Young and talented in Nailsworth

Apologies: these photos are awful! I had thought I was going to a concert at a different church, and had hoped to capture a famous painting there, if we had got there early enough.

It wasn't the sort of concert where one could take snaps during the performance. So I have Toby Hughes, award-wiining young double-bassist, tuning up, and Toby and James Vaughan, astonishing pianist, making their exit. I liked their lanky legs which make them seem as if they're doing a dance of sorts.

More about Toby:

Born in Bristol U.K 1992 Toby Elliot Rupert Hughes started playing Double Bass at the age of nine years. Toby attended the Junior Conservatoire in Birmingham where he became bass section leader of the C.B.S.O. Youth Orchestra. He was also a member of the National Children’s Orchestra for three years and was four years with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain where he became Principal Bass.

During his studies at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department in London he performed as a soloist at St Martin’s-in–the-Fields, London. In September 2009 he was invited to Switzerland by Professor Božo Paradžik to study at the combined universities of Lausanne, Fribourg and Sion. In his second year at University, Toby was awarded the ‘Future Talent’ Coombs Scholarship by the Duchess of Kent and in May 2011 was the winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s ‘Julius Isserlis Scholarship’ which enabled him to continue with his studies abroad. In the autumn of 2011 he moved to Berlin, where he studied with Matthew McDonald, principal Bass of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Returning to the U.K. in 2012 he began studying with Juří Hudec at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Then in 2013 he won the Chandos Orchestra ‘Young Musician of the Year’ and was the overall winner of the strings section final in the 2014 Royal Over-Seas League Annual Music Competition. In March of 2014, as a member of the bass section of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe he performed a series of concerts under conductor Vladimir Jurowski and in September was asked to guest lead for the Royal Northern Sinfonia.

He continues to study with Juří Hudec at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

I am going back tomorrow to the same venue for another concert!

On a different note, I am pleased to say that most of the communication problems that have bothered me for the past week or few have been, or are being, sorted. Even the landline phone rings now. And I have a new mobile phone with a half decent camera. Apparently. I haven't tried it yet; I was too busy this afternoon setting up the cordless phones to try it!