BACKSTAGE WITH…
Kathryn Tickell Northumbrian piper
What are you going to be playing when you join the Brighton Philharmonic for ‘A Celtic Christmas’ on 5 December?
For most classical music concerts, the programme is absolutely set well in advance, but this is not the case here! What I love to do is react to what is happening in the rest of a programme. And so, what we will do is have a long list of things we’d like to include – including some James Macmillan and some Grainger – and, at some point before the concert, I will get together with [artistic director] Joanna Macgregor, have a play through of them and see how we respond to the material that the orchestra will be playing. It’s very exciting.
You and Joanna Macgregor must clearly trust each other to devise a concert in this way…
Yes. We have a long-running association that goes back about 15 years or so. I remember when I first worked with her, I was really taken aback by how she wasn’t only prepared to try new things out, but actively encouraged it. She traverses all genres with great panache and is such a force that, whatever she plays, she will go for it 100 per cent. We’re also both very interested in new music within the classical music world. I don’t, though, want to give the impression here that we will be making it all up on the spot, as it will be very well prepared!
Plus, of course, one of your regular musical partners, the accordionist Amy Thatcher, will be on stage with you…
Yes. Amy is both an accordionist and a composer, though she also clog dances as well – and no matter how well we play, it’s always the dance that gets the biggest round of applause! Together, we have a big tradition of folk music to draw from, which gives a great strength to what we do.
Is Christmas generally a busy time for a Northumbrian piper?
Not really, no! The Scottish pipes get a lot more work than we do, particularly around the New Year – you can play them outside and make a lot of noise, whereas the Northumbrian pipes are much more of an indoor instrument. Though there are some great Christmas tunes as part of the Northumbrian piping repertoire, today we tend to play them just as tunes without the festive social context.