54 By Ginny Farrell
Trish Calnan & George Robertson
DURING their illustrious careers accomplished violinist Patricia Calnan and viola player George Robertson performed with prominent orchestral ensembles led by eminent conductors in top venues across the globe.
“I
spent 11 years travelling the world playing in Europe, America, China, Japan, Australia – literally everywhere – and I loved it.
Performing is what my life is all about.” Patricia said. Between them the Strete-based couple toured
and played with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Bath Festival Orchestra, Bergen Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Tey performed in a host of elite concert venues
such as Carnegie Hall, Albert Hall, Festival Hall, Barbican, South Bank, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Purcell Room, wowing audiences counting Royalty and Prime Ministers among them. Te talented duo also worked with countless
revered conductors of the day including Sir Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, Rudolf Schwarz, Sir Neville Marriner, Kurt Masur, Otto Klemperer and Rudolf Kempe. “We played some marvellous
daughter Emily a year later Patricia’s focus moved towards teaching music, mindfulness and meditation and the Alexander Technique. Six years ago they leſt their village home in Forest
Row, Sussex and moved to Strete, following Patricia’s sister Clare who had retired to the South Hams to run the Dartmouth bookshop ‘Browser’ in Foss Street. Patricia recruited some local students and decided
to start a string orchestra as a way of sharing the extensive expertise and knowledge she had gained throughout her distinguished career. Following her studies at the Royal Academy of
Music Patricia won the Mozart Memorial Prize and performed extensively both as leader of the Trio Zingara and as a soloist throughout the UK and the world.
concerts with Klemperer in the Philharmonia at the Festival Hall back in the late 60s,” said George. “He was an outstanding conductor who had an almost mesmerising quality over the orchestra and the audience. In those days people would come from all over Europe to hear him conducting. It was very exciting.” To boot, Patricia and George were also employed as
session musicians on numerous blockbuster movies including many of the James Bond films, Superman and Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky. It was while recording the soundtrack for the Mask
of Zorro – starring Antonia Banderas, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones - at Abbey Road Studios 25 years ago that romance blossomed. Te pair married in 1998 and aſter the birth of their
to the concert we’d communicate with our instruments rather than words and it would work brilliantly. It was magic and that’s wonderful.”
when it came “But
Feted in the height of her career by critics as an “extremely accomplished” violinist (Te Strad) with “impeccable technique and unaffected refinement of style” (Daily Telegraph) Patricia led the Lyric Quartet to great critical acclaim following their debut recital in 1991, and toured worldwide as a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. She was heard regularly on Radio 3 and her discography include the Brahms Sonatas and works by Dohnanyi, Ross Edwards, Herbert
Howells, Glazunov, Ginastera and Rimsky- Korsakov. In 2022 she formed the Lyric Chamber Orchestra
at the former Laughing Monk restaurant in Strete – which the couple have converted into a home - combining local professional, semi-professional and amateur musicians who perform a series of three concerts annually at St Saviour’s Church, Dartmouth; St George’s Church, Dittisham; South Brent Village Hall; St Mary’s Church, Totnes and Ashburton Arts Centre. Te orchestra’s most recent Spring Series featured
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