About 12 years ago I decided to put in the time to learn how to play the cello. In a different post I will write about what led to the decision and what I learned about learning the cello as an adult.

After I’d been playing for about a year, I joined the cello section of Banbury Symphony Orchestra.

The orchestra meets every Tuesday evening during school term time to prepare for a Saturday evening concert at St Mary’s in Banbury. Depending on the concert programme we get audiences of between 100 and 500 people who pay real money to be part of the experience of a symphony orchestra concert.

The orchestra looks the part. Dinner suits, black bow ties, long skirts, you get the idea.

At 7.30 prompt the lights go down, the leader of the orchestra comes on to enthusiastic applause, the conductor follows her on, the baton is raised and…

…and there I am in the cello section.

My left hand has found the first note, the bow in my right hand is poised, ready for the first entry when the conductor has pulled us all together and brings us in.

And then we’re away.

With an infinite range of emotion and gesture, we’re in the moment, in a world of sounds and textures. We’re a single instrument being played by our conductor. Each section of instruments is acutely aware of each other. We’re listening intently to the orchestra as a whole, to our own sound, to the rhythms and melody and harmony of the moment. We’re reading the music, we’re translating these marks on the page into a glorious, unique, right now recreation of the aspirations and skills of a composer’s imagination.

It’s stunning to be part of it.

It’s a privilege and without doubt a highlight of my life.