A Britcellist's World

January 1, 2023 - I couldn't stay awake long enough to see the fireworks, but I'm sure they were exciting going around the world, from Sidney's bridge to Paris, London Eye, New York, Los Angeles and many more.  We all had a good sleep afterwards as the family had to drive back to New Jersey, (good weather, fortunately). Late in the morning, we couldn't resist having brunch at our  favorite restaurant in Durham, - Elmo's.  A good start for the trip. Sad to see them off, it had been a lovely visit, despite being it was a short one, as the weather had been so bad up north the week before Christmas, they were not able to drive until Christmas Day :(   Two days to catch up and tidying up, then back to teaching at Trinity School and the Chapel Hill Music School, followed that night by a very enjoyable concert by a string quartet from musicians from the North Carolina Symphony at  Carol Woods. The performance started with the violist playing the solo Bach Suite n...

December came along fast, starting with enjoyable playing a morning of string quartets!  Dec. 3rd - Our walking group chose to walk indoors as raining was coming down quite ferociously. Instead we went in to the Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill's oldest hotel.  Every December, elaborate decorations are festively adorned all over the inn, in the lobby and in the many  festivities in the ballrooms. For children - meet Santa Claus and Brunch with Santa. We followed around the arrangements of the 12 Days of Christmas where each  set up.  Here are a couple.        After that, we walked quickly in the rain to the UNC Ackland Art Museum, where the transformative gift of over 130 drawings by the late Drs Sheldon and Leena Peck. The Collection: Drawn to Life:Master Drawings from the Age of Rembrandt - features over 70 Dutch and Flemish drawings from the 17th century, including a number of drawings by Rembrandt van Rijn. The drawings are sensitive to light, s...

I'm sorry that the November blog has sent out so late. It was a month of quite a number of events - keeping up with teaching at schools, private students,  doctors and surgery, but none better than a new baby girl in our family! Keep scrolling down and you'll get all the info! It was a musical month, rehearsing a tricky program for the Chapel Hill Philharmonia -  Fanny Mendelssohn's Overture, the Conga del Fuego Nuevo by Arturo Marquez, jazzy and traditional, ending up with Sibelius #1. We have a week left to keep at it, for when we perform on December 11.  Duke University has great chamber music series throughout the academic year and with a friend, we went to hear the Danish String Quartet who are travelling around the USA. It was my type of program - Mozart, Britten and Schubert.  Beautiful playing and sounds that blended from the instruments. Can't beat that group! No squeaks or cacophony!   After that weekend, on Monday, November 7th, I was elected to ...

Going into October was dreadful with Hurricane Ian destroying Florida and further north. It will take years to rebuild so many areas.  Chapel Hill and most of the area around the middle of North Carolina were spared. Getting back to normality at home was not easy - leaving England, getting back to both schools, making up lessons that had been missed. Not many students understood why I went away for a week. The younger ones of course, didn't know about the Queen of England. I wrote a separate blog of the Queen's Funeral, if anyone not on the list of the blog and wants to read it, email me and I will give you the address.   I was glad to have been in good shape for the 12 hours of walking at night and other times around London.  Our hike leader Rodney, knows most of the trails in Chapel Hill, Durham and further away, so we have plenty of trails to keep walking. At this time of the year, the trails in Fall show striking colors all through the woods. In the spring we loo...

My thoughts and sharing the experience of a unique event, never to be seen again.  Thursday, September 8th , the announcement was sent out that Queen Elizabeth  had passed away in her Balmoral home. It wasn't a great surprise as she had declined a lot since her husband, Prince Philip, passed away. It didn't take long for me to decide that I would go to London and pay my respects. 70 years ago, when I was living in Porthleven in Cornwall with my mother, and getting very excited to see the coronation of the Queen, and all children were being given a special mug, a gold-like miniature coach and a block of chocolate. Unfortunately when jumping with a friend, I fell off the couch and bit my tongue. I had to go to hospital and was given penicillin, which I am allergic to, so that was an extra 3 days of missing the excitement of the coronation and I didn't get the goodies.  Thursday, September 15th , After visiting my family cousins near Salisbury, I went to stay with Louise, wh...