Royal Albert Hall

On the 13th of November, I was lucky enough to play in an ensemble at the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the Music for Youth School Proms. It was quite an experience.

The ensemble in question, "Fourtissimo" Percussion Quartet, played first of all at the Huddersfield regional MFY event. Following that we qualified for the Birmingham National MFY event, where we received an award for outstanding rhythmic ability and musicianship. In August, we were invited to play at the Royal Albert Hall for the final event of the MFY festival.

Fourtissimo at MFY School Proms

(L-R Me, Tom Pritchard, Jake Brown, Sophie Smith)

The event was fantastic, an amazing range of instruments and genres of music, all performed by extremely capable young people of all ages up to 18. We were lucky enough to see a full symphony orchestra, an Indian music trio, a 600 strong massed choir of young people from Huddersfield and many more different acts.

Our performance felt awesome. Everything clicked in such a way that we knew nothing could go wrong... Well, aside from Jake Brown playing his djembe a little too aggressively and puncturing the skin. (See below) But this minor slip happened in the last 5 bars of our first piece, and in a venue as big as the RAH, who was to know?

Jake Brown's Djembe

All in all, the whole experience was one that I won't forget. We only played for 10 minutes, but that doesn't matter. It could have been 10 seconds and it wouldn't have mattered! It seemed bizarre to just go back to RNCM the next day and continue with college work, but life goes on!

Alasdair