“A music-lover has taken to the high seas on a potentially perilous 1,800-mile trip to raise money for a local orchestra,” writes Jessica Hamilton in Thursday’s (7/31) Evening Star (U.K.). “Martin Soons, from Tuddenham St. Mary in west Suffolk, is circumnavigating Great Britain in his yacht, Alexandria. The aim of the trip is to generate funding for the Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra…. Soons, 51, set off from Shotley several weeks ago and is now about two-thirds of the way through the journey, which has been complicated by the fact that he suffers from deep vein thrombosis and has to take the blood-thinning drug Warfarin…. Thus far, he has visited the West Country, Wales, southern Ireland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, mainland Scotland, the Hebrides and Orkney—and he hopes to complete the challenge in just seven weeks. … Sailing friends who joined him for part of the journey … include Leslie Olive, the orchestra’s founder and conductor, who taught Mr. Soons at school. The SPO will use any money raised to develop all three strands of its work—paid and community concerts, and work with schools—across Suffolk and beyond. Orchestra members strive to demystify the classical music experience, making it accessible to people who have not had an opportunity to sample it.”
Posted August 1, 2014
