On Friday 7th October Sophie (our bass player) played to Alveley village music society. During the afternoon Sophie played her double bass, with Andrew Crabtree accompanying on the piano, and chatted about the techniques used, the history of the bass and about the pieces she was playing. The music society were a lovely audience and asked some very good questions! Composers included Capuzzi, Dittersdorf, Verdi, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Dragonetti. One member of the audienc

Toscana has had two babies this spring/summer! Sophie, our bass player gave birth to Clara in April and Rachel, our viola player, gave birth to Iris in June. Both babies and mummies are doing really well......happy days :-) #RachelClennell #SophiePrice

Next weekend there is a very special concert taking place at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham, to celebrate Andrew Downes' 65th birthday. Andrew Downes means a lot to all members of Toscana Strings. As well as being Anna's dad, he was also head of composition at Birmingham Conservatoire when all members of Toscana studied there. Three of us will be performing in this concert; Anna one of our violinists, is leading the Central England Camerata (the orchestra she founded), Car

As well a playing in Toscana, we all do other things including playing with other groups, solos, teaching and non playing work. Last weekend Sophie (our double bass player) was stage manager for Revival Productions. There were two events at Blickling Hall in Norfolk where over 10,000 people attended. The first event was an Ibiza night with the Urban Soul Orchestra and singers, DJ Goldierocks and lasers. The second night was a last night of the proms concert with Sinfonia Viva