What an awesome few days we had! South Devon Rockies literally rocked the whole of South Devon. To celebrate the Queens Platinum Jubilee we rocked Teignmouth, Dawlish, Torquay and Paignton all in the space of 4 days. A happy time for us all to remember! Rock Choir.  We even squeezed in a flash mob at the Riviera Airshow as part of our 70 falsh mobs in 70 towns event.  Great gigs!

We are getting ready for the Jubilee in our Rock Choir sessions this week. Rockies love any excuse to dress up and wave a flag. Here are the Torquay rockies starting the week off in great fashion as they always do! Singing, cake, chatting with friends, laughing, raising money for local charities Rowcroft Hospice - what a way to start the week. They sound awesome as well by the way!

Wow, what a Saturday!  I had the pleasure of playing on the beach at The Venus cafe Blackpool Sands for Fee and Simons wedding on Saturday. I played the Canon in D for Fee's entrance and then we rocked out to Mr Blue Sky which is a new piece in my repertoire.  I then drove a short distance to Ringmore by Bigbury to play at a suprise birthday party.  It was all very exciting as the birthday girl new nothing of the party or the fact that a violinist would be there to play her in.  Imagine her face when she walks into Sky full of stars by Coldplay! It was awesome! I then played a mixture of light jazz and classical favourites while the guests had a drink before dinner.

Beautiful wedding today at the idyllic @TawstockCourt in North Devon. We played for the traditional church wedding. Canon in D for Lauren's entrance followed by Blinding Lights for the signing and our brand new arrangement of Beautiful Day by U2 for the exit of the bridal party. We then accompanied the champagne reception on the terrace with a selection of rock and pop favourites. Congratulations Lauren and Greg. #tawstockcourt #exevalleystringquartet

I never forget how lucky I am with my job. Today I played at @hotelsandycove with the sea in the background. Beautiful wedding with really lovely music choices. Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran for Megan’s entrance. Everything by Michael Buble for the signing and Best day of my life for the exit. Lovely families and a great venue. Lovely to work alongside Laura at @freeformimages.co.uk again. she is awesome. #hotelsandycove

Lovely wedding today just outside Exeter. Ceremony and drinks reception inside a marquee due to the poor weather. Lots and lots of classical music today including some opera excerpts which are so nice to play.

It was my pleasure to lead the orchestra in this choral concert in Crediton.  It was so lovely to play the Faure Requiem which is a delightful piece of music that holds many fond memories for me from my Conservatoire days.  After the interval we played Vivaldi's Gloria which is another great work. The choir was North Creedy Choral Society.  I really enjoyed playing in an orchestra.

Fantastic spring wedding in Ilfracombe. Solo wedding at The Tunnels hotel overlooking the sea. Nice to play some unaccompanied Vivaldi. Long road trip for me but always worth it.

Lovely wedding in the April sunshine. Beautiful venue Pynes House and a big thank you to the wonderful Natalie Hyland Weddings & Events for the welcome. Nice to play something a bit different today. Yours by Ella Henderson, River Flows in me and a lovely gentle version of Symphony by Clean Bandit. Then I played for the drinks reception in the beautiful rose garden.

Brilliant Sunday music day. I joined the Plymouth Philharmonic Choir choir and orchestra to put on an amazing performance of Verdis Requiem at the wonderful Plymouth Guildhall. What a great piece of music! Loved the challenge of a last minute switch to violin one!

That was a great Rock Choir day!  Over 100 rockies from across Devon joined forces to learn 'Somebody to love' by Queen.  The 4 hour workshop included singing through other Queen classics and learning this iconic Queen rock song.  Richard and Vikki joined together to lead the workshop where we learnt the entire song and performed it at the end.  We also looked at vocal technique and performance technique as well.  A fabulous occasion where we all worked extremely hard but had a huge amount of fun at the same time.

I had a lovey afternoon at Tiverton Golf club today playing in the restaurant for Mothers Day.  The sun was shining and the golf course was in the background.  I played a two hour set of light classics on electric violin to help create the right ambience for this special day.

We played at a very beautiful wedding yesterday in the Spring sunshine. This was the first time back at the gorgeous Huntsham Court Country House, Devon in a while. We were there all day playing for the ceremony and then outside in the lovely gardens in the sunshine and then back inside for the wedding breakfast. We were able to play a large amount of our repertoire both classical and rock/pop with a special request to end with - 'The Rains of Castamere' - go and listen to it if you don't know it because it is beautiful - great for the viola. A lovely day

I played at the very beautiful Powderham Castle last weekend for the wedding of Kimberley and Jon. It was a wedding with a difference as it was taken by David Brent from The Office! It was hilarious! I played 'One Day like this' for Kimberley's entrance and then I went up to the famous minstrels gallery to play a variety of pop and rock violin covers for the drinks reception. It was a lovely day. Congratulations!

It has been a real pleasure working alongside Guide Dogs South West the past couple of years.  We are very proud to say that we have raised over £5000 and we can now 'Name our own puppy' and help fund the early years of training. The members of my rock choirs are wonderful and have been really creative with fundraising whilst singing and having fun along the way.

Always a pleasure to play at and attend the big wedding show at West Point Arena in Exeter.  Busy two days talking with brides and groomes and families about their music requirements. We had lots of enquiries and the bookings are starting to come in as well. We are looking forward to a busy 2022 and busy 2023.

I spent the day with Exe Valley String Quartet on Saturday playing at the wedding of Andy and Zaria. It is always nice to play the Canon in D in a church with the lovely acoustics. Then we went off to Rockbeare Manor to play for the drinks reception. We played a wide variety of upbeat songs and pieces including the very popular Don't look back in Anger which is one of our new arrangements.

It was nice to spend the morning yesterday directing my rock choirs at Bovey Castle. This is venue that I play at often with the Exe Valley String Quartet but this was a choir gig this time. We sang live on BBC Breakfast to help the legend that is Tom Daley on his final leg of his challenge for Red Nose Day. It was nice that the BBC acknowledged the link between our string quartet, Bovey Castle and us playing for the wedding of Tom and Lance back in 2017. Both of these events were awesome experiences that I will always remember and cherish.

I don't think I have ever played outside in January before! Just look at the weather though - it was beautiful. Congratulations to Faye and Philippe on a really beautiful ceremony and drinks reception in this gorgeous corner of South Devon Thurlestone Hotel. Faye walked into the very popular Canon in D and then I played a variety of musical styles outside on the balcony. #musiciandevon #devonviolinist

I had a lovely day yesterday playing for Lizzie and Williams Christmas wedding. That was the last gig for 2021. St Audries Park Wedding Venue is a stunning location for a wedding. I played electric violin for the drinks reception only. Nice to play through the repertoire including the theme tune from Jurassic Park.. #musiciandevon #freelanceviolinist #devonviolinist. It has been a very unusual year.  No gigs for the first half of the year due to the pandemic and then suddenly all goes mad and I have lots of gigs both as a soloist and also with the string quartet.  New weddings, existing weddings and of course fitting in all of the postponed weddings.  2022 is shaping up to me a little bit more controlled!  Happy new Year.