Fortunately Yorkshire Comprehensive schools had a great school music programme at the time and I was given a school French Horn on loan and free music lessons. What I talk about in the book is how I think I learnt everything I needed to know to get to be an Olympian, apart from the actual sport, from music rather than sport at school. While all the sporty kids were doing sport I was doing music with the same dedication. I’d get up early every morning to do my French horn and piano practice, I had rehearsals most lunch times and every day after school, I’d get up again on Saturday to play in Area Orchestras and played at Country level in the holidays. I learnt how to hold my own line at the same time as blending with a team, and dealing with the sickening nerves of playing a solo really wasn’t that different from lining up for an Olympic final. By the time I finally found rowing I already had all that going for me. I couldn’t believe it when people just didn’t turn up for training. One of the most important things I learnt at school was the importance of turning up. You can’t achieve anything if you don’t turn up.
—Olympian Alison Mowbray
- ABOUT
- About This Blog & Website
- Musicals I’ve Performed
- Operas I’ve Performed
- Patty’s Poetry Pages
- 50 (a birthday poem)
- 50 (an anniversary)
- 52 (a birthday poem)
- 53 (a birthday poem)
- Agnus Dei
- Ah Look At All The Lonely Oboes
- An Average Life
- Animal Sequence
- Annual Agony
- Apology For Poems Never Sent
- Arrival
- Birthday Poem (53)
- Bugs
- Butt Nut
- Cheating
- Clothed and Ashamed
- Deprived of Bandages
- Fallen Fruit
- First Birth
- Frustration
- Gifts
- Happy Birthday To Me (50)
- I’ve Ended My Romance With Poetry
- In Celebration
- It’s not that I expect each one
- Keeping Up Appearances
- Mixed Senses
- My Daughter Lightly Glides
- Oh, The Oboe Woes
- Poem for Today
- Poems to Tunes You Know
- Poets & Authors
- Refusing to Rondeau
- Rescued
- Services Rendered
- Silence
- So Much Depends
- Song Without Words
- Sunrise Sonnet
- Sweeping
- The Birth
- The Hat
- The Mirror Tells a Story (50th birthday)
- The Mystery
- The Test
- This Dusty Bed of Earth
- To the Top of Mt. Whitney
- Together
- Torn
- What We Wish For Our Children
- When I’m Sixty-Four
- Women at Forty
- Resumé
- Reviews
- INSTRUCTION
- MUSIC & MUSIC SUPPLIES
- DATED MATERIAL
- DOUBLE REED MUSICIANS
- REED MAKING
- REFERENCE
- MOVIES!
- OFF SITE REFERENCE LINKS
- LIBRARIES
- CD LIBRARY
- CLASSICAL
- CD Library – A –
- CD Library – B –
- CD Library – C –
- CD Library – D –
- CD Library – E –
- CD Library – F –
- CD Library – G –
- CD Library – H –
- CD Library – I –
- CD Library – J,K –
- CD Library – L –
- CD Library – M –
- CD Library – N,O –
- CD Library – P –
- CD Library – Q,R –
- CD Library – S –
- CD Library – T,U –
- CD Library – V –
- CD Library – W –
- CD Library – X,Y,Z –
- CHAMBER MUSIC
- CLASSICAL: MISCELLANEOUS
- FOLK, SPIRITUALS & TRADITIONAL
- JAZZ, POP & MISCELLANEOUS
- MUSICALS
- OPERA
- SOUNDTRACKS
- WORLD MUSIC
- CLASSICAL
- Kelsey’s Library
- MOVIE LIBRARY
- SHEET MUSIC LIBRARY
- CD LIBRARY
Turning up and turning up on time is more important than too many people realize.
My students learn that lesson very early on, KJC. 🙂