Playing and designing board games.

I’ve come to love quiet walks with my dog, Pablo, in the beautiful countryside around Winchester, but equally I love spending time with my family and friends, especially ending up in a pub with a well-deserved pint!

I’m one of three brothers who all grew up playing the cello – my Mum started teaching us as soon as we could hold a bow!

Rather unromantic story I’m afraid. I was 6 and the little school orchestra at my state primary was short of cellos – I didn’t actually choose it but was told I could start a year early as my sisters were showing so much talent on the violin. Maybe it chose me. I did love it straight away and will always feel grateful the head teacher was so interested in classical music.

I always love playing Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, but haven’t yet with LMP. I can’t imagine any music more joyful.

The intensity, beauty and raw quality of Bartok‘s Divertimento for strings. It’s a great piece to have in the rep if rehearsal time allows and it’s been a while since I last played it.

Josef Hassid’s recordings of encore pieces from 1939/40. There’s so much beauty and fragility in his playing.

I don’t often put music on when relaxing as I find it hard to keep it in the background. My husband puts on great jazz at more relaxed meals and our violin-obsessed 16 year old is often sharing his latest favourite interpretation of late Beethoven quartets or violin concertos.

I tend to have an August/ September surge of classical listening when planning my festival programme – usually on trains and flights in the headphones. That’s also when I’m most likely to loose myself in recordings, eg Danish String Quartet’s brilliant Nordic Music album combining their touching folk arrangements with curious snippets of Beethoven and Adès.