RNLI set to benefit from piano marathon
ACCOMPLISHED Belford musician, Shiela McQuattie will once again be putting her talents to good use on Friday, January 4 when she will be pounding the piano keys in a six hour musical marathon to raise funds for the RNLI.
In a totally unique event using the piano in the residents’ lounge at Belford’s Bluebell Hotel, she will give an entirely improvised performance from 5pm to 11pm - none of the music will have ever been heard before and never will be again!
Considering a classical concert is normally around an hour and a half, Shiela has set herself quite a challenge but is determined to keep going for the whole six hours to raise funds for the charity.
She explained: “It’s going to be a physical challenge, mostly for my hands and my backside although fortunately I can play standing up!
“I’m going to be improvising the entire time in various styles so while some bits might sound like Mozart or Debussy, others will be more McQuattie. They won’t be tunes that people recognise.
“This is not a concert,” she added. “People aren’t expected to sit and listen for the whole evening but it would be great if people could pop their heads round the door and make a donation to the RNLI.
“Living in a coastal region, we all know how valuable their work is and I hope people will enjoy the music and show their support.”
She is very familiar with the piano - it’s her own.
“It’s a lovely piano,” she said. “It was bequeathed to me and I put it in the Bluebell so it could be used by other people.”
Shiela comes from a musical family and started playing the piano as soon as she could climb onto the piano stool. At 15 she won a BBC Composition Competition and was awarded a piano scholarship to Trinity College of Music, London.
She has performed all over the world, published compositions for orchestral works, chamber and choral music and solo pieces and co-authored three books on Practical Musicianship.
Always proud of her Scottish roots, she changed the spelling of her name in memory of a much loved aunt whose favourite place was Glen Shiel.
This is not the first time that Shiela has used her talents to raise money for charity.
Last year she gave an evening performance of chamber music at Paxton House with fellow musicians Anton Rosenfeld and David Ashbridge raising hundreds of pounds to preserve the magnificent Georgian building.
This time it will be the RNLI which will benefit, the charity whose aim is to save lives at sea depends heavily on volunteers and voluntary donations to carry out its work.
It has saved at least 140,000 lives at sea since 1824 and continues to do so all along the north east coast.
“I did an RNLI fundraiser with two violinists at the Bluebell a few months ago which was good. The people of Belford are very good at supporting charitable causes and hopefully they’ll throw some money into the bucket - and not at me!”
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Weather for Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Friday 24 May 2013
Today
Light showers
Temperature: 2 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North east
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