Pink Sax!

I've just realised that I haven't updated my blog since December... I don't know where the time goes!! Lots of exciting things have happened since then... the first being the arrival of my new PINK saxophone, which I absolutely love! It's fantastic! (And brilliant for when I give Live Music Now! performances and workshops!)

Back in January, I gave a recital in the Purcell Room as a Park Lane Group Young Artist. I performed the world premiere of 'Leonardo's Dream' for saxophone and piano, with the composer Giles Swayne. I commissioned the work from Giles (with much appreciated funding from the RVW Trust and Britten-Pears Foundation) especially for the concert. In these situations you can never be too sure about what you're going to get (I like the anticipation!), but I can honestly say that I was absolutely delighted with what he wrote! It was a wonderful experience to work with Giles (we had a great time!) - and I look forward to performing the piece many more times in the future. The concert was a great success and we had some nice reviews in the national press. One particular review made me laugh... 'Marcinowicz was unfazed by something dropping off of her instrument just before starting to play Bennett's Sonata; an inspection of the piece lying on the floor drew a nonchalant "that's OK" from her!' Yes, the audience gasped when there was a ringing sound of metal falling onto the stage... but I thought that most people had realised that it was just my sparkly hair clip that had fallen out!!!!

In February I did an audition for The Tillett Trust... it was one of those crazy days. Daniel and I were giving concerts in Bedfordshire in the morning/lunchtime and our audition was in London mid-afternoon (it hadn't been possible to change the time of the audition). It was one of those times when you just PRAY the M1 is not clogged up... and thankfully all went reasonably to plan (we'd included driving round and round Regent's Park to find two car parking spaces as part of the plan!!) We had already performed our audition programme twice earlier in the day, so we were feeling pretty relaxed, and the playing went very well. However, after the playing, I had an interview with the panel - there were 6-8 people on the panel, and I found the interview far more nerve-wracking than the playing! In these situations, especially after playing, your mind can go a bit funny! When they asked me who had been conducting when I recently played with the London Symphony Orchestra, I could not, for the life of me, remember who it was!! All I could say was that he was French... 'but not one of the obvious ones!!' Oh dear... how embarrassing!! Of course, his name totally came back to me as soon as I had left the audition room!

Anyway, a couple of days later, I received some great news... I have been selected as a soloist for the Young Artists' Platform for the 2008/09 season. This means that I will be giving a number of recitals around the UK, as well as a recital at the Wigmore Hall on 17th November. I'll be sharing the Wigmore concert with the Sitkovetsky/Wu/Elschenbroich Piano Trio - I've heard they are absolutely fantastic, so it should be a really great concert and I am looking forward to it immensely.

The following day, while I was still somewhere up in the clouds after the good news, the Park Lane Group phoned me to say that, following the Purcell Room recitals in January, they have also selected me and Daniel to give a recital in Wigmore Hall during the 2008/09 season! I'm so excited about the future now - it's a real boost to know we've got some wonderful concerts in the diary.

As I write, my brother is climbing somewhere near Everest. He's out there for about 7 weeks taking various groups to Everest Base Camp, and up mountains in the vicinity. It's SO different from my life... he's incredibly fit... and quite simply, I'm not!! I've been thinking about this fact quite a bit recently, and although I have pretty good stamina when I'm performing, I sometimes wonder if it's just the adrenaline carrying me through! So, especially with lots of solo concerts coming up, I have made a conscious decision to improve my fitness, and have joined a jacuzzi (whoops, I mean a gym!) After discovering my resting heart rate is ridiculously high (and after 10 minutes on a cross trainer had reached 169!!), I have decided to do something about it! And I feel so much better for it! I'm now swimming 3-4 times a week, and a personal trainer has devised a programme for me. I'm kind of looking forward to the challenges... but I need lots of encouragement!!!!

I've just got my sax back from the vets after having lots of work done... I was getting pretty frustrated with a few things, but had been told by a repairer that the sax is fine(!) I always blame myself when I think 'the sax doesn't work' - it's usually the quickest way of solving a problem! However, by last week, I was so frustrated that I asked Jean-Yves to play my sax. Jean-Yves can sound wonderful on anything, but I must admit that I was totally relieved when he said 'I don't know how you've been managing to play this'!! I took it to another repairer straight away who said 'it's leaking like a sieve'!! It transpired that there were all sorts of funny things going on with the way the instrument had been set up - and it's now wonderful! The moral of the story is to seek a second opinion when you disagree with someone! I've got a lot of reacquainting to do, but it's so great (and important!) to have an instrument that is working at its absolute best.

Right... I think it's time for a swim now...