On Thursday night, a group of 10 players from String section (including the Manor House String Quartet at the core) were booked to perform as part of a very special concert, held by the charity Soundaround who produce audio magazines for sight impaired people.

The music was conducted by the contemporary English composer Philip G. W. Henderson who we worked with last year recording ‘Magic Wood’ – a suite of atmospheric music for string ensemble.

The evening was formatted with pieces of music interspersed with interviews of the composer and performers who included Steve Hackett on guitar, singers Neil Latchman and Pia Sukanya and pianist Dhevdhas Nair.

Our performers included myself (Vaughan Jones) on violin, along with Louise Bevan, Gabrielle Painter, Judith Templeman and Ruth Funnell. The violas were played by Adrian Smith and Reiad Chibah, with Julia Graham and Emma Black on ‘Cellos. We were joined by double bassist Ben Russell who was great to work with.

As we had already rehearsed the quartet parts previously, the day was mainly focused on the works written for 10 piece string ensemble (the majority of the programme). The performances were a success with the group sounding very strong and every player having some intricate solos which emerged from the textures at various points.

We very much look forward to working with Philip again in the future!