Phew!

It's been a huge month, fantastically exciting to be playing with Elvis again and with a lot of new material to explore, as well as revisiting the Juliet Letters 15 years on... Back to Glasgow three more times since the Shostakovich Cycle! With Elvis we returned to the venue which opened the first JL tour back in '93, the Royal Concert Hall, then back to the Academy for the In Memoriam concert with Joan Lluna and some teaching, then a fab outing with the Andalucian Dogs and the brilliant Dawn Upshaw at the extremely hip Indoor Fruit Market at City Halls. 

In the meantime the EC tour took us up and down the country, ending at one of our favourite haunts, St George's Bristol, where we played for over three hours, such is the wealth of this man's output and the ever increasing number of  arrangements it inspires in us.

The month ends with us learning works new to us - Verdi and Wolf - and a brand new commission from Isadora Zebeljan - all really exciting. 

In the meantime, Pip the duck is two months old and huge! She's dipping in and out of her paddling pool-pond as I write and tomorrow she goes to live at our local city farm, to my great relief. After an incredibly busy month of work, the kids having school exams too, she was just one push too far. By this time next week we'll be taking a six day holiday. Can't wait!

Go Glasgow!

We had such a great time in Glasgow. The two day marathon of all the Shostakovich quartets was a revelation to us as well as the audience, judging by their fantastic reception. I can never tire of this incredible music. What an amazing hall - City Hall - and a wonderful team behind the scenes, Colin and co.  

BTW, Pip (the adorable duck) hatched two days behind schedule and is a joy to have around.

Happy Easter! Jacky

What the duck!

Having a couple of days at home between Holland and a trip north to the old homestead, Middlesbrough, for a concert in Stockton. I'm desperately hoping the ducks hatch today or tomorrow or I'll miss the great event. (Our 10 year old is incubating them in her bedroom...)  Off to Sicily on Monday then the mammoth weekend of Shostakovich in Glasgow. Can't wait. 

Hey there!

Hi 'blog-readers',

My name is Holly Cassidy, I am the older daughter of Paul and Jacky.

The oldies have been in and out of this house like me loosing my temper with my younger sister Celia (which i might add is alot!). So they're back tonight only to head STRAIGHT back out the door tomorrow so i've got bored and decided to write to the blog as it's my first time and decided to give it a try. So last week i had three performances with the school production, Sweet Charity. on the wednesday, they were away, on the thursday, they came! on the friday they were away in... somewhere... saturday and sunday they were in, like, Italy or something and the came back on sunday evening then went again monday morning then came back tonight (tuesday) then tomorrow they're away AGAIN till thursday! We've been left with our schools and granny. Gosh! Anyway, to be fare on them, this is a one-off thing... and they've been warning us about this 'busy month' for ages! Last year, we all went to Australia!! It was soo fun! We met loads of relatives we hadn't even heard of, Celia got bitten by a Koala (and sucked by a leach...arrgggh), and sun burned...ouchy. But it was soo much fu!!! We went to this dolphin wild life resort place called Tangalooma... omg, if you ever go to Ozzy, GO THERE!!!! Well, i'm going to go and say good bye to my parents yet again till thursday... : ) Holly x

 What an amazing week we're having. Every day sees us on another flight to another city with another programme, rock'n roll! Last night was the last concert of our Shost Cycle in Bologna. Daniel was a star.... that being his first S/C. Thankfully we've got a few more coming up in the next couple of years so all that work won't be for nothing. From now on though we're doing them in two days instead of over 6 months !!!! 

Glasgow's become a bit of a second home at the moment; The Wee Curry House and Sarti's are keeping us going post gig/teaching. Missed the League Cup Final on Sunday but managed to get on the earlier flight home to see the kids despite the best efforts of a couple of BA jobsworths. SO annoying !!!! Jacky, Ian and I were all at the gate ready to go but.... long story; only I got on. Mind you, missed Kirsty Young who was on the later flight. Was it worth it????

Tomorrow night's Brit 1/ 132 in Madrid which would be great but for the dreaded mike ! 132 on 'live' radio is not my idea of fun. Last Wed we had dinner in a restaurant frequented by the Real players..... it was very quiet for some reason ! Next problem, can we finish next Wed's gig in time for me to get to a screen for Man U v Inter (the return ) ?              PAUL.

Imagine this; you're halfway down the last page of Op.59/1 and your 1st violin breaks his/her E string !! aaargh....... what to do. Bit like getting to within an inch of the summit of Everest and being told there's a slightly bigger one just down the road.

Anyway, Daniel was mercifully quick.   Nice Nepalese meal afterwards during which Celia (our youngest) was discussing the Yeti with the waiters.

Got home and watched Match of the Day..... MU 2 Blackb 1  hmmm, nice. (should have been 3)

Not such a bad evening after all. !!!!  p.

just back from Bologna (hence the script colour!!). It's not exactly the Bolognese Red but hey.

Got to stop coming into Gatwick........ nightmare for us North Londoners; especially when Victoria's closed, as it was today. 

No matter how many times I go to Bologna it never fails to take my breath away. It just looked so beautiful late last night in the moonlight..... too much Limoncello I hear you say.... quite possibly !

Nearly there now with the Shostakovich Cycle; only one to go.Always  gets seriously exciting at this stage but particularly in that incredible venue, with that heartwarming audience and those very special promoters; our old friends Bruno and co. at Musica Insieme. March 2nd will be party-time.         Paul