Q&A with Violinist Gideon Robinson

How long have you been involved with the Philharmonia, and do you have a favourite memory of working with us?

Well the first question’s easy, because I first played with the Orchestra in 1988, and I’ve been a member of the orchestra since 1992, February 2^nd, 2.30pm. I’ve got it etched somewhere.

As for favourite moments? There are too many really! There have been wonderful concerts stretching back from when I started to the last week. Certainly I think of working with people like Kurt Sanderling, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Esa-Pekka and dozens of others. Our wonderful soloists too.

We have had wonderful tours going to great parts of the world like Japan, Australia, China – sampling the food (which is very important) and meeting the people, going to great concert halls, experiencing different cultures.

I suppose the other thing is you form connections and bonds in this profession stronger than, I think, many can offer. When I work I’m often sitting with people I’ve known for thirty or forty years, or others I’ve known for longer. I met some of the people in the Philharmonia in youth orchestra, then at college, and then you work with them later. So yes, those longstanding connections are a great thing and I wouldn’t trade that in.

It’s interesting you mention tours, we are in the process of planning ways for Friends to join us on tour at the moment. Certainly some of you may be aware that we are now planning to go to Mikkeli in Finland, so if you haven’t expressed interest in that already please do send an email to rsvp@philharmonia.co.uk so we can get an idea of numbers.

I suppose my next question then – you mentioned that you used to play in youth orchestras. How long have you been playing the violin, and at what point did you know you wanted to be a professional musician?

I’ve been playing since I was 7 years old, but I won’t tell you how long that is. My parents were musicians; my mother was a clarinetist and my father was a cellist. He was in the RPO from 1948. They guided me I suppose – it was their wisdom that told me the violin was a good instrument to choose because orchestras need so many of them and there’s more work available. So that’s why it was the violin, it’s very lucky I connected with it.

If you didn’t play the violin, which instrument do you think you’d have chosen instead?

Well I play the piano, but I already play that so that doesn’t count. I do like the trumpet, I like the guitar, and I like the cello. That’s a tricky one! Definitely not the bagpipes.

One of the other things you are involved in is the Philharmonia’s education and outreach projects, like Orchestra Unwrapped and Hear and Now. Can you tell us a little bit more about what these projects are and why they’re so important?

I’ve been working with the L&E department since 1998. It was a real leap in the dark for players, because we’re trained to play our instruments and to perform in concerts. What we’re not trained to do is to go out and engage with lots of people in an educational way, often people in the community who aren’t so fortunate, or who are very young. So for example we sometimes go to areas where there is no music in schools, which is a tragedy. They have no exposure to it. And so we work with young children and teenagers especially with our Orchestra Unwrapped project.

We’ve been into prisons a few times (through the front door!) which was a real eye-opener. Meeting some people who are incredibly intelligent but have been dealt a bad hand in life and being able to work with these people was an incredibly rewarding thing to do.

Hear and Now is a project which has been running for 14 years. I think it’s the longest running project in the country. It works mainly with people living with dementia, but also with youth groups, and it’s putting these groups together which makes it so unique. You have people of all different ages, some 80 or 90, and then children, 8, 9, 10. To see those people connect is just wonderful. The children don’t clock that these people are suffering with dementia, they just love being with each other and you see these bonds forming and it’s a really wonderful thing. Over a period of years you will see that some of these people suffering from dementia will come from a very dark place to one full of light: they will sing and they will play an instrument! They love it. Sometimes their carers will come and say that the change has been so profound and it’s been such a wonderful thing for them. It’s wonderful for us really, to be able to get off the stage and into the community.

It is also exhausting – we’re not always used to thinking too hard about our work. Working in an orchestra is sometimes more about using our reflexes and reactions, but actually being confronted with situations where you need to try and make a difference in people’s lives is a real challenge, but always worth it.

I think it’s definitely rewarding seeing those reactions and being able to see you’re making a difference. Certainly when I attended Orchestra Unwrapped in Leicester a few weeks ago it was wonderful. The audiences we get at our regular concerts are great, but I have never seen a more enthusiastic crowd than those kids. They were cheering, there was a smile on every face, it was so heartwarming.

The following question was asked by an audience member.

What’s the difference between First and Second violin?

When a composer writes, there are usually 5 string parts. They write two violin parts and one is slightly higher than the other. Then there’s the viola, then the cello, and then the bass. The First Violins tend to play much more melodic parts, and the second violins are sometimes more of an accompaniment. We and the violas call ourselves the engine room: we and the violas work very hard and you don’t always hear that much of us, but if we stop you would certainly notice, we’re the foundation.  The First Violins play the high bits over the top – amazing melodies and tunes up in the stratosphere somewhere. It’s a bit like in a choir, which has sopranos and altos.

Composers also write very differently for the two sections. Some composers give not very interesting accompanimental parts and give all the glory to the Firsts (Donizetti or Haydn might not be that interesting for a Second player), but others spread it very evenly which is very exciting for us. Richard Strauss for example is wonderful, as everyone gets something to do.

Playing Second is also physically very hard work, as we’re always playing on the lower strings so we always have our arms in the air. You’ll see what I mean next time you look!

Thanks you everyone for for joining us this afternoon, and thank you Gideon for providing a fantastic insight into what you do.

The next Friends Q&A will be on 25 January in London. Keep your eyes peeled for more Q&As being announced soon.