Hello everyone!

Atéas writing from London. 

We wanted to do one more little blog to say again a BIG THANK YOU to The Tunnell Trust for an amazing course! 

Thank you to all coaches - Tim, Jonathan, Charles, Dickie and Jeremy for being so inspiring! 

We have missed very much Neil Black, another fantastic coach, but who sadly couldn't come this year, but we very much hope to see you again soon Neil!

Thank you to Milton Trio, Cygnus Trio and Ruisi Quartet for being such great company! - it was so nice to meet you all, spend time with you and hear your great playing! 

Thank you to all the catering staff and particular shout out to the wonderful chef -we absolutely looooved the food! And already missing it..

And thank you too all who came to the concerts! It was great to perform the works that we were working so much on during the course! Thank you for being such welcoming and warm audience!

We came away inspired and we feel these 10 days have been very beneficial to us as an ensemble and we are ready to reach new heights! 

We miss everyone already and hope to see you all in the near future!  - Coll reunion in London at some point?:)

Much love,

Atéas x x x x x

Hello everyone! It's the Atéas here reporting from the Bunkhouse.

Yesterday was a 'work hard, play hard' day, with intensive rehearsals on Schönberg and Nielsen. The great thing about this week is not only getting great advice from esteemed wind players but also fantastic insight from string player's perspectives too - it helps us see the bigger picture as well as stop being quite so lenient with ourselves and the difficulties of our instruments.

It may not have been the sunniest day, but lunch was followed by a trip to the beach - a much needed refresher for all!  Some guys even plucked up the courage to swim...

After our final coaching of the day, we made the first quintet trip to the pub, to celebrate Schönberg being done for the day (a much deserved celebration).

As always dinner was fabulous, salmon and lemon risotto, followed by the most gorgeous sunset and full moon.  Musically, physically, mentally and spiritually fulfilled!!

This morning has already started with sunshine and we look forward to seeing some of you at tonight's concert!!

Much love,

The Atéas xxxxx

Here comes the sun...and lost lamb adventures

Good evening from the Milton trio!

What a fantastic day - the sun is shining (the mercury almost hit 20 something today...!).

We spent most of today rehearsing a work by Menotti which we shall be performing on Sunday.  Jeremy and Tim gave us some excellent advice on this and our Stravinsky is becoming more and more characterful.

The Atéa quintet and Ruisi string quartet performed in the children's concert this afternoon. The children seemed to really enjoy themselves and didn't hesitate to get involved in the action!  Our favourite part was Ateas's arrangement of Chariots of Fire.  Apparently we will be making a special video to put with the recording of it when we visit the beach tomorrow afternoon.. watch this space!

After an amazing joint of Highland beef for dinner, we went to visit the horses at the top of the hill.  The horses wouldn't come and see us, so we took a path to try and get closer to them.  We were really surprised to find a poor little lamb stuck in the fence half way down the track.  We picked him up and sent him back to his family - lamb savers!

Good night - let's see what adventures tomorrow has to offer.. Off to the pub!

A very grateful lamb

Cygnus trio's Tuesday at Coll.

Hello from the Cygnuses! Today we woke up to amazing weather in Coll. Bright Sun and gentle breeze were inspiring enough to get us through some engaging and productive sessions of both rehearsal and coaching.

We had the priviliege to enjoy a double coaching with Jeremy Young and Tim Brown who gave us complementing and original views on the first two movements of Beethoven's spellbinding "Ghost" trio in D major. On the afternoon and after some more careful practice and ensemble work, Richard Deakin joined us for yet another coaching, this time on some of Schubert's trio in E-flat major and Rachmaninoff's trio Élégiaque no. 1.

In between, we had the opportunity to devote some time to go for a walk and enjoy the beautiful landscapes. Here's a stunning picture of what we saw from the top of a hill, though of course the pictures never do justice to the real thing.

Good night from Hannah, Javi and Cesar.

Hello and good evening from the Coll girls!  Connie has gone to bed but we are still up and writing about our adventures today!

So first news of the day: Anna from Atéa Quintet has finally arrived and the girls dorm is complete (as well as Atéa!)

Second news of the day (although this is every day): the food is AMAZING.  Highlights of today include blueberry and coconut cake, and some epic chicken.  Enjoy the pictures ;-)

We are also enjoying the scenery and even the rainy walks are inspiring - surrounded by mist in the hills and viewing the sea from various vantage points…

So far we are all having early starts and late finishes.  Today most of the dorms were up by 7am, and the strings were still enjoying chamber music over relaxing quintet read-throughs by lock-up time!  We are even working hard over dinner, as we planned the upcoming children's concert as well as the following day's schedule…most of all we are getting to know all these wonderful colleagues and having great coaching, rehearsals and talks with each other!

Good night from the Bunk house
Alena  x Anna x Hannah x (and Connie who is asleep but surely contributing in her dreams:))

Coll, Quartet and Cricket - The Ruisi Quartet

After surviving one of our longest journeys together as a quartet (we're all still friends), the Ruisi Quartet arrived in Coll yesterday in good spirits. As well as looking forward to escaping London for the peace and tranquility of the island, we were also excited to get to work on some truly great quartet repertoire. 

After settling in and working out our way around the island, we got straight to work in our lovely little rehearsal space; the Green Cottage. With no noise and a stunning view over the bay, it felt a world away from our usual digs. The quartet have always had a special connection to the works of Haydn, and we've brought one of his Op.33 quartets nicknamed 'The Joke' to study whilst we're here. It's a wonderful piece, bursting with Haydn's signature wit alongside some truly beautiful melodies. With such an inspiring setting and so little extraneous distraction, we were able to make swift progress in COLLtivating our own interpretation of the work.

After getting a decent amount of rehearsing done, we still had time to indulge in our second passion; cricket. Having lugged a bat and ball all the way from Hackney, we found an inviting piece of tarmac and some obliging traffic cones to act as stumps. If the skill wasn't there, the enthusiasm certainly was. It's like the old saying goes; those that play cricket together, play great Haydn...

So we have arrived!

And here we are (minus Anna, who will be arriving on Monday)!!
Feeling very lucky to be back at the Tunnell Trust's course on Coll!

Ohh what a long trip, but so worth the wait. Straight from London to the beautiful Scottish Island - Isle of Coll! We have all entered a state of slight delirium as a delicious dinner has now just ended and the sun is setting on our first day here.

On the way to Coll we have met other three groups, who are Cygnus Trio, Ruisi Qurtet and Milton Trio, who we are very much looking forward to hearing at the first concert.

Few hour of rehearsals are already done and now we are looking forward to tomorrow's coaching with the professors. So many wonderful things have happened today, many laughs have echoed in the halls of the rehearsal rooms and dining area… it is going to be another wonderful year in Coll.

Cheerio

Yours sincerely with love,
Atéas
www.ateaquintet.com

Advance Party arrives on Coll!

Yesterday the Music Coll 2015 advance party arrived on Coll courtesy of a very smooth ferry crossing from Cal Mac. This was a day earlier than intended given the RMT Union's strike today which has all but shut down the Cal Mac ferry network around the West of Scotland.

With the majority of the young musicians due to arrive tomorrow Saturday and our Tutors on Sunday we are hopeful that everyone will get here safely.

Given the chaos caused by the strike we are very grateful to Cal Mac who have done all they could do in the situation to help where possible. They are also generously sponsoring all our young musicians and tutors' passenger ticket for Music Coll.

Today we will be setting up at An Cridhe ready for everyone's arrival.

The main casualty of the strike has been our wonderful Bosendorfer piano supplied by the ever willing H Stuart Duncan. Sadly Stuart was due to travel today and given his hectic schedule it was impossible to rearrange things. Also all ferries over the weekend are now fully booked due to the strike. We are however deligted that Stuart will be able to make the trip to Coll with the piano next Wednesday so we will have the best part of a week with the instrument. In the meantime we have been prevailing upon the extraordinary good will and generosity of the Coll people and have hopefully found two upright pianos for rehearsals to go ahead until then. Phew!

Here's looking forward to things getting going tomorrow!

MUSIC COLL 2015 Blog - The Preview!

Music Coll 2015 is fast approaching!

All details of the event can be found at: 

 http://www.tunnelltrust.org.uk/musiccoll2015.html

If you wish to receive more information on our work - Click here! 

Our four wonderful groups attending are:


The Atéa Wind Quintet

The Ruisi String Quartet

 
The Cygnus Piano Trio

 
Milton Trio

 

Keep an eye out here for reports, photos and video when we start on 27th June 2015!

Enjoy!