Top musicians perform in Venice

During the Autumn half term, four of our top Trinity musicians were invited to attend our annual recital series in Venice, which included performances at Palazzo Cavagnis, Palazzo Albrizzi and Villa Roberti.  

Fourth Year Ben Abraham (Trinity-Steinway Scholar), Lower Sixth student Dominic Holland (Trinity Musician of the Year), Upper Sixth student Zain Lam (Trinity Music Captain) and former student Edward Warner (currently studying at the Royal College of Music) performed to captivated Venetian audiences and thoroughly deserved the standing ovations given.  

The Venice tour is an opportunity for our senior musicians to experience the life of a young professional musician: its challenges, its rewards, learning to develop networking skills, and of course enjoying being in the most beautiful of cities. Many congratulations to all on a truly wonderful tour. 

Classical guitarist Dominic says, “The Venice tour was a fantastic experience. It was my first time playing a full recital set and it was quite nerve-wracking to do this to a crowd of strangers in such spectacular and historic venues. One of the concert halls had been played in by Paganini, so they were used to a very high standard! It was definitely demanding at times but overall good fun. Being treated more like a professional musician enabled me to plan my time between practising and exploring Venice with the other musicians. I not only found myself getting closer to the other musicians but becoming more independent and confident with my performance preparation.”

Pianist and trombonist Ben said, “The trip to Venice was unlike anything I have ever done before in any of my musical experiences. It massively helped me to build my performance skills, both while playing, and when preparing for a concert. It gave me an idea of what being a travelling touring musician is like which is something I would like to do as a career. It was a great musical learning experience but was also a lot of fun for me and the other students that went to Venice.”   

Cellist and pianist Zain says, “Overall the experience was completely transformative of who I am as a musician. The expected standard of playing and preparation is much higher than in school. Being forced to meet the expectations was stressful at first but all of us knew that it had to be done. 

“The most challenging thing was having to perform in new environments after many hours of travelling. When performing at school we often have the ideal set-up: being able to get a good night’s sleep in your own bed; having a proper room to warm-up in; and being familiar with the halls you perform in. It was a challenge to have a short 10-minute period to get used to a new venue and having to perform to your very best in that moment. 

“Despite the stress, all the concerts were enjoyable, and it is always rewarding when greeted with a rapturous round of applause. Outside of all the performances, I enjoyed the sense of camaraderie formed between the small group of us, through the shared hardship and obviously the many ‘gelato runs’ to the places found through Mr Evans’ numerous years of experience.”