Priory Farm Music Camp: Olivia (12)

Dear JDCMF,

I am just back from my PFMC+ course and had an amazing time! I played in a string orchestra, a string quartet and sang in a group ensemble. In my string quartet I played Hungarian Dance no.5 by Brahms. I found this piece fun to play but it had some challenging passages. I played the 2^nd violin part, which consisted of off-beat rhythms and hard semiquavers. To help the piece come together we were encouraged to clap the rhythms before playing. We also worked on our posture and one of the main pieces of advice from the tutor was to make sure our sitting bones were comfortable. Ceri (our chamber coach) worked on the dynamics and showed us how to tilt the bow to change the volume and colour of the sound. She also talked about the importance of always having both feet on the ground. In the string orchestra we played The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams and Divertimento for Strings by Paul Martin. Before playing we used drumsticks on the back of our chairs to help us with the rhythms. I also had a solo in The Lark Ascending! In the singing I enjoyed using my voice to express myself and we focussed on vocal warm-ups. We learnt Wester Caputh by Brendan Taaffe and Royals by Lorde.

To sum it up, I had a really fun time, and I learnt a lot of new skills. I made lots of new friends and the teachers were really nice and informative. It really helped to fine tune my listening skills, awareness of others and finding different colours in the music using different techniques. Thank you to the Joan Dickson Chamber Music Fund for helping to make this possible for me. I had an amazing time and learnt so much over the four days.

Many thanks once again!

Olivia (age 12)