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In Late April we were asked to do two performances in Stratford, ON. We quickly jumped on the offer with the idea of adding another connection (town, people, etc) to our list. Considering what we normally charge for performances and what we were paid the money at this point had no barring on or decision to go perform.
Normally we don't spend lots of time preparing for performances. Once we have things in our repertoire then we either focus on stuff that's fresh or just run through everything one day and go home. With the search for a violinist we needed someone to fill in and play 1st and 2nd violin throughout the night (rotating). We were also asked to do something different so we chose repertoire no one in the room probably knew. The quartet quickly called up a friend/violinist Sharon Lee who was a founding member of the Cecilia Quartet. Amazingly Sharon was able to put together works by Balakirshnan, Golijov, Piazzolla, and even some Mozart and Beethoven Quartets in just 3 days. The professionalism she brought to the table was superb and one of the performances, a soiree, went about an hour over time. We stood there pulling pieces in and out from some of our books to buy time as the crowd asked for more and more. The best thing was Sharons positive attitude and incredible reading skills and charisma. The crowd really enjoyed the event and she contributed to it in every way possible.
Due to this experience the three current and founding members of The Annex Quartet invited Sharon to play a couple of performances with us in the fall. So far shes booked for one and you can find more information with the link below
In the same token we also met John Miller - artistic producer of Stratford Summer Music and former manager of the Orford Quartet. He was at one of events and can be seen with us in the picture while we warm up. John is a very kind man and made the events turn out as smoothly as possible. He also threw the possibility of booking Annex to come back next summer and give a performance. He suggest this to the crowd and the response came instantly.....2011
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