Last Night of the Pelly Proms

I had a great day Saturday, achieving several firsts, not least of which was playing in the British premier of a work by a major international composer.   I was with the wonderful Pelly Concert Orchestra playing in their "Last Night of the Pelly Proms" concert, a fun interesting and varied program meant I could enjoy listening to Amanda Lake playing Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending as much as I enjoyed playing Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance no.1 and Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs. Since this was the Pelly of course things could not quite go the usual Last Night way so we did play Rule Britannia, but the Russ Conway arrangement! Played on this video as it was on Saturday by Mike Thomson




Musically interesting, time spent with friends, coping with a power cut in the middle of the concert and low flying jets from the nearby Farnborough Air Show during rehearsals should be enough from anyone in any one day.

I also had a bit of a surprise.   When I first played with the Pelly they were my first musical venture as Paula with a civilian group and I was rather worried that I would meet somebody who knew me exclusively as him, I have now played  a few times and was quite relaxed, so was rather surprised, and just a little flummoxed to meet an old friend from the All Souls Orchestra was playing the Double Bass, directly behind me.   As ASO is a Christian Orchestra as soon as I saw him I was worried about how he would react to my transitioning - I care because we have to work together within the orchestra for the greater performance.   As ever I had nothing to worry about, he admitted to surprise but that was as far as it went, no disapproval at all.

No photos of my Concert outfit, but this is the dress I wore for rehearsal, it is cotton and very cool, it also has a very full skirt, helping to stay cool, but also protecting my modesty while playing.   I have found myself wearing this a lot over the last couple of weeks, it has definitely become one of this summer's favorites.