Your Stories

It was the best performance experience of my life so far. Carnegie Hall is a one-in-a-million place to play. The whole ensemble was full of incredibly talented musicians, young and old and the pieces demanded a lot from every section of the band. It was a huge project and it was great to be a part of it.

We rehearsed a lot in New York, especially for the Carnegie Hall concert. This rehearsal was great, although setting up a whole percussion section every rehearsal was hard work, considering the huge amount of instruments we needed. It was difficult to keep track of all of the little screws and bolts that held these contraptions together.

My 'rig' (as they called it) held four tom-toms on one stand. I then had a snare drum to the side of that, as well as two cymbals (one of which was a special sizzle cymbal), a guiro, castanets, a set of temple blocks, a wood block, a tambourine, a triangle, a vibraslap and an anvil. All of this equipment surrounded me, and this was only my list of instruments!

There were four of us in the percussion section and we all had a lot of running around to do as well as all playing huge instruments like the marimba, xylophone and vibraphone.

Plate smashing

My friend Ollie, a fellow percussionist, had two smash plates in a piece called 'Dances from Crete' by Adam Gorb. We assured the back stage team at Carnegie Hall that we wouldn't make a mess and that all of the broken shards would be contained... but I think that Ollie was enjoying it a lot and really 'gave it the beans' so in the end we did not keep to our word. The piece finished the programme and he must have really gone for it because there were quite a few shards spread across the back of the stage. But we swept up after ourselves afterwards so they weren't too angry with us!

Performing at Carnegie Hall

The whole New York experience was amazing. Gorgeous weather, a great hotel and we never wasted a minute. My family and I absolutely loved it.

Roars and screams

Carnegie Hall was an obvious high-point. It is incredibly difficult to communicate just how intense, exciting and incredible it really was … Imagine doing something that you really enjoy, that takes your mind off things like school or work that can stress you out, and imagine getting totally lost in it for 45 minutes, loving every note, relishing everything that is going on around you; the atmosphere, the music... and when it's all over, a whole audience in one of the best concert halls in the world erupts into sound and roars and screams for more.

Nothing in my vocabulary can express the extent to which I enjoyed it. It was almost unbelievable and it made every minute of practice I have ever done worthwhile.