National Strings: Kayla aged 15

I had a fantastic four days on National Strings this summer and I am most grateful to Thomastik-Infeld Vienna and JDCMF for helping me to take part in this course.

I played in 3 chamber groups; I played 1st violin in the 1st movement of the Mendelssohn Octet, which is one of my all-time favourite pieces, and it’s amazing that I could finally get to play it. My second piece was Haydn’s G Major quartet. I hadn’t played much Haydn before the course, so I think it was good to learn about his sophisticated style. As my third piece, I had the brilliant opportunity of playing the viola in Mendelssohn’s 2nd quintet. This was quite enjoyable. As a second study, I don’t get many chances to play viola in high standard chamber groups. So this was definitely a challenge for me. With the help of William Bruce and Simon Smith as my tutors for this ensemble, they helped me through this challenge and the performance was a great success in the concert.

In my Haydn quartet we experimented with ways to play precisely with each other. We tried watching each other’s bows, and tried moving in the same directions. We also tried starting the piece with our eyes closed, which seemed impossible, but we did manage to get it spot on a few times. I think this helped a lot with teamwork and I feel you play a lot better when there is a good connection with the group. It is quite vital in all aspects of music to be able to collaborate well in chamber music just as much as solo performances with a pianist or orchestra.

I also had the opportunity to play Arnold’s concerto for two violins with orchestra, which was an amazing experience.

During the four days I worked with one of the tutors on my technique and posture as I used to get quite a lot of aches and pains in my back and shoulders. This has really helped me a lot as I feel quite comfortable when I've been playing in ensembles recently.

I am very grateful to Thomastik-Infeld for their support and to JDCMF for awarding me this sponsored bursary.

Kayla (15)