Music Coll 2014

One week later, here are the Zeitgeist Ensemble’s thoughts on our amazing experience of the Tunnell Trust Music Coll 2014. Our highlights are as follows…

The intensity and flexibility of the course was great for us because we could choose what repertoire to work on, what to perform and how much to rehearse on each item (obviously we rehearsed as much as we could!). This meant we could work on a brand new piece and manage to perform it after only a week of rehearsal, which would not normally be possible.

 
The public concerts were an awesome opportunity to air the pieces we had been working on, bringing our hard work to fruition. The support that the audience gave us was unbelievable, we felt really privileged to perform to such an encouraging and receptive group of people. It was also really useful to perform to the coaches, with whom we had been working with all week, since they could give us extra feedback, for future work.


The coaches were probably the biggest highlight, with their infectious enthusiasm for music and general engaging attitude and approach. Our sessions with them often left us in fits of giggles but also with positive things to work on and aim towards. We also enjoyed having coaching with Jonathan Tunnell, the artistic director of the course; without his passion for music and hard work this course would not have taken place.


Another highlight of the course was spending time with the other ensembles, jamming and performing with them. We enjoyed hearing them perform and the encouragement they were to us.

 If these highlights weren’t enough, the course was also located on the very beautiful island of Coll. The views from our rehearsal rooms were distracting at times (!), with the sea, sun and rolling fields within reach. We were also treated to excellent homemade food, which was better than a restaurant. Each mealtime was awaited eagerly and exceeded expectation.

 
We can’t imagine a better course, and all we can do thank the organizers and sponsors for enabling us to take part. We will continue to be inspired by these precious ten days on Coll for a very long time.