Categories
News

Lake District countdown 4: Sophie on Woolrich

Our leader, Sophie (pictured below) reflects on her encounters with the music of John Woolrich, whose A Bagatelle is part of our upcoming concert as part of the Lake District Summer Music festival on Saturday.

I first met John Woolrich whilst playing with the Scottish Ensemble on a tour of Scotland in 2011, where we gave several performances of John’s much-loved Ulysses Awakes for solo viola as well as his witty Capriccio for solo violin. This was actually my first encounter with his music and I remember being struck at how creatively he wrote for the ensemble and I loved the way he was able to really capture raw emotion in a very direct way. Since then, I had always been really keen to try to commission him to write something for us, and the chance came last year when we were looking for a new piece to programme as part of our 10th Birthday season. John kindly agreed to write for us, and we’re thrilled to have been able to add such an arresting and powerful piece to our repertoire. We gave many performances of A Bagatelle during our the 2018 season, including at London’s Purcell Room as part of our 10th Birthday celebrations, and we are very much looking forward to playing it again in Ambleside on 9th August!

Photo: @peanutbuttervibesphotography