Icaria Duo Tour! March 2017

In March 2017, the Icaria Duo embarked on their Tunnell Trust tour of Scotland. Helena documented the trip, here's what they got up to!

Saturday 11th March 2017

The first step of the Icaria Duo tour was to get all members of the ensemble in one country! Catherine had to fly from Oslo where she has been studying for the past year and Helena travelled up from London to Manchester where we based ourselves for the weekend. We enjoyed a very happy Sunday rehearsing whilst enjoying a delicious chocolate cake that Catherine's mother had made.

(Little did we know how much cake would be consumed over the next few days on our tour!)

Monday 13th March

We began our drive up to Scotland, arriving first in Helensburgh, Helena's hometown. We had arranged to visit her old school, Lomond, for some workshops with T1 and T2 pupils the following day. Helena had come up with a composition activity where the children would create their own graphic scores. We started by performing one of our recital pieces, "Song of the Lark" to give them some composing inspiration before the children spilt into groups to assemble their ideas. Afterwards, we performed their creations and answered lots of questions. The children seemed particularly concerned with how Catherine managed to carry her harp around!

We left some complimentary tickets for any students who might be keen to come along to our Helensburgh concert on Saturday.

After saying our good byes and dropping into a few classrooms to see old teachers, it was home for a well earned lunch before an afternoon rehearsal.

Wednesday 15th March
We decided to travel to our first concert destination a day early so that we could visit the Starfish harp workshops in Fortwilliam.

Catherine wanted to try out some harps as she is considering purchasing one at some point in the future. It was fascinating to see how the harps took shape. They only had two men in the workshop and they told us that it takes six weeks to make a harp. The creation of each harp is produced by the same person from start to finish. It was very interesting to hear that when employing someone new, they look for experience in boat building rather than regular woodwork. They talked passionately about the process and working with the different woods. The craftsmanship was breathtaking.
After a quick lunch in a rather glamorous Morrisons supermarket cafe, we were on our way to Skye. 

Sadly we were not blessed with good weather so although the drive across was beautiful, it wasn't the clearest of days and, of course, it was raining! We entertained ourselves by listening to folk music as both of us love it! If only we had time to study and learn the techniques. Being classical musicians takes up all our time and energy as it is. Oh well, perhaps in another life...

We bumped into Eilean Donan Castle on the way which was a real thrill! After stopping for a short break to take some moody Instagram photos (see left), we completed the end of our journey arriving in Skye in time for tea. We were staying with our wonderful host, Angus, in the very north of the Island in Uig. We were given our own little chalet type accommodation next to his house. 
After tea (and cake) we were whisked up to the fairy glen for an enchanting walk. Featured in a number of famous films, it was, undeniably, a truly magical place especially with the mist that hung over the hills. Here's a picture of Helena taking a breather on the hike.




Then it was home for a quick practice and dinner. Angus took great care of us and we spent a lovely evening drinking wine and listening to folk music. The picture below is the view from our accommodation.

Our concert day in Skye began with rehearsals. We had a few corners we wanted to go over before our concert that evening. Catherine is currently studying in Oslo so any rehearsals over the past few months have been meticulously planned for when she has a few days in London. Helena also went to Oslo in February for a week of rehearsals where we were lucky enough to have some coaching from international harpist Isabelle Perrin. Our concert was at St Columba Church in Portree. Angus sent us off with a bag of fresh scones (see more cake!) and we had a successful rehearsal although the weather had taken a turn for the worse with hail and pouring rain. Luckily there was a fantastic turn out despite the weather and everyone seemed to really enjoy the concert.

It was very interesting to hear which pieces people liked in particular. "The Song of the Lark" by Charles Rochester Young was a real hit and one lady came up to us at the end to say that the music had taken her back to a visit to the Grand Canyon when she was younger.

Straight after the concert we returned to Angus's house where we met some of the audience members and enjoyed a delicious meal. We learned all about the Gaelic language as one of the guests was a teacher in the local primary school. Not only are lessons taught in Gaelic but some of the children speak Gaelic as their first language. Apparently, Gaelic has had a bit of a revival in recent years and more children are being taught the language across Scotland. 

Friday 17th March

We set off on our next leg of the journey to Newtonmore the next morning. Sadly the weather was atrocious, with pouring rain and very bad visibility. But that's Scotland for you! Here's a view from the car, it was still incredibly beautiful as you can see! 

One of the trickiest aspects of the tour was the sheer amount of driving. Catherine bravely drove the whole course being the only one who could actually drive and she did a fantastic job. It was pretty tough to immediately go into rehearsing mode after a four or five hour drive, especially for the driver. The trip to Newtonmore was particularly difficult, as the weather was very bad but also because it was quite a long journey with many narrow, twisting roads.(We were excited to pass by the castle from Monarch of the Glen as both of us loved watching the series when we were little, sadly I couldn't get a photo!)

We finally arrived at our destination and met Roy Alexander, the man who runs Newtonmore Music Club. He took us for a coffee and some cake to escape the rain before our rehearsal. After such a long drive we were glad of it! Our venue was a rather lovely church that had a fab acoustic and after a quick rehearsal we were ferried off for dinner before the concert. The audience was very warm and friendly and seemed to really enjoy the programme. Later on we retired to the BnB where we were staying. We were met by our hosts with wine and nibbles and had a wonderful time chatting to everyone late into the night.

Saturday 18th March

We began our final day of the tour with a proper Scottish breakfast of sausage, haggis, bacon, tomato and eggs! And then it was homeward bound to Helensburgh by which time the weather was beginning to improve. 

We stopped off at Loch Lomond so that Catherine could catch a glimpse of the magnificent Ben Lomond before we arrived back at Helena's home. 

After a delicious lunch, we took the opportunity to have a relax before our rehearsal.

We were performing at the Victoria Halls and were met by David Menzies who showed us around and made sure we had everything we needed. 

It was rather nostalgic for Helena to be performing here. Throughout her childhood she had taken part in ballet displays in the Halls as well as various other musical showcases.

We had a huge audience for the concert that evening. It was quite daunting as we walked on stage as we were so close to everyone and Helena could see many people that she knew. But it was lovely to perform to a home crowd and the concert went really well. As soon as we finished we were whisked off to an after party at the lovely home of Marjory, one of the organisers. An amazing spread was put on and we had a fabulous time chatting to everyone. There was also a very cute little puppy which delighted us no end! 

Our tour had come to an end and we faced the long journey back to Manchester. Helena travelled on to the hustle and bustle of London and Catherine, back to music college in Oslo.

It was a spectacular experience and such a treat to see so many beautiful parts of Scotland. Live music seems to be alive and kicking in Scotland and thanks to the Tunnell Trust, young musicians such as ourselves can share our music far and wide with people living in the most remote areas of Scotland.

Thank you to all the people who hosted us and thanks to the Tunnell Trust for having us. It was a very special experience for us both.

We've had a great week. Thank you for this super opportunity Tunnell Trust!
We look forward to coming up to Scotland to perform again in the future and setting up more tours. Watch this space!

Ps - I've just been made aware of this review by Kirkcaldy Music Society
-  scroll to the bottom to view

West Kilbride

We arrived at 12.30am last night and met our host Lynette, who is brilliant!
Today is our last concert day on the tour.

We spent the morning in West Kilbride Primary School playing two concerts to the infants and juniors. The concerts went down well and there were lots of enthusiastic questions and responses, including - 'why do your eyebrows move so much when you play?'...

We had a few hours off in the afternoon and for the first time all week were blessed with incredible weather - so we took advantage of this and went to nearby Largs on the seafront, had fish and chips:

And ice cream at the famous Art Deco Nardinis 

Then
found the most amazing hidden gem: Kelburn Estate 


Which has over 3500 acres of land and forest to explore (noted and appreciated that the Scots aren't so uptight about overdoing health and safely regulations, so we could freely explore)

And a 13th century castle recently redecorated by Brazilian Graffiti Artists.

Our final concert of the tour went very well. Loved the hidden touches of fairy lights in the hall and the intimate audience positioning.

After a hearty breakfast, and a morning yoga session (very necessary with all the driving and concerts!) we crawled back to Perth...at 50mph (remember that wheel!) to get the car sorted. This all took a pretty long time...

What a sorry sight!


After a pub lunch, we got back on the road and drove to Biggar where we were given quite possibly the best preconcert dinner we've ever had...

(All homemade with handwritten mounted labels and flowers!)
Beef and tapenade stew with creamy mash and salad
Raspberry, Apple, crumble with cream and yogurt.
We're huge foodies so of course the photos are very necessary!

The piano at the hall despite being over 100 years old, sounds beautiful. Very deep and mellow. We then had to get straight back on the road to drive to West Kilbride as we had two school concerts starting at 9am the following morning.

Kirkcaldy - I've only just learnt how to pronounce it

We spent quite a while fiddling with the lights in the Kirk at Kirkcaldy...there were over 20 different lighting presets and the best ones meant we couldn't see our music...however, I found some stand lights and little lamps, so we could maintain the carefully selected atmospheric glow!

The acoustic was great and the piano sounded quite shiny, which suited the flute well. I think Scottish audiences are way more appreciative than audiences further south. Again, we did two encores and they didn't stop clapping and stamping at the end of the concert.

We stayed with the chairperson Mairi and her husband Larry at Blinkbonny Cottage (!!) which is so wonderful, and has such comfortable carpet - I could literally sleep on it!They made us a fantastic dinner after the concert and we sat around the fire talking and drinking whisky until the early hours.

The concert in Perth was a great success, the audience very enthusiastic and we came on to do two encores. We then stayed with committee members John and Rosie, where we experienced many a whisky.

This morning we went to Perth High School to give a workshop, arranged by Perth Chamber Music Society and Enterprise Scotland. The pupils were between 14-17 and were a mixture of very enthusiastic and your typical embarrassed teenager type, but it went down well, and one girl left so enthused exclaiming to the head of music that she's now definitely switching to learn the flute (she's currently a percussionist). We also got asked why we weren't married...

Just as we were about to set off for our next destination (Kirkcaldy) Leo noticed that one of the front wheels was dented and swollen - this was obviously the result of the humungous unavoidable potholes we experienced on our way up to the Scottish Boarders on the first day.
We've just spent the last two hours sitting in several mechanics finding a way around the problem...apparently driving on this wheel is a definite no-go. We're now using the spare wheel where we can go at a max speed of 50mph, have ordered a new wheel to come in tomorrow morning. So we're that dreadful car on the motorway crawling along to Kirkcaldy, and will have to get up early tomorrow and drive back to Perth to get the replacement before going on Biggar (goodbye day trip to Loch Lomond 😞)

After a huge breakfast, watching the snow storm outside, thinking we'd be stuck indoors all morning and then have an arduous drive up to Perth it cleared totally within 30minutes. So we went on a beautiful walk up to Black Andrew and hung out with the animals at the bnb (horses, ducks, pheasants, dogs and a cat).
We're now on our way up to Perth, where closures on the same road as yesterday (the A7) have scuppered us again! I would advise everyone to avoid the A7, always!

Discoveries made today:
The forth bridge is not the fourth bridge (which I was expecting)
Leo gets grumpy if he doesn't have a second cup of coffee by 3pm
I can't eat a pear without getting it all over my nose
Yes u can experience 4 seasons in a day in Scotland! Our day has been sandwiched by snow blizzards...

Horses!

Amazing view :)