festival photos

zipping between rehearsals and performances has been Drew Thompson taking excellent photographs for the Lichfield Festival archives. They can all be seen here. If there are any more that you may come across or even have yourself, get them online with a link in the comments or a lichfieldfestival2009 tag, or even email them into the Festival Office with how you would like them credited. You never know how they might be used beyond the archive...

the day after

unlike last year when we were using this day to bring everything out, we were already completely out of the cathedral at about 8pm last night. Andy Lovell and Alistair Tucker swung by yesterday evening to take away their unsold works, and the front door bell goes every now and then when people come to collect the pieces they purchased. The whole team is in trying to make sense of our desks (or find it, in my case) and to start to work through exactly how things went as opposed to how we planned for them to go.
Since early this morning scaffolding has been going into the cathedal in readiness for starting to take out the Herkenrode windows for restoration.

day ten.three

CBSO are finally in and I can hear La Mer being rehearsed as I type. We've discovered that we will have some tickets for sale on the door afterall now that last night's sound desk is gone, which is great. Less great is that the Lady Chapel stage was also taken away immediately after the lunchtime concert by the 2008 Gordon Clark Scholars.
The Gordon Clark Memorial Scholarship Trust supports young musicians, the kick back being that they perform either in Lichfield Festival or at Abbotsholme Arts Society. Charlotte Scott and Christian Elliot were to have been joined by James Baillieu, but due to an old RSI injury being triggered by moving house, Simon Lane stepped in at short notice.
CBSO's Music Director and tonight's conductor Andris Nelsons and I were going to have our pre-concert chat on the Lady Chapel stage. We'll probably make it much more intimate than we otherwise could have with both of us on the flat, and the audience really close.

day ten.two

CBSO truck still not arrived, but the Close has been shut to traffic since about 10am because of the Festival Dash, the annual sporting event culminating in a race around the cathedral to the 12noon chimes. Pip from 7 Inch Cinema and I welcomed a lovely little audience for Komaneko earlier on.

day ten.one

the team is in waiting for the CBSO truck in readiness for tonight's final concert in the cathedral. Tonight's soloist is Stephen Hough, who performed Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 at last night's Opening Night of the Proms. Tonight he performs Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.2.