The climax of six weeks of scraping and blasting came yesterday, with a grand concert in Cambridge Corn Exchange to celebrate the success of the Grade-One-A-Thon raising money for the Spinal Injuries Association. A large and motley orchestra of well over a hundred players filled the stage, and played to a huge audience. Everyone, it turned out, had passed their grade 1 exams, most with distinctions. More importantly, vast amounts of money had been raised for this fantastic cause – in the end, a grand total of £60,000.
There’s a short feature about it all on BBC Look East – the music being played throughout the clip is my piece. You can also hear about it on Radio 5 live (Christian O’Connell) if you fast-forward to 47 mins in.
It was a lot of fun. Chris Lawrence did some excellent stand-up, and Russell Keable took the orchestra through its paces, which included new pieces by Simon Brown and me, both of which sounded surprisingly acceptable! Guy Llewellyn and Maurice Hodges gave an excellent rendition of Mozart’s Rondo (from the 4th horn concerto), taking turns at horn and piano. There were many strange squeaks and thumps, and much laughter. All credit to those who worked very hard to make this happen so wonderfully.
Jeremy Thurlow - composer 