Jacqueline
Shave
Principal
players
Jacqueline Shave
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Meet Jacqueline
Shave
Leader
What do you enjoy about
playing with Britten Sinfonia?
I am a newcomer to Britten Sinfonia
and took up the leader position in September 2005. Right from the outset
it was obvious to me that the greatest quality the orchestra has is its
members, both players and administration. There is a genuine enthusiasm
and intimacy amongst the players which translates directly to the audience.
I must admit that I was quite apprehensive about taking a job in an orchestra
having been in the intense environment of a string quartet for fifteen
years... but Britten Sinfonia really play like a group of chamber musicians...
everyone is incredibly aware of what everyone else is doing.
How were you introduced
to music?
I was introduced to music before
I was born. My mother would play music to me throughout her pregnancy
and soon after I was born 'Das lied von den erde' was played through headphones
to me... I was certainly born into a very musical environment. At home
my father was always listening to Britten and Bartok and he was passionately
interested in contemporary music. It would not be unusual for him to call
me and play Lutoslawski down the phone. My mum nurtured any musical interest
I displayed and taught me the piano until I was five.
It was the piano that I really
took to as a child and I would often be summoned to the headteacher's
study to play him Debussy. I found this really embarrassing and did my
best to keep it quiet. I learned the violin in a group in school with
a rather eccentric teacher. He was a great character but my overwhelming
memory is of him spitting all over me during his enthusiastic demonstrations.
I was lucky to find that playing the violin came to me quite easily and
I was soon leading the school orchestra... it wasn't to be until much
later that I would put in hours of practice.
What were your early
orchestral experiences?
One of my highlights musically
as a teenager was playing in the Forest Philharmonic in Walthamstow at
the age of fifteen. We rehearsed Strauss' Alpine Symphony for weeks and
I was in heaven. I learned my second violin part from memory. I had never
experienced such colours and emotions before and to be part of it all
was overwhelming.
At eighteen I found myself
applying for the Royal College of Music and getting a place there at a
time in my life when I was actually quite unmotivated. I left after two
terms, gave up the violin and went into selling double glazing instead.
Fortunately an ex-student friend of mine persuaded me to join in a play-through
of the Schubert Quintet. The beauty of the music flooded over me and I
realized for the first time that I really wanted to play the violin. I
applied for the Royal Academy of Music and spent three years studying
there.
There I was introduced to the
Britten-Pears School at Snape which became my musical home. I was lucky
to work with international chamber artists and to lead the orchestra under
people who have had a lasting influence on me: Murray Perahia, Lutoslawski,
Tamas Vasery, to name a few. Where else but Snape could one find oneself
on stage playing the Mendelssohn Octet with Rostropovich dressed in drag?
What has been the most
memorable experience in your career so far?
I have had many memorable experiences
but I would say that the one that stands out the most would be performing
Beethoven’s String Quartet Op 131 for the first time twelve years ago.
Words cannot come close to describing the depth of the music, and the
physical, mental and spiritual journey undertaken was shocking and moving
and unforgettable. It was a rite of passage for me.
…and the funniest?
Turning up to a music club
in Ireland to play a piano quartet programme and finding four pianos on
the stage… Going on stage in Cornwall with the Brindisi Quartet to be
greeted by an enthusiastic local who delivered a ten minute speech to
me in Italian which I gratefully acknowledged… and in the interval surprising
her with our fluent English (she had thought that with the name ‘Brindisi’
we were actually Italian)… Driving at breakneck speed across Europe with
the Quartet to catch a plane home from Zurich… unfortunately I had been
given the task of map-reading and after entering one of those long, winding
tunnels, we emerged to a sign saying ‘Welcome to Italy’ (wrong country!!).
What other work do you
do outside BS?
I work quite regularly in the
London studios recording music for film and television, which is a very
different kind of work with different challenges. I also have my piano
trio, the Brindisi Trio, with whom I am visiting Iceland for the fourth
time this summer. I have a few private pupils, who are very special to
me. I think the one-to-one relationship with a developing young person
can be of great value to both parties and a big responsibility.
How do you relax?
I am pretty good at going off
on my own to wild and remote areas to remember who I am and generally
recharge. I have such a full life with my husband and three sons that
solitary time is very precious. The west coast of Scotland and the Outer
Hebrides is my soul’s ‘home’, where I relax by walking and just generally
being quiet.
My husband Gavyn and I have
had a huge amount of fun recently designing and building a house in Essaouria
, Morocco . It’s an ancient walled medina and a great place to go to get
away from the craziness of life here (advertising, consumerism, supermarkets,
cars) as there are none of these things within the city walls. We are
lucky enough to have a lovely wooden ketch, so we dream of sailing from
the Hebrides to Essaouria sometime in the not too distant future.
What are you looking
forward to most about the BS season?
I’m very much looking forward
to the concert coming up in Bury St Edmunds with Pekka Kuusisto. We are
playing the beautiful Bach Double and another Double Concerto by George
Newson which looks fabulous. The lunchtime series in Aldeburgh, Cambridge
, Norwich and Krakow is very exciting with great programmes. Shostakovich
14 in the Maltings at the Aldeburgh Festival should also be a tremendous
event.
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Jacqueline
will feature in the
following Britten Sinfonia concerts during the
remainder of the 2007-08 season:
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