Ella Bella at the Cheltenham Music Festival

I confess I was nervous about the Ella Bella event in Cheltenham, at the prestigious Music Festival. Because of the distance, it wasn't possible to have the usual run of rehearsals I have in Hatfield, nor be familiar with (and reassured by) technical arrangements, or get to know my colleagues and their needs. Furthermore, the music had to specially arranged from orchestra score to string quartet - would it be playable?

I arrived the afternoon before the Saturday morning concert, and more or less straightaway went to meet the quartet (at that stage only a trio). This was the first time they had seen the music. And it is a fitting testament to their skill and talent that they were able to grasp it all so rapidly. The musicians were all members of the Gloucester Youth Orchestra, and they were admirably accomodating. Some bits just didn't work; they were cut. Later that evening I zipped over to the Parabola arts Centre - a wonderful new theatre opened last year, part of Cheltenham Girls' College - for a technical check. All that was fine, so I returned to my hotel to practise the drawing and storytelling. Because of the musical cuts, and with some pieces taken faster, not all the drawings I had planned were a good match for the music - or the timing - I had prepared.





I finally went to bed around 1am, got up at 5am, and started practising again, too nervous for breakfast!

The time soon came for my 9am arrival at the theatre. The string players (now a full quartet) went over their music while I set all my paints and my easel, practising which brush for which colour for which music and which moment. And in the twinkling of an eye it was 11am, the theatre was filled with girls in tutus and princess outfits (and a boy dressed as Spiderman!). And it had begun.




As always the time on stage whizzed by. I had decided not to use a script, and to tell the stories of Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake from memory instead. I think it's more communicative, although a lot for my little brain to remember! There were one or two instances when I had to pause and think... "where am I up to again?". But the "Dolce Quartet" did a sterling job, I dashed off 11 paintings (well, sketches really), Ella Bella herself appeared for the encore (a dance from The Nutcracker, whetting the appetite for the next book). And so I think with everyone working together, we pulled it off!


I was given sterling support as always by Sarah from Hachette, supplying the necessary chocolate (and moral suppport) to get me through the event. And everyone in Cheltenham was so warm and friendly and appreciative, including the lovely audience, who kept me chatting and signing books for a full hour after the show. All in all it was a really worthwhile event. I'll be back in Cheltenham in October for the Literary Festival, this time with Katie!