National Strings: Nellie aged 16

Dear ESTA

Thanks so much for helping me be able to take part in National Strings. Without your support it wouldn’t have been possible, and I’m really grateful for your help!

In lockdown, the best part of being a musician is taken away - to share music. It’s been difficult to keep up hard work without the reward of sharing the results with an audience, or playing with other passionate musicians.

National Strings was an amazing opportunity to play with others again, perform, and have face to face lessons. It really inspired me to keep going and boosted my confidence that the recent lack of performing hasn’t affected my ability to perform and enjoy it. I’ve learnt so much from the course, and I’m so happy I was able to go.

I played the Schubert string quintet (it was fantastic to play this giant of the repertoire for the first time with such amazing guidance) and the Glazunov string quintet. This was a great discovery, as I had not even heard it before! We had coaching sessions from William Bruce, the Head of Strings at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Junior Department; Martin Outram, professor of viola at the Royal Academy of Music; and Vanessa David, the course director. I learnt a lot about chamber music from them, about having a “sixth sense” and communicating with the other players as best I could despite having to social distance!

Many thanks to the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund.

Best wishes
Nellie  (16)