Lots of music learning going on round here at the moment. Besides spending Sunday workshopping the Rite of Spring (because, you know, now I can say I’ve played it. If I’d been able to say that a month earlier I might have got that nicely-paid job playing it for an orchestra outreach event … ) and the Mahler performed the day before. To give you a flavour, this is what’s currently haunting the music stand:

• Bach cello suite number 3 (C major) – on viola, of course; it’s a complicated narrative but this is tied up with classical career progression.
• Viola pad for a themed string quartet gig (more function- than recital-style) on Halloween at Abney Park Cemetery with The Winter Quartet

Waiting to be printed:

• Violin parts for October’s Baroque consort album recording with La Folie (real work on these is also waiting on me picking up my hire Baroque violin from Bridgewood & Neitzert!)

In the post (at least I hope it is by now):

• One of the violin parts to West Side Story, for a week’s run in the middle of this month with Mayhem Theatre Company

Meanwhile looking beyond written parts, The Filthy Spectacula refresh our memories after an end-of-summer breather, to play a private party next week, followed by public London gigs in November, January and February and looking more closely at the long-hypothetical second album. Elaine is Down Under all this month, but Kindred Spirit have not one, not two, but three November gig dates to make up for it.

And I’m booked for a funding pitch in November (mostly my own transcriptions so I’d better learn the parts thoroughly!), a chamber orchestra new music recording session in early December, and so it goes on. No one ever stopped learning and remained active as a musician, right?