Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life! I'm a Violinist and doing what I love is often interestingly contrasted with the reality of getting to do what I love...
17 Nov 2023 1 minute read 3 comments bengy
Early Italian Baroque music is lots of fun to play... it hasn't always been my main focus as I do prefer the music of the later Baroque, but I do love the style which has much more in common with rhetoric and speech... something that music (Clas...
6 Nov 2023 3 minute read 0 comments bengy
Unsplash Unsplash So, our inaugural year of running a small Early Music ensemble has gone surprisingly well.... the first three main chamber concerts had sold way beyond our expectation, and we were a little bit hopeful that the last on...
26 Aug 2023 3 minute read 0 comments bengy
Planning and prepping for the coming year (2024, and also 2025...) has started. When I stated this ensemble, I had no idea how much forward planning would be required to make everything run smoothly. Of course, there isn't a huge need to run eve...
15 Aug 2023 2 minute read 0 comments bengy
Unsplash Unsplash Third concert for our inaugural year done... a slightly shorter lead in time from the second one due to the availability of our guest performers, which meant that the second concert was later in the year and the third...
5 Aug 2023 2 minute read 2 comments bengy
I think I will always prefer ciders over beers... sure, there are a few beers that I like, but for some reason... I really like the apple or pear ciders. Unfortunately, there are too many ciders out there that are either just too sweet or very w...
19 Jul 2023 3 minute read 0 comments bengy
Pretty much all the tools of my particular trade are either old instruments or newer individually crafted pieces that have been selected after months of searching and trialing. It does seem quite picky, but when you are looking for new additions...
12 Jul 2023 3 minute read 0 comments bengy
Finding a well designed and sturdy instrument case for everyday use is a pretty important must-have for a musician... after all, you are entrusting the case to protect something that is quite valuable, both in terms of monetary value... and more...
30 Jun 2023 2 minute read 0 comments bengy
Now that our ensemble has progressed a bit further down the track and we are taking publicity, ticketing, and sales into our own hands... we need to have infrastructure and hardware to take door payments. Sure, some of the people still pay in ca...
6 Jun 2023 4 minute read 0 comments bengy
Unsplash Unsplash Wow... running an ensemble in its first year and a bit is quite a steep learning curve. I've had to make somewhat tough decisions about who to ask to play in the first year due to a balancing of budget, availability, m...
4 Jun 2023 2 minute read 0 comments bengy
I used to love the Corn Flakes Honey Joys that you would always see at school fetes... but my mum wouldn't ever make them... I think that they were just jam packed full of sugar. Now, as a father, I recently picked up some Honey Joy Oat bars at...
