What’s the best thing about playing in an orchestra?
It’s just hearing all the different parts! You'll be sat there in the middle of the orchestra and hear the brass on one side with all their individual parts and the strings on the other. You’ll sit there knowing the music and thinking, ‘Oh, they’ve got a little twiddly bit coming up!’ and hear every individual person coming together into something big – it’s just really amazing to be a part of.
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I started off playing in smaller ensembles at school. It was very much the Wallace and Gromit theme tune, playing backing for carols at Christmas concerts – quite generic things, whereas at Orchestras for All we’ve played Jewish folk music, Romanian folk music and classical pieces like Swan Lake. We also performed pieces from operas and musical theatre pieces – which excited me a lot because I then went on to have to sing one of the pieces we’d played and I thought, ‘I know the tune to this, I’ve played it!’.
If you could give one piece of advice to other young people who are considering joining an orchestra, what would it be?
I think it would be: don't put yourself down. I know when it comes to my playing, sometimes I get quite nervous if I can just hear me. I’ll be there going, ‘Oh, I’m making all these mistakes! Oh, I can’t quite hit that note!’ – but in your collective part, chances are the person next to you might be able to do that bit, so you've got someone to cover you a bit.
There might be a part they’re struggling with that you’re really confident with. It’s all a bit of give and take, so even if you personally feel like you might not be good enough and you've got all these doubts in your head, I’d say just go for it! There’s no other way to really gain that confidence other than to just get out there and do everything!
