Young Grittleton: Jenny aged 12

Thank you to Thomastik-Infeld Vienna for allowing me the opportunity to attend the Young Grittleton course this year. During my time on the course, I sight-read a lot of different chamber music, such as the Brahms Sextet in Bb and the Borodin Quartet in D Major, and spent half the week preparing the Schubert Quintet in C with four other excellent musicians, for performance at the concert at the end of the week. Throughout the week, we also played a variety of different orchestral pieces, some written especially for the course. These were interesting to play alongside working on the chamber music. We also had the chance to play with some of the seniors on the Grittleton course- this was fun as we were able to pick up a lot from how they played; for example, their techniques as a chamber group and the way they all listened to each other to make sure that they were making a unified sound. Attending the senior concert was another highlight of the week. It was inspiring to watch them play and it helped me understand how I could play better with my chamber group in the quintet. The Schubert Quintet was quite a hard piece to put together well compared to other chamber music I have played before but it was worth it in the end as the result, which we performed in the concert, sounded incredible. I really enjoyed the week and would love to go again. Thank you Thomastik.

Jenny (12)