Celebrating a special jubilee!

It can be easy to underestimate the idea of luck in the way your life turns out... tonight, we were celebrating the 75th birthday of our maestro... and the 40th birthday of his orchestra, of which I'm incredibly fortunate to have been (and still am....) a part of for the better part of the last decade. When I was studying music so many years ago in Australia... I had caught the bug for Early Music, a specialisation of Classical Music which was a bit of a new thing in the second half of last century (haha,.... it seems so weird to write that!... anyway, in Australia... you would be so far away from the centre of all the activity that was happening in Europe... and my boss here, was one of the leading lights of the generation of Early Music pioneers. I would see his photos and recordings on CD and LP covers... and just listen and be astounded.

... When I finally found myself in Europe, I started working all over the place... but I would never have expected to find myself in his orchestra.... I remember the first time I played in his group... I was hellishly nervous... I was going to be playing in the group of a living legend! Well... I have since gotten over my nerves around him... but I still have to pinch myself...

... he is a great man, someone who really inspires people to play the best for him and to follow his ideas... there are other leaders who are tyrants, but this is one who you really want to give your all for! As a person, he is warm and caring... and loyal... it's been such an honour to be able to make music with him! There are so many people who have gathered this evening to celebrate a special event together...

On a personal level, the association with his orchestra has done good things for my own personal trajectory... plus, in many ways... I don't think we would have had the same sort of financial stability if not for the employment and work with the orchestra ... I know that definitely, if I hadn't started work at the time that I did... we would never have received a mortgage with a bank to buy our house... our lives would have turned out very very differently... not necessarily worse, just different. However, this is the way it has turned out... and I'm incredibly grateful... even if he will never know it directly how much of an effect his crossing through my life has changed my situation.

On one of the recent tours, a plan was hatched to present the maestro with a gift for this coming special occasion... well, it was pretty difficult to think of something, as it he has done pretty well in life... and wasn't really wanting for anything material! However, some of the musicians came up with the idea of casting his hands in bronze... as a sort of homage to the music that he has created and inspired in himself and in the lives of so many musicians whose lives he has touched, directly or indirectly....

.... well, the thought was great... and his hands are caught in a pretty weird chord position! There is a touch of Addams Family (the thing...) in this... but he was so happy to have done it, and it was so touching to see how moved he was by the thoughts of the musicians and the gift itself.

The friends of the orchestra also pitched in with gifts for the musicians for the evening... presenting us all with a lovely compilation book of photos from the very start of the orchestra through to the present day! It is such a nostalgic trip through the history of the orchestra... there aren't so many with us who were there at the start... but you do see some of the older members looking a great deal younger in these photos! Just looking at the photos is like seeing a Whos Who of Early Music stars... and there are a few who sadly are no longer with us.

Anyway, you never know how your life will turn out, things do have a way of jumping out at you without solicitation... how a chance meeting and unsought lucky break so many years ago would turn into a path that leads you to a place that you never expected!