The Ruskin Ensemble

a younger incarnation - I still have that guitar though

I was reminded of all the tours we used to do when a fellow member of The Ruskin Ensemble, its leader, in fact, the violinist Jane Gomm, came to my concert at the Chequer Mead Theatre in East Grinstead last night.
For a  few years we went up and down the UK and did two or three tours in Scotland as well. I have a sudden nostalgia for the fun of performing those pieces!...
It was a time of collaboration, rehearsal, fitting cellos into small cars and playing composers I can't play as a soloist like Guastavino (I miss him), Vivaldi and Paganini. It was a time when I had only just begun going to the Edinburgh Fringe to perform, when I worried more about where I was in the Hampshire squash league than where my next gig was coming from and when I had more hair.
In April The Ruskin Ensemble is planning a concert in Kent - I will post more details when the arrangements have firmed up - and I am really looking forward to it.