Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cellist famed for performing at the 2018 royal wedding, winning BBC Young Musician, and first cellist to hit UK album chart top 10.
On the island
Eight records
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85: I. Adagio – Moderato
I was yeah so inspired by what I've I heard and um saw of her. There's a wonderful video of her playing the Elgar Concerto and I used to watch that a lot growing up and just try and figure out what was going on. But I think it's a piece that is so fragile at times and so constantly changing and constantly expressing I guess um and the intention behind how she plays with this level of of intensity and honesty.
We used to have this CD that my dad had like written in like pen on it, like old Jamaica songs or something like that, I think. And all of the tracks were listed as just like Track 01, Track 02, Track 03, Track 04. And this was, I can't remember where, like, Track 03, but we knew the name of this song. Some of the songs we didn't know the names of necessarily. And the sense of play with a lot of that music was also such a big part of how we listened and how we talked about it. Being open and listening. We do a lot of listening to music and dancing as a family or listening in the car or things like that. And that's how I just came to know a lot of the music that I grew up with.
Again, one I've listened to a lot. As a child, my dad has the record, and so he'd play that often. For a while, I think either the record player was broken or the record was scratched, and it used to. Do you know, it does the thing where it keeps repeating the same few seconds many, many, many times. So now when I listen to that song, I always almost expect a few other bits. But yeah, it's a great song.
String Quartet in C major, Op. 20 No. 2: II. Capriccio
I think the Haydn string quartets and chamber music in general played a massive and does play a massive part of my life. I love the feeling of being in a group with three, four, five, or whatever voices talking very intimately. This piece, it's either a shock in terms of how much it arrests you, or it's this feeling of awe of how can something be so magical and so precious. Also the feeling of music that I think is like out of this world in the sense of like going beyond like I don't know the imagination of what I feel that I can like feel and touch and see. It goes like beyond that.
Certainly one of my favourite songs and one that I listen to quite frequently. I find it is very accepting and hopeful.
Requiem in D minor, K. 626: I. Introitus – KyrieFavourite
Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists
It's one of those pieces that I find incredibly stirring and also very, very comforting.
Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103 'The Year 1905'
An unbelievable piece of music. I listened to it the first time, I think I was about 14 or 15, and listened in bed with my headphones and listened to the whole symphony at once and couldn't believe the journey that I'd been on listening to it. I think it's... I've never seen it live, actually. I would love to hear it live. I listen to this recording often. I think it's incredible.
Organ Sonata No. 5 in C major, BWV 529: II. Largo
This is um the lager from uh one of Bach's organ sonatas. It's played by um the pianist Samuel Feinberg, and it's it's magical.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:52How would you describe your relationship with your cello today?
It's not with me literally all the time, but a lot of the time. I have a rehearsal after this. That's why I brought it. … It's nice to have have it with me, it feels comforting. And I s I spend a lot of time playing the cello and carrying the cello and being with it and it's yeah, in a way it has taken me to so many places and to do so many things with that instrument, so I'm grateful for the cello it's itself.
Presenter asks
2:26You've described performing as a wonderful but draining sharing process. What did you mean by that exactly?
Oh, yeah, I mean, not draining in a negative sense. I don't think I could ever get tired of it, but it requires so much energy and concentration and it's very, very demanding in that sense. The responsibility of trying to present this music as truly and vividly and honestly as possible is … yeah, one that therefore takes a lot of focus. But it's really wonderful, and I like the idea of a live performance because you are there with this piece that's written, I don't know, a few hundred years ago, but it's been presented in this moment to this group of people with this orchestra, this chamber group, in this hall at this time. I love the centering energy of that, and it feels like that's really such a special thing.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Feynman Lectures on Physics
Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman, um the lectures on physics, which I've not read before. So yeah, I think I think I would learn a lot.
The luxury
Cello. It certainly would be that... I'm not sure how it's gonna survive on an island though. Like if I break a string.
Was there a sense of competition between the seven of you, all interested in music, all motivated to do well and achieve?
I think within um music there was never the sense of competition. I think in almost everything else, like how tall we were going to grow or who's going to win this game of that or who's going to finish the food first so you can get the first second helpings or who's going to have the biggest piece of chicken. All those kinds of things. There was always constant competition. … But not music. I think we inspired each other and helped each other and learnt together in lots of ways.
Presenter asks
8:07Did it ever bring a bit of pressure though? I mean it can be a lot, the expectation, especially when you're doing well.
Yeah, I think expectation is not necessarily a bad or good thing. I think it can be a very, very, very good thing. I think pressure maybe is a is a different thing. And I didn't feel the sense of pressure because I always felt very supported in everything that I did. And if I was struggling with something, the chance to ask for help was always was always there.
Presenter asks
18:53You've also talked about experiencing racial prejudice. What form did it take and how did you deal with it?
Very often in the in the spaces I was in within classical music, myself and my family were very often the only um black people in those places and that's um you know most of the time was fine in the sense of you know I felt comfortable and and all all good. But yeah, there are certainly um occasions where my being black was meant that I wasn't necessarily taken seriously in some situations. … My parents a lot, um, for sure. What gave me the strength in those situations is we we would spend a lot of time and with children watching documentaries of like real like black heroes succeeding and and and and and being challenged and overcoming those people like Muhammad Ali, I think they, yeah, were certainly a source of like inspiration and understanding of those situations.
Presenter asks
27:27There's been a lot of conversation around the rendition of 'Rule Britannia' at the Last Night of the Proms. What's your view on whether it should be included or not?
Um, I don't think it should be included and I didn't stay for that, that's just my my my opinion. … Maybe some people didn't realise how uncomfortable a sound like that can make a lot of people feel even if it makes them feel good. I think that's somehow a a b a big misunderstanding about it.
“I love the centering energy of that, and it feels like that's really such a special thing.”
“I found growing up in that environment where you're surrounded by everyone else practicing, it meant that practice was less of a lonely thing because everyone else was doing it around me.”
“I love those visits. I was just in the US and went to a school in Philadelphia where they have just started a programme of everyone learning a string instrument and it was incredibly moving to see a room full of children learning an instrument for the first time and sort of developing their relationship and talking to them about it and then playing to them and seeing from their questions and from their actions what they were listening to and responding to. And what I love about it is, yeah, the feeling of confidence and having each child having something that they can do themselves and work out and explore and listen and have this feeling of endless creativity and exploration, but also the discipline and the focus that is required to learn an instrument, I think, is incredibly important and centering and humbling.”
“Very often in the in the spaces I was in within classical music, myself and my family were very often the only um black people in those places and that's um you know most of the time was fine in the sense of you know I felt comfortable and and all all good. But yeah, there are certainly um occasions where my being black was meant that I wasn't necessarily taken seriously in some situations.”
“Maybe some people didn't realise how uncomfortable a sound like that can make a lot of people feel even if it makes them feel good. I think that's somehow a a b a big misunderstanding about it.”