28th November 2009

It is Saturday afternoon and I am typing away at my hotel in Sligo, before going to do my evening concert here. The weather has turned very cold so I am glad to be snug in my room with the heating on full blast! This is the first afternoon I have had off since beginning my concerts - it has been such a whirlwind of activity that I’m looking forward to having a rest later so that I have plenty of energy for the evening performance.

I flew to Dublin on Monday evening and went immediately into an intensive schedule of pre-performance publicity arranged by Music Network, who have brought me over here. I was delighted that Pat Kenny was keen to have me on his radio show as he is so well respected and everyone in Ireland listens to him! So first thing on Tuesday morning, I went to the RTE studios and did my slot with him – he was completely charming and asked a really good range of questions, plus I played a couple of short pieces. All in all, the slot was nearly 20 minutes long which, for a current affairs programme, was amazingly generous! Then I went to a different studio to do an interview for Lyric FM. This was another excellent interview with John Kelly, who is very knowledgeable indeed and I thoroughly enjoyed talking to him. His opening words to me were “I wish you could play the Ligeti concerto for my listeners!!” ! So I knew that we would have plenty to talk about. Both interviews are on the website now, thanks to my fantastic webmaster. (on the download page - webmaster)

After my stint in the studio, I went back to my hotel and did some work to prepare for the concerts. I had a walk around the city centre and a bite of dinner before heading to bed, as I had another early start the next day. At 9am sharp, I was at the gates of Dublin castle, dressed in my long frock, ready for a photo shoot in the State apartments of the castle. It was wonderful to be there when all was completely quiet as we had been allowed special access before the crowds arrived. The photographer took photos of me in most of the rooms and I have taken some of my own snapshots which I will put up on the site when I am back home. My favourite is of me in the Throne Room! What an incredible place! The castle is where my penultimate concert will take place so I am very excited about that!

After the photo shoot, I checked out of the hotel and was collected by my driver, Peter, who has turned out to be brilliant company and just my sort of person – a real bon viveur with a great sense of humour and a love of spontaneity. He seems to be able to put his hand to most things, putting on festivals and giving workshops in schools teaching drumming and all sorts of other things. But he is also an artist and, having seen some of his amazing pictures on his iPhone, I have persuaded him to drive by the house where they are located tomorrow morning so that I can have a look at the real thing! Peter and I drove to Limerick which was a good three and a half hours in the Music Network van and, after checking into the hotel, we went to the venue which was called Belltable. The people at the venue had organized for me to hear two of the local violinists and give them a workshop, so I had an enjoyable time teaching them for an hour. They were both learning the Bach Gavotte en Rondeau, which is one of the pieces on the tour, so we all played it together! Then there was just time for a quick rest before going back to the venue for the concert. We had a completely full hall and sadly even had to turn some folks away, as there was an extra rush on tickets after the interview with Pat Kenny had been aired that afternoon. I loved the audience – they were so enthusiastic, and at one point when I asked if there were any questions, a lady piped up “We’re just so glad you’re here!”. At which another man rejoined with a passionate: “God Bless Pat Kenny!” !! At the end, I got an immediate standing ovation and had an opportunity to talk further to the audience as I signed autographs at the end.

After the concert, Peter suggested that we went to the pub next door as it was a famous place for “sessions”. I didn’t quite understand what he meant by that as, if you say the word “session” to a classical musician, they immediately think of microphones and recordings. However, over here, this is the word for an informal get-together of musicians, singing and playing guitars and any other instruments that happen to be in the pub. So we went in and the bar-lady’s eyes lit up when she saw my case, as she knew that I had been performing next door. The next thing I knew, a complimentary glass of wine was in front of me – but was immediately followed by a stern warning that a performance was expected!!! Despite the fact that I had been playing solidly for two hours, I realized that it would be churlish to refuse, so I got out my violin and played the fast and furious Telemann Allegro that is great fun and in some way reminds me of traditional folk fiddling. It went down a treat (except that I was told by the bar-lady that she would have preferred something a bit longer!), and then two guitarists started jamming together and singing, so I had an opportunity at last to relax and sip my wine.

The next day, we set off fairly early as we had another quite long drive to do to get to Cork in time for the masterclasses that I was giving at the School of Music. I had been in Cork this time last year and remembered how musical people are there so it was no surprise to see the School of Music’s breathtaking facilities and hear two excellent post-grad students playing Sibelius concerto and Brahms sonata in A major. I worked with them for an hour, had a quick lie-down in the hotel and returned to the venue where they have such a beautiful and quite large concert hall. The acoustics are perfect and I realized that there was no need for a microphone for my spoken introductions, even though the hall seats something in the region of 350 people. It was completely full for my concert and I was delighted to see such a wide range of ages in the venue – lots of children aged 8-10, plenty of students as well as the usual range of middle to older generation. I loved the atmosphere in the hall and thoroughly enjoyed playing the programme to this enthusiastic audience. When I offered people the opportunity to ask questions, the children were the first to put up their hands – and came out with some great questions! When one gentleman asked why it was that musicians don’t normally talk to their audiences, I explained that it is not always practical but that it is something that I love to do in recitals, as it creates such a sense of informality in concert. There were so many questions that it was hard to draw things to a close, as I felt I could have chatted to my audience all night – but I still had to play the Ysaye and so I introduced the piece before launching straight in. The response at the end was rapturous and so I played Danny Boy as an encore which elicited more cheers and foot stamping. At the end, I signed autographs and one student came up to me and told me that normally she couldn’t stand listening to Danny Boy, but that my arrangement of it for solo violin was so beautiful that she had completely changed her mind! I felt very pleased about that, as I spent quite a lot of time making the arrangement, so it’s nice to know that it is appreciated.

I met up with some friends of mine afterwards, one of whom was Keith who conducted my concert last year, and we had a lively drink in a pub for a while before I felt it was time to head back to the hotel. I’m glad I did because yesterday was quite a long day, with the drive to Portlaoise, a one-hour workshop with a group of young violinists and the full programme to play in the evening. Peter and I had a more gentle après-concert drink and sat in the hotel bar, eating a dreadful Chinese take-away (my stomach is still recovering, but sadly it was the only food available as everything shuts at 10 in Portlaoise) and watching the Late Late Toy Show on the bar TV. The glamour of life on the road!!!!

This morning we had another long drive to Sligo and I rested quite a bit during it. The weather has turned very cold and I am hoping that my audience will be warm, as I’m feeling quite tired today. But it’s an extraordinary thing how an enthusiastic crowd will instantly give the performer the lift they need – so, if anyone in Sligo is reading this and you are coming to my concert tonight, you know what to do!!!

More seriously, I am really enjoying this tour and am meeting some fabulous people and playing to such responsive audiences. There’s still more than a week to go so I will try to pen another letter in a few more days. But now it’s time to rest before the concert...

All the best to you all from Ireland


Tasmin