02/09/10

Carl Petrokovsky – My Story

I played with the ICC for about 2 1/2 years between 1978 - 1980. I had just picked up the clarinet again a few months earlier after quite a long break in playing. I remember being absolutely fazed when I first walked into the rehearsal hall and heard the sound and the quality of the playing. I'd never heard anything like it...... and had never seen a contra-alto clarinet much less a contra-bass clarinet before.

I'd also never heard music written and arranged like that for clarinet. Unlike much orchestral music, here was challenging music one was constantly playing rather than counting rests!!

I thought Roy (Upton Holder) had done an amazing job with the choir and I was proud to be a part of it.

The Choir inspired me to play regularly again, which I'm happy to say I've kept up ever since. By the time I left the choir, I had at some point played every instrument in the choir from Eb to Contra-bass. This is an opportunity not many clarinettists ever have. 

A number of other memories:

·         I only once held up a concert when it turned out I had forgotten the music back in my flat and I had to rush back down from Barnet to Woodside Park to retrieve it.

·         I was able to impress my young son the other week when we were in Convent Garden watching the street performers and I told him that I had performed there. What I didn’t tell him was that it was blowing a gale at the time and the clothespins we used to hold the music to the stand enabled us to turn the music and stand into an effective sail. Try playing clarinet with one hand and scrabbling around with the other retrieving music without loosing your place is quite a challenge! 

·         my only radio interview came about because I sent a copy of the Choir’s second record to the local Oxford radio station and the ‘arts’ interviewer was so intrigued he called me in and interviewed me. (I was never sure if it did help boost record sales or audiences.)

·         Russell Cleaver and I deciding to go down to watch the finish of the first London Marathon in person and almost being as inspired to run a marathon ourselves as to practice our (nearly impossible) clarinet part.

·         I still regularly wear my ICC tie at work!!

Of course the real reason I stayed with the Choir until I left London was because of the camaraderie. I enjoyed playing good music with good friends and the post-rehearsal drinks some of us indulged in only enhanced the atmosphere (one did build up a thirst!).

I’d just like to thank Roy and the Choir for the unique opportunity if afforded me in playing and would wish Roger and the ICC all the best for the next 100 Concerts and beyond.

CP/1995

(Roy Upton-Holder - Musical Director 1970 – 1992) – My Story

I founded the Ionian Clarinet Choir in 1970 having heard a recording of an American clarinet choir early on in that year. The sound was unique and there were no regular clarinet groups in Britain at that time.

Originally the Choir consisted entirely of my pupils and ex-pupils but as the months went by, players from further afield came to join. At one point the Choir was 28 members strong with players coming from all parts of London.

During the first few years, all the unusual clarinets, like the contra-bass, contra-alto, bass, alto and Eb were provided by myself but gradually members started to obtain these instruments for themselves.

It is, and always was, the responsibility of the leader to make sure that the players went onto the stage in the correct order and to see to the distribution of music, amongst other tasks. I well remember the outstanding leadership of the late Ian McColl, Nicole Rincon (Mintz), Tony Donovan and of course Sue Young (Wright), without whose help my job would have been very much harder. Then there were those who helped in so many other ways to make my burden lighter, like Wally Hughes (an outstanding contra-bass clarinettist), Gordon Bay, John Miller and Russell Cleaver, to name but a few.

The contra-bass department of the Choir always comprised good players and it was from this section that Roger Greenwood, who took over the baton after I moved to Wales, came from and has successfully guided the Ionians over the last 15 years through to the current concert.

When I founded the Choir in 1970 I never envisaged it lasting for so long. But I am delighted it has and hope it keeps going for at least another 36 years!

Very best wishes for your concert tonight – and  to Roger’s successor! Finally I pay my tribute to the 100 or so players who have performed over the years in our illustrious group.

(These Notes were written on the retirement as Musical Director and Conductor or Roger Greenwood in February 2007)

Roy Upton-Holder, Welshpool, Shropshire.

December 2006