Helen Foster, Flute
What instrument do you play? Flute How long have you been playing and why did you choose your instrument? 40 years; I loved the flute from a very young age and then James Galway came along ...the rest is history! How long have you played with OSJ? About 5 years. What is your favourite piece of music? Beethoven 6th Symphony has always been my favourite piece of music but I'm partial to a bit of Brahms,,,and Stravinsky too these day. What was your most memorable performance? Playing Doppler's double flute concerto at Pershore in November 2017 with a good friend of mine is high on the list as it was so exciting but as a student playing first flute in Mahler 8 the Royal Albert Hall for the ABRSM 100th birthday concert in 1989 is really etched in my memory. Where and what would you like to perform but haven’t yet? Ooo now you're asking! Maybe Brahms 4... I've played in a lot of places, that's a tricky one.... Who is your favourite composer? I love Beethoven, but then, I also love Brahms and well, there's Mozart and Schubert... What is your favourite part about playing in OSJ? I love being part of this really friendly group of people, all united by a common love of music producing really high quality and energetic performances. It's a first class team, and the Sunday teas are the stuff of legend! |
Alastair Moseley, Clarinet
What instrument do you play? I am the Orchestra’s Principal Clarinettist How long have you been playing and why did you choose your instrument? I started playing piano when I was 4 (54 years ago – ouch!!) and then Clarinet when I was 7 – Mom started me off on piano so that I would then move on to another instrument more quickly – how organised was that?!! She wanted me to play oboe, but couldn’t afford one – so one day I came home from school and there was a clarinet waiting for me!! It was a Boosey and Hawkes Regent. We had some fun trying to work out how to put it together – with the mouthpiece upside down to start with!! How long have you played with OSJ? Cathy and I established OSJ with Sue Peters and Olivia Goodborn in 2010 – we never thought it would still be going eight years later!! What is your favourite piece of music? I have lots of ‘favourites’ depending on what mood I am in!! My spontaneous reaction though would have to be Respighi’s ‘Pines of Rome’!! What was your most memorable performance? Again – too many to remember, so again, spontaneously here are three!!: Performing all six Brandenburg Concertos in St John’s by Candlelight for Charlotte’s 21stBirthday; The BPO’s third ‘Birmingham Foundation Prom’ in Symphony Hall with Piers Lane and Rachmaninov Piano Concerto Number 3 – Piers then played the floor polisher in Arnold’s ‘A Grand, Grand Overture’!!; and then it has to be Mahler’s Symphony Number 8 again with BPO in Symphony Hall with over 600 musicians and choir on stage – unforgettable!! Where and what would you like to perform but haven’t yet? I am lucky after so long as a musician to have played most of the mainstream Orchestral rep, but if there was one work I would love to do that has so far eluded me, it would be Carl Nielsen’s 5th Symphony. Who is your favourite composer? These are all really difficult questions!! Do I have an absolute favourite – probably not – but if I had to give a spontaneous answer it would probably be Dvorak then Beethoven. What is your favourite part about playing in OSJ? I love putting on great music with wonderful people and filling what is without doubt one of Bromsgrove’s finest landmarks, St John’s Church, with people!! We are doing our bit to put St John’s back in the heart of Bromsgrove!! |