Georgia has always aspired to be a musician—even before she started playing the piano at the age of five. Later in life, the famous Yossi Zivoni described her as a “born violinist.” She studied at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music with Rudolf Botta, then Wells Cathedral School, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Utrecht School of the Arts, where her teachers included Yfrah Neaman, Jack Glickman and Keiko Wataya. She also had some private lessons with Simon Fischer. And has performed with numerous orchestras and groups. Her career includes tours with Glyndebourne Opera, two years with Phantom of the Opera in Holland, and a year with the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra. She has also performed for the late Queen, then Prince Charles, Neil Kinnock, and others. Georgia plays violins and violas crafted by her father, Robert Vale, who passed away in 1996. In 1998, for health reasons, she took a break from music and earned a degree in Chinese from Oxford University. A few years later, in 2003, she returned to music by teaching violin, viola, piano, and theory, as well as running ensembles such as Bromsgrove Amateur Strings. With fresh eyes, and the experience that comes from benig an examiner for the ABRSM, she began writing materials for her pupils giving rise to the Hey Presto! Series which was followed several years later by Top Ten. She has loved writing these series and particularly enjoys creating the audio tracks for the tutor books, as well as arranging music for various combinations of instruments. Other interests include gadgets, languages (she holds a degree in Chinese and has a working knowledge of several other languages), and dogs (she is the proud owner of a gorgeous border collie named Bonnie). She also enjoys walks in the Shropshire hills where she now lives, jigsaw puzzles, the colour turquoise, and dark chocolate.
The Last Poppy, originally for Double Bass, Trio, was inspired by the amazingly evocative poppy installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the …Tower of London in 2014. Created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, 888,246 ceramic poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat, each poppy representing a British military fatality during the First World War.
David Heyes writes: “More than 4 million people visited the poppies and my third visit, a few days before 11 November, was at 6.30am and just as the City of London was awakening. The site was almost empty and there was an eerie stillness that enhanced the beauty and poignancy of the poppies and what each one represented.
Driving back to Somerset a few ideas emerged and the form of the trio slowly took shape. The slow introduction, with its solemn and slow moving melody is set against a high harmonic drone, evoking the stillness of the early morning as London slowly awoke. The soloist then becomes the accompanist providing a grounding drone contrasting the more lyrical melodies, played in thirds, as the drama and futility of war is evoked with simple and evocative textures and themes.
The final section played entirely in harmonics, is gently unsettling as bass 3 challenges the melodic unity of the other basses, the music gently fading into the distance as a few notes of the Last Post are heard in the far distance. A brief silence is broken by a strong and positive D major chord, in six parts, which offers a chord of hope and reconciliation.”
The Last Poppy was premiered on 31 January 2015 at Wells Cathedral School (Somerset, UK) and received its US premiere on 12 April 2015 at The College of New Jersey (Ewing, New Jersey).
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