The LMP Friends are an integral part of the life and community of our orchestra, helping to support our outreach and education work and giving us an opportunity to build meaningful relationships with our audiences. We spoke to LMP Friend Julia James to find out more about her experience of being an LMP Friend.
Want to experience the joy and connection of being an LMP Friend?
How long have you been an LMP Friend and what made you join in the first place?
It is my absolute privilege to have been an LMP Friend for the past six years. Having studied music at university, I have always had a lifelong passion for classical music, and have regularly attended concerts by various orchestras at many different concert halls.
Thanks to a chance meeting with Christine Robson (Honorary Chairman of the LMP Friends) in a swimming pool in Ischia in summer 2014, I found myself being invited to the LMP’s Grand Hotel Eastbourne weekend the following February. A small group of LMP orchestral members played chamber music in the delightful setting of the hotel’s grand concert hall, and afterwards, sat with the Friends at the splendid dinner which followed. I had never come across an orchestra where the members were so warm and friendly towards their audience, and it didn’t take long for me to decide to sign up and become a Friend!
What do you enjoy most about being an LMP Friend?
Joining the Friends has enhanced my enjoyment of music immeasurably, both by the breadth of music that the LMP plays (my teenage son even went to hear the LMP when they played with the DJ Shift K3Y at Boxpark in Croydon!) and the numerous extra events that are arranged for the Friends.
Some of the highlights for me have been: attending the live broadcasting of the LMP’s 70th Birthday concert on the 34th floor of The Shard for Classic FM; visiting Phoenix Pianos in rural Kent, to see how the instruments are manufactured and hear Howard Shelley demonstrating the different keyboard actions and timbres of each model; and manning the Friends Bar when Sheku Kanneh-Mason performed at the Fairfield Halls with the LMP. Also, the Annual Friends Lunch and Concert held at Woldingham School, where we can wander amongst the rose arbour and the extensive grounds, is a special summer treat, and being able to travel with the orchestra on a coach to the Isle of Wight Music Festival was an amazing experience!
How has the pandemic changed your experience of being a Friend?
Well, one special benefit of being an LMP Friend is being able to attend the monthly Coffee Meetings. Since the pandemic hit, these have been conducted via Zoom, but the format has remained largely the same. We’ll usually hear a speaker talk about an aspect of music, which always leaves me having learned something new. The LMP has been offering an incredibly wide range of online musical performances during lockdown, which has been a real lifeline to those, like me, who are deprived from our regular concert-going.
What would you say is the main benefit of being an LMP Friend?
I think for me, it’s the greater sense of closeness and connection that you get as a Friend. I love receiving the Friends Newsletter three times a year, and always enjoy reading the players’ detailed biographies, which make me feel even more connected with the many gifted musicians. I have got to know so many of the players (and am very touched that they recognise me!) It’s also good to discover the LMP’s plans for each term and read about future (and past) performances of the orchestra.
I also have the added satisfaction of knowing that my support, along with that of the many other Friends, helps to sustain the creativity of this wonderfully talented and forward-looking orchestra.
