represented by

(clockwise from left):
Rachel Weston, Andrew Busher, Simon Grant, Amanda Morrison,
Michael Dore, Micaela Haslam, Gerard O'Beirne, Heather Cairncross

"It was a particular delight to see Matias Tarnopolsky again on this trip. We performed Sinfonia some years ago with Chicago Symphony/David Robertson when Matias was working with them, and I'd known him long before that when we worked together at the BBC in London. Today's was a matinee performance and Matias very kindly took us all out for lunch after the concert, which was lovely. Unfortunately, it was throwing it down with rain on this free afternoon, so Mandy and I decided to brave the Natural History Museum. I shall have to go and see "A Night at the Museum" now that I've visited the set. I think this is one of the inmates that comes to life in the film.

We were staying at the Beacon Hotel on the Upper West Side - weird place with an extraordinary variety of residents interspersed with hotel guests. When Heather first got to her room she saw a police sign on the door of the adjacent room saying "DOA" - nice! Rather than change rooms, however, Heather was delighted at the idea that there'd be no noise from that direction. The best thing about the Beacon is the wholefood store across the road. It's enormous and sells just about anything you can think of. Very handy in the US where breakfast is very rarely included in the accommodation.

Fairway

The downside was that the delivery lorries started arriving at about 6am, so it was difficult to get a really good night's sleep.

As well as the Sinfonia performances, Heather also got to sing O King in each pre-concert presentation (hosted by Steven Stucky). In addition, I was looking forward (with some trepidation!) to my first performance of Sequenza 111. On February 2nd there was to be a Sequenza marathon at Rose Hall (Jazz at the Lincoln Center), featuring various brilliant players (many from the New York Phil) and me.....agh!"

Micaela