Category Archives: Mum cellist

For many reasons, large and small, my little family has decided to pack up and move back to Vancouver, Canada, where most of us are from. Trying to raise a child far from all of our families has been very hard, and adding in the difficulty of living in London on one income (I decided to stay home with Elliot for the time being), it just made sense for us to move.

Of course I will miss London desperately, I love it here. This past weekend we had the chance to take Elliot to a family concert by the Berlin Philharmoniker cello section – let’s be honest, that’s not going to be happening in Vancouver. He’s been to Hampton Court Palace, toured Bath, seen concerts at Wigmore Hall a whopping four times and spent so much time in the foyers of Royal Festival Hall I think the iconic carpet will give him flashbacks of his babyhood for his whole life. I love that we could do all of those things, but part of me wishes we could have stayed a bit longer until he could remember it. However, Vancouver is rated the world’s most liveable city for good reason.

Anyway, the big move is happening in May. I’m in the middle of trying to sort out transatlantic shipping for all our stuff including my lovely cello. I was going to Fedex it as per Emily’s preferred method, but getting a flight case is proving impossible. We’re going to be shipping most of our stuff via container ship, and I’ve decided that’s as safe as anything else, especially in light of not being able to find a Mr Blobby. I did entertain ideas of wrapping my case in 64 layers of bubble wrap, but it’s probably not exactly the same thing.

As soon as I can convince Elliot not to thwack my cello with his toys, lift my music stand and toss it sideways, or any of the other creative ways toddlers make it impossible to practise, I will get back to it. An initial search doesn’t look good for an orchestra to play with, but we’ll see.

I know this endless talk of logistics of actually practising is getting tedious, but it’s what’s going on for me in my cello life at the moment. Unfortunately, there’s been no practising. At all. My son has entered toddlerhood and that means I’m running around after him 12 hours a day. He’s too little to understand that Mummy needs to sit down and play her cello now, and please don’t bash at it with your extra-large lego. No really don’t do that. Practising at night with a mute is possible, but as after his bedtime is the only time I have without a small person attached to my trouser leg, it is also filled with getting our UK citizenship paperwork finished, cleaning up, and breathing slowly for a little while.

I don’t mean this as a whinge… well okay I am feeling a wee bit exasperated at the moment because I don’t want to lose the progress I made with Emily teaching me on Skype and I can feel things slipping away. I know this high water mark of constant attention doesn’t go on forever, and there will be a time when I can practise. In the future. Sometime.

Thinking wistfully of hauling my cello through central London on the tube after work is something I never thought I would do – but just this afternoon I was pining for sore shoulders and a cup of tea in a cold church. I miss my orchestra.

I haven’t been practising much lately my previous schedule of breakfast then practise with Elliot in his playpen watching CBeebies on mute isn’t working anymore. Elliot turns one in a week (where did that time go? I have no idea) and starting walking a couple months ago. He is not content to sit in his playpen for more than about 20 seconds. After that, he stands at the bars shaking them and shouting and shouting shouting. I tried it the other day and I got about a minute into long tones and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I don’t quite know what to do. If I let him out, he grabs my music stand and waves it about dangerously. Waiting until Christopher gets home doesn’t work because that is a small window of time, carefully orchestrated, that involves sitting down to a family meal and then bedtime for Elliot. Our flat is too small for practising after he goes to bed, even with a mute. Even if I did convince him not to swing the music stand into my cello, his tolerance level for me doing anything that doesn’t involve him – whether it’s making his lunch, trying to check my email or load the washing machine – is extremely low anyway. 

Musician mums, how do you cope?

Sorry everyone who may have been inundated with old Fugue State posts in their RSS readers. I’ve now moved home from Typepad to WordPress, so hang in there. For the same reason, images or youtube embedded clips may have disappeared. I’m slowly fixing it up, slowly being the operative word…

 
 Today, Elliot and I went down to Wigmore Hall for the second of their baby chamber music concerts. The first half featured a flute soloist who managed not to play any Fauré (incredible!) and had beautiful full tone – none of that breathy anemic stuff I can't stand. It was a pleasure to listen to. I felt motivated to practise when I got home. I set Elliot up with some toys at my feet, however, the best toy is the one he can't have, in this case my music stand. In the photo above, he is just about to start chewing on the leg. I tried sitting him up next to it, but he just dragged it over and kept shaking it, making playing music at the same time a bit of a challenge.

Thirty seconds after this photo was taken he tipped over backwards, taking my lightweight music stand with him. No damage done except a bonk on the nose and some dented pride, but there were some tears and whimpering nonetheless. No more practising after that though!