London, as the last non-sleeper train of the day was around 5.30pm and it wouldn’t have required much of a plane delay to have missed that. Such as it was, I was in Glasgow centre not long after 3pm but as I reminded myself on the bus, this time was a little gift to myself. I did some meandering on my way to the Waterstone’s cafe, where I settled in for a bit with a tea and teacake whilst I caught up on some business.

Towards 6pm, I went for another wander down to the river and along to Glasgow Green, where my hopes for quickly finding a nice bench were curtailed by an enormous Euros-linked festival event that fenced off most of the western edge of the park. By the time I had found a bench and sat on it for a short while, it was raining again. No matter, I sheltered under some trees for as long as I could, before deciding to head back into the centre anyway in search of pre-train dinner.

It was while I was sat at my table (in Nando’s, because the mood had struck) that the situation changed somewhat. An email had come in from Camilla King, Head of Programming at Cheltenham Music Festival. The Choir of Merton College, Oxford - who were due to premiere my new work The Dusk of Thee the following evening in the Classical Mixtape concert in Gloucester Cathedral - had had some positive Covid test results, had to self-isolate immediately, and would therefore not be premiering my piece in 24 hours time. This was an unexpected development. The shock and sadness at the prospect of this piece - originally planned to be composed on an artist retreat at the Red House in April 2020 and premiered in July 2020, both of which were cancelled - having its premiere postponed the day before, quickly gave rise to the next snag, which was: my being scheduled to appear on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour on Monday morning to talk about the upcoming premieres that evening. In her email, Camilla had said she was seeking a replacement choir, and I had a fair hope that she would achieve this (as she is rather brilliant) but the pressure of learning a new piece for a world premiere is not insignificant, even if the piece was written with minimal rehearsal time in mind as mine had been, so I couldn’t quite see the situation being secure enough by 10am the next morning for me to say so live on air.

I called my partner, as he was meeting me at Paddington in the morning to come along to the concert. He agreed that we should still go no matter what - there was still my trumpet fanfare of course, but even if that weren’t also in the programme, everything was booked and the concert sounded brilliant and something we were both excited to experience. So, a little uncertain and somewhat downcast, I trundled to the sleeper train and tucked myself in for the night, wondering what the morning might bring.

It was a bright morning in London on Monday 5th July as I walked myself and my luggage over to Broadcasting House, slightly bamboozled by the traffic after several days in Orkney. I arrived very early, so sat down on the steps of All Soul’s. Ah! A missed call from Camilla! I called her back, and received the hoped-for-but-not-necessarily-expected good news: a replacement choir had agreed to step in, and were up for performing my piece! The Carice Singers were already part of Cheltenham Music Festival, and sounded amazing. I was very, very pleased, and Camilla sounded relieved. The related email threads bounced with happy inputs, and I was able to head into Broadcasting House in good spirits and with an amazing story to tell, thanks to the hard-work of Camilla and the generosity of The Carice Singers.

The Woman’s Hour production staff were all lovely, including Emma Barnett of course, and the interview went well. Afterwards, I zipped to the Underground to try to catch the 11.28 train to Gloucester. I met my partner in a blur of escalators, ticket collection, and seat-finding, but once the train had pulled away we were able to take a breath and catch up. He had acquired a nice croissant for me, as requested, so I was content.

After all that, the rest of the day was comparatively calm. We got to Gloucester, checked into the hotel, popped into the cathedral to check the rehearsal schedule, had something to eat, then returned to hear Aaron rehearse the fanfare. It was so nice to be amongst the hubbub of concert preparations, with the Cheltenham team busy all around with chairs, carpets, and cables and performers arriving and warming up. I heard Aaron play through the fanfare, which was very exciting, and the last-minute support from Carleton on organ was great, a fitting alternative to the choral part I’d initially planned, and perhaps even preferable! (I decided immediately to update the score to include explicit reference to the part being choir or organ.)

Rehearsing The Dusk of Thee with The Carice Singers in Gloucester Cathedral, 5th July 2021

Suddenly, it was time to be back at the cathedral for the concert. It had been a long time since I’d attended a live concert that included a new piece of mine, and I was nervous, chattering away to my partner about this that and the other worries; he gently suggested I relax.

The lighting was beautiful - dark but with colourful up-lights on the pillars; carpets spread out across the floor; chairs lining the sides in small groups and non-uniform rows. Multiple stages were positioned at the ends and in the middle of the nave. The Cheltenham Festival team really had done a fantastic job of creating a warm, friendly, calm, beautiful space.

Mixtape concert lighting in Gloucester Cathedral

After a short address by Bishop Rachel on the importance of being able to meet others and share live music, that all-important music started, and flowed seamlessly through the well-curated programme. Our attention was tugged from this direction to that as the performers utilised the whole length of the cathedral. Then out of the midst of it all, my choral piece The Dusk of Thee emerged - very gently and tenderly performed by The Carice Singers, with no indication that it was never meant to be this way nor that this piece was so new to them. Their musicality shone and I found myself able simply to enjoy it. Well, with a few quibbles with myself about a few compositional points. Its place in the programme and the setting of the cathedral felt so right, and I relaxed into the remaining pieces, looking forward to how my fanfare Point of Pride later on would fare. Unsurprisingly, it was great - Aaron being such a brilliant and creative performer, and Carleton so generously jumping in on the organ and really lifting the last phrase with that powerful sound.

Having not been sure of how to accept the applause during the programme, I was pleasantly surprised to be invited up to the stage at the very end of the concert by George. So surprised in fact, that it took me a couple of bows to realise I was still wearing my face mask, rendering my being on stage somewhat less useful than intended. Still adjusting to the new normal, I suppose!

At least I’d put a bit of thought into which mask to wear, so it close-enough matched the dress…

After the concert, I was touched to receive some nice comments from audience members (one of whom was incredibly surprised when I told her the choir had stepped in that day!) and met up with Robin Sheffield from the Royal Philharmonic Society who provided the opportunity for the new commissions. Amidst the whirl of relief and happiness of a good concert and two premieres, I also spoke with Jon Jacob for the next part of his podcast, tracking the process of the new piece from the end of its first draft. What a joy to see people, in a place!

Finally, after a drink (in a pub! with Robin!) and some good conversation, a memorable night in the old New Inn with its talkative seagulls, and a pleasant breakfast on Gloucester high street, it was time to head back home to London. With one last surprise of ending up sat more-or-less next to Jon on the train home.

How lucky I was to experience such a whirlwind week. Thank you so much Katherine especially for everything you did to make the Orkney trip happen; to Craig for his huge effort in filming us on-site; to Linda, Orla, Gemma and Dave for being such great company; to Robin from RPS and Camilla from Cheltenham for keeping the whole project alive; to the Merton College Choir for taking on the new piece and preparing it, I so appreciate that and hope to hear you sing it too one day; to my partner Sam for rolling with it all and being there in Gloucester; and of course to The Carice Singers, Aaron Diaz, and Carleton Etherington for your amazing performances at the Mixtape concert.

Here’s to more music.