Future Classic Women Awards – Philippa Mo

Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Today we missed Clara Schumann, but we have a fantastic violinist, that is Filippa Ma. Good morning. Hi, it's really nice to meet you. Good morning, Filippa. We are live, so as you know, things can can go funny. Anyway, Philippa, so you are a violinist. I am. You're English? Yeah. Where are you from? I grew up in Reading, but I feel very much like a Londoner now because I was having lessons from quite an early age up in London, and I studied at the Royal Academy of Music and lived here ever since. All right, I was at the Academy. I should have asked you before we start the interview. Maybe we were there at the same time. I think maybe slightly before you, but yeah. Did you have a good time there? Because I really enjoyed my time there. Oh yeah, absolutely. It was beautiful. So why don't we start with that question? How important it is to go to music college? Well, it was, it was quite a fight for me to decide that because I had a lot of teachers wanting me to go to university instead, and I had a real passion for English literature, but I knew probably from the age of about 15 when I changed teacher that I really wanted to to pursue the violin and I wanted to be surrounded by players. So he was at that time teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, a Chinese violinist called Shu Wei. And so I sort of defied them all and applied and got a place there and was really happy that that was the path I took. How wonderful. And did you keep in touch with the classmates? With classmates, yes, very much so. And actually, I'm very excited. Next year we might talk about that, but I'll be getting together with my very first violin duo partner, best friend who's living in France now. But, yeah, she was a classmate, same year as me, so we've been in touch for many years. And it's wonderful to see the progress of all the different instrumentalists that I shared the time with there. And in, I think it was 2015, I was awarded an Associate of the Royal Academy. And that was one of the most incredible occasions because I got an opportunity to hear the variety of careers that people going on to pursue. And, you know, I think at, you know, that time when we were all undergraduates, we had no idea what we would go on to do. And I've certainly been surprised by the things that I've done over the past few years. It's been really exciting. Yeah, sometimes you're just doing things because you love doing it, and then when you put them back together, you realize how much you've done in such a short time, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And it's always inspiring to see what other people are up to as well. Mm-hmm, definitely. Mm-hmm, absolutely. So What do you think about classical music today then? In the sense of its health or— I think— Because I've seen your style, I've seen— we will talk about, we will listen to you, we start with something very classical, so we're gonna start with a Handel sonata today with the guitarist Martin Foucault, but I've seen, you know, you're not the typical classical pianist with the pictures on Instagram with the concert dress. No, no. I like, they're very artistic, they're very forward thinking, I think. Well, I think one of the things we're all learning is it's important to be really, you know, able to adapt to different situations as a musician, not only just as a classical player. And I think, I mean, for me, there's never been a more exciting time to be playing classical music and trying to take it to different audiences. I've always been really fascinated by contemporary music, so loving sort of meeting new composers, working with composers that I have been close to for a number of years and trying to portray classical music as something that really is for everybody and there's, you know, trying to break down the barriers that have been seen to be a problem, you know, with people worrying about attending concerts, the division of a concert stage and an audience. And I, you know, hopefully the photographs are just one facet of that. Instagram is a very powerful tool, isn't it? It is. I'm lucky enough to have been photographed by an amazing photographer, Guy Carpenter, and he's amazing to work with and he's got a real vision about, you know, artistic imagery as well. So that's been really a lot of fun. When you choose a setting, is it something that you do together with the photographer, the concept I mean, or something that maybe he's telling you about and then maybe you adapt the music to it, for example? Well, we've talked about doing video actually together, but mostly it's just been finding— he's very, very brilliant at finding locations, and I think it is interesting seeing a musician standing in certain places like beautiful forests or urban environments. And I mean, that hasn't been so much of a statement as an opportunity to sort of just photograph me and the instrument in order to promote concerts, but I think they are really beautiful images. Absolutely. And I think that is something that, you know, I've never had the opportunity to be imaginative about before, so I've really, really enjoyed that. And then hopefully, if that draws anybody in to come and actually listen to music, that would be wonderful. So have you crossed art with other medium that is not just photography? Yeah, well, I've worked a lot with composers who have been fascinated by artists. So there's composer Jim Atchison in particular. Worked very closely with various artists, and the first piece I performed of his was at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and it was all about the Laocoon sculpture and his fascination by the ancient sculpture and then modern artists' response to that. So his music was very, very much bound up with art, and he's taking a fascinating turn right now in creating his own paintings and sketches and drawings, and so we'll be working together again next year, but I've played a lot of his music and in really interesting settings, so to play next to the sculpture in Leeds was really wonderful and it gave the audience an experience of more holistic experience than just the music in a absent space. And we've performed in St Ives in the Patrick Heron Studio, and he wrote a piece, Shibboleth, for solo violin, which was written for the crack in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall by Doris Salcedo. And we did a very sort of intense, quite claustrophobic performance in the Patrick Heron Studio with the music. The music is designed to be laid out along the floor and the violinist walks along it, and the audience are encouraged to come too, so they're very, very much part of the performance. It's quite a visceral, violent piece. It's very exciting, and to have it in such a small space was wonderful. So I've been interested in other spaces than concert halls for a long time now. And it's very interesting that for as cutting edge as you are, we're actually starting with the most classical of all, that is Haydn's Sonata in A Major, first and second movement, with guitarist Martin Foucault. And we can— we can take it from there. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism, women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Lauren Mishkon. I'm a birth doula and mum of 3, and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show, From Tummy to Mummy, here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health. Everything fertility, pregnancy, birth, and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hello, my name is Ingrid Marsh on Women's Radio Station, and coming soon is the Radical Wellbeing Show. To help support women's wellbeing, each show I share the airwaves with ordinary women like me and you doing extraordinary things. Women who've overcome huge obstacles in their lives who are now here with me to empower you. On the Radical Wellbeing Show, you'll be inspired to kick away the roadblocks and live your life to the fullest. If you're ready to get radical about your wellbeing, then this is the show for you. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover, and mental health advocate, and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station daily at 5 AM and 5 PM. Throughout my shows, we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers, and book enthusiasts, all with the theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters@womensradiostation.com. Join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the executive director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at mediamattersforwomen.org. You're listening to Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station's creating a global network for the empowerment of women, and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter @WomensRadioStation, that's Women's Radio Station, or Facebook Women's Radio Station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Welcome back to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artists on the classical panorama. Our guest today is fantastic violinist Filippa Mohn. Filippa, so we started our program with, um, Handel, right? How— why did you choose Handel? And I mean, we have a list of exciting pieces, and it was hard to choose actually what I thought would be really nice to listen to. But I think it's, I mean, I think it's a perfect piece to listen to in the morning. It's sparkly, it's beautiful, it's clean and bright, and sort of shows the very best of what a baroque composer sort of epitomized. And I think to play it in the arrangement with guitar gave it a new freshness. And it was a piece that I'd learnt when I was much younger and really enjoyed performing it, you know, with different instrumentalists. But had an opportunity to record in the Temple Church. And so I thought that would be a really nice one to share. And although, you know, I spend my time with a whole range of repertoire, it's very palate cleansing. It's very cleansing actually to play that kind of music as an instrumentalist. And so I enjoy that, you know, one has to be clean and really kind of pure with the approach to it. I have a question I never asked anyone. Is it different to play a lunchtime concert or a matinee or an evening concert? And actually, like in the UK, the concerts in the evening are at 7:30. They are. In Europe they're much later, aren't they? Yeah, in Italy, for example, at 9 PM. Yeah, I've just been playing in Spain, actually the concert's very late in Lanzarote also. What time was that? I think they were 8:30, so not actually that late. But so yeah, we're very much entrenched that concerts should be 7:30 PM in Britain. I know a lot of places are trying to change that, especially on a Sunday, bring concerts earlier. Even earlier? Yeah, just to let people get home afterwards, which is practical and really important that the audience has a comfortable experience arriving and getting away from somewhere. But in terms of performing, it is a really different feeling, I think, because when you— There's something about a concert day from when you're small, it's a really special day. You go to sleep the night before thinking tomorrow's a concert day. It's exciting, it's a little bit nerve-wracking, and I think that I'm happy that's never changed, actually, that it's always something very special, even though I'm now doing a lot of performances through the year. And I think there's something really nice about a lunchtime that you have a short lead-up time, so you have to be quite intense in the morning, prepare, Daylight makes a difference. Sometimes there are concerts that are candlelit. That's one of the things I'll talk about in my series a bit later on, that in an evening concert, that the intimacy is quite a different thing and it can be quite romantic in a sense, depending on the setting as well. So, yes, and very often the length is different. So a lunchtime concert often runs without an interval, so you know you're in for an intense physical hour of playing. And then you can have your rest afterwards, but you have to keep momentum through an evening concert. The interval is absolutely crucial, but then you've got to kind of pace yourself for a second half. So it all depends on repertoire as well, it depends on a venue, but yeah, I think it does feel different actually. There is something that after a concert, I'm sure you feel the same, you get the adrenaline and you're so awake. Yes, very often, and it's impossible to— possible to just settle down. I think I tend to drive everybody mad by just talking too much afterwards, but actually there's just so much, um, that you, you know, we put so much thought into a performance for hours, for days, for weeks, months sometimes beforehand, that even years you prepare for all your life, and then, you know, you are— you just have one bullet. Yeah, if you like. And that's it. And that matters so much, and every second matters so much to you, and you kind of really want to analyse it afterwards, you want to forget about it. You're in quite a kind of internal maelstrom, really. So I think, yeah, that's one advantage of lunchtime, you have a bit of a day to wind down afterwards. But it's lovely to share that with chamber partners as well, with people you know really closely. It's amazing to have friends and family in the audience. Absolutely. I mean, so much makes a difference. And if you're feeling physically well or not, it's an exhausting process. But so there is now this new wave. I've been told often I had this show with the actress Elena Mattsson. She wrote a play on Clara Schumann. Yeah. And the audiences be asked to actually have a recital after that. So I've been following her. We did a show in Los Angeles, so I had to talk before and introduce the pieces and explain the mood. So the audience was very happy about that. But I completely— I couldn't function with the memory, so I had to perform with the music. So as a pianist, that's something that normally, unfortunately, is required since Clara Schumann, she was the culprit. Really? Yes, she invented this. She got us into it, goodness me. Absolutely. Memory is a really big issue. I've been talking a lot with colleagues about it, that there has been— it's one of the traditions I think we could happily just dispense with, that there is so much extra pressure on an artist to deliver something by memory. I mean, there are whole, you know, symphony orchestras that are performing by memory. I don't think that's a priority. I think it's absolutely admirable. I think it shows great commitment, but it also shows that somebody spent a lot of time devoting to memorizing, and sometimes it really works for people. And I think we could lose that as a requirement, especially for pianists, because I mean, the load of repertoire that a pianist particularly gets through in an evening recital is colossal. And I think I'm very happy to use the music if I want, and I'm very happy to dispense with it if I want to. Absolutely. But my question was going to be, actually, do you like introducing the piece and talking to the audience? I really do now, and it was something that I remember the first time was absolutely terrifying. And it's not something that's particularly natural to me to deliver to a large room and I have to project. I struggle with that, but I think it's become easier and easier because I know how much I love it when I see other performers do it, and I know how alienated I feel now if I see a performance and there's no speech because I don't feel I've got to know that person as much as I might have done if they'd have said a few words. So I make it a point now everywhere I play to try and do that, and when I've been on tour in China, I've done that in Mandarin as well, which has been— No! You can speak Mandarin? Oh wow. I mean, that was particularly lovely because the audience wasn't necessarily expecting that. Breaking that big barrier, isn't it? Totally broke it. And, you know, it probably wasn't perfect and I probably made some mistakes, but it was just— They loved the effort. And I loved trying, and I think it was important to do that, you know, given that I had the ability to do that. And I think, yes, I find introductions very important. We will talk more. Now we're gonna listen to Piazzolla, L'Histoire du Tango, with Marimba, Ronnie Wenzel, and Philippa Moët-Devaly. Welcome to the Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station is all about diversity, from opinions, career, ethnicity, education, and most importantly, women's well-being. Well-being. We aim to celebrate the individuality of every woman everywhere, providing opportunities and the platform for your voice. Visit our website womensradiostation.com for more information. I'm Tamina Zaman, founder of Empower and Enrich. When it comes to money, do you clam up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money, or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone. Many women want to be smarter with their cash but just don't know where to start. At empowerandenrich.org, you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy, affordable way. 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Turn to us as a national charity helping people struggling to make ends meet. Job loss, illness, or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis. We give practical help to get people back on track. Whether you're thinking of having a baby, trying to get out of an unhappy relationship, or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to, we can help. Visit turn2us.org.uk. Welcome to the Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station can give voice to your brand with a wide range of sponsorship opportunities, including individual programs. We can tailor your experience for you. For more information on how you can sponsor a show, go to womensradiostation.com. Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Welcome back to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station. Today our guest is the fantastic violinist Filippa Mohn. Um, Filippa, we— I don't know, we were talking so much, we shouldn't talk between the intervals, but there is this fantastic, um, interesting story unique, I have to say, of you going to China. I mean, how did you decide to go to China? Well, when I was preparing to try and apply to music college, my teacher at the time thought that I was devoting too much time to school because he'd grown up just devoting himself completely to the violin, hours and hours and hours of practice, and didn't really get that in England that's what we do, we all do that, and he thought that I should get away and and really just spend a lot of time preparing properly. So my parents supported it and eventually school gave in and I went to live in Beijing for 6 weeks with his teacher, Professor Lin Yaji, in the autumn term of my A-level year. Oh, wow. So just to absolutely focus on violin and nothing else. And I had a lesson every day and was surrounded by— Every day? It was very intense. And hearing his other students coming to have their lessons and spending time with them. So that was the first experience, and then when I was an undergraduate at the Royal Academy of Music, there was an opportunity to go abroad for a year. So I decided to go back to Beijing to go to him again. So I had, you know, a full academic year at that stage, and that was an amazing life experience. And were the classes in English or Chinese? He had some English, but actually he was so demonstrative as a teacher that he used to sing a lot, he used to demonstrate, and yeah, he did use a bit of Chinese too, but I picked up the language with some really lovely classmates who were living in the conservatory as well, and we used to sit with a dictionary and point at words and, you know, laugh an awful lot about misunderstanding each other, and they learned a little English from me as well, so I made good friends friends, I picked up Mandarin and suddenly had the ability to talk to people because I think for a few months it was just a bit difficult not being able to really communicate. And I love the language Mandarin, it's very, very beautiful and— It's very musical. It's very musical and it feels so familiar now and I've managed to keep it up since then. So I'm very happy being able to travel to China to give concerts and masterclasses and actually talk properly with people. It's very fascinating because it's such a country with such a long history, isn't it? And art as well. Yeah, the culture is awe-inspiring, and I think the speed with which they've responded to Western classical tradition has been wonderful. And it's one of the most rewarding places to go and perform because the audience is, in my experience, incredibly open. They will you know, listen attentively to all kinds of repertoire, you know, from earliest Baroque to contemporary music. So it's a country very hungry for new cultural experiences, and I think, you know, the Western tradition is one of them. And the standard of playing is absolutely awe-inspiring there. And one of the things I loved when I spent time there was watching how the students had such discipline. It was amazing to see from a very young age, and it was self-driven as well. And, you know, with their peers, they would gather and chat about music and just talk about practice techniques. And there was a real school of, you know, teacher-students working together, which I loved that. Now, a very, you know, usual question that in this case might be even obvious as an answer, but what was the most exciting moment in your career? Well, it probably— I've probably got a few, but one that always springs to mind if I'm asked that was to do with the Far East, but not quite as far as China. I had the opportunity to play in a contemporary music festival in Mongolia, and I went as a soloist with all British contemporary music, and we were taken to Ulaanbaatar, the capital. I played in the opera house there, so everybody performed in each concert, so it was really long evenings of music, players from all around the world. And then we were taken out into the Gobi Desert and we had a concert in the sand dunes, and it coincided with the Naadam Festival, which is the festival of archery and horse riding and wrestling. And so all the nomadic people gather at this point, and while I was playing, it was the most extraordinary evening. The sun was setting, and then along the top top of some sand dunes came some horse riders, and it was just absolutely beautiful. I just couldn't— like out of a movie. I just couldn't quite believe— I thought, you know, good for all the practice, good for the hornstock, because, you know, I couldn't imagine seeing, you know, something that wonderful. So that, that will never leave me. That— would you say that's one of the pros of our career? Yeah, I think, I think for me, traveling and meeting people is, is the absolute highlight, and, and getting to share the music with them as well, and Yeah, I mean, I've seen things I never would have imagined, and I'd love to say to anybody studying now, it gets difficult, it gets really hard, you get to all the days that you just want to give up, but you don't ever know quite where it will lead you. And so just always stay inspired. Yeah. So what would you say are the cons? Well, you know, there have been some real low moments of, you know, all descriptions. Really, I think, I think the, the hardest thing is is just keeping the energy up and keeping the optimism up, positivity, because it's not the easiest of careers. It's not sort of that predictable, that stable, but that's also one of the advantages of it, that one gets to choose a schedule, one gets to choose partners to work with. So I think day-to-day positivity is really important, and also just maintaining one's health as well. I was just thinking, that everybody suffers with this, but fingertips being in the right kind of condition to play a concert, in case your skin gets too hard and starts dropping off before you play, and people who are having injuries with practice. It's very physical. It's very physical, so we have to look after ourselves too. So, yeah, that's the downside, not having the most gorgeous-looking hands, I suppose. I don't really mind about that, though. Well, that's not what people think. They all think that our hands are amazing because they're all thin, and you know, but I can see mine, for for example, they're full of muscles, and so sometimes you look at them when I'm playing and all the veins get swollen and it's not, I don't think it's very pretty. But it's a bit of a, yeah, it's kind of a battle scar, isn't it? So yeah, to be worn with pride. That I'm very proud of. Now the next piece, it's Górea by Leo Guerre, and would you like to talk about it? Yeah, this is a fascinating work. This was commissioned by the Tate St Ives Leo wrote a piece inspired by 3 sculptures by Barbara Hetworth called Gerea, and we performed it in St Ives and then had the opportunity to record it at the Temple Church in London. Leo's a really interesting composer, young composer, and wonderful conductor. I'm going to be working with him quite soon in November playing the Dvořák Concerto. Oh, beautiful. He's going to conduct in Exeter Cathedral. But this work is in 3 movements. The first movement that we're going to hear today is called Delos and explores various sounds in the violin, but it's a very beautiful work and as a contemporary piece I think it's very attractive. So I think he's used the instrument incredibly well. He goes on to use singing as part of the piece and I think it's been very enjoyable to play. I'll be performing it again next March in King's Place. He has a focus on his music Fantastic. Then so it's great because it's a piece that definitely has a life ahead. I've had a few performances already. Beautiful, then let's listen to Delos by Leo Gier with Filippa Moedewaayle. Welcome to Women's Radio Station. I'm Sarah Louise Ryan and welcome to Love Lessons Live on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte, on Women's Radio Station. Hello and welcome to Julie May Is Listening. Hi, this is Anna Kennedy and we're at Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being and we're talking all things autism. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Lauren Mishkon. I'm a birth doula and mum of 3, and I'm passionate about supporting women to have empowering and positive birth experiences. Please join me for my brand new show, From Tummy to Mummy, here on Women's Radio Station. Every week I'll be here with an expert guest talking about women's reproductive health. Everything fertility, pregnancy, birth, and baby related, right through to the menopause and beyond. Please join us for an informative and fun hour. Hello, my name is Ingrid Marsh on Women's Radio Station, and coming soon is the Radical Wellbeing Show. To help support women's wellbeing, each show I share the airwaves with ordinary women like me and you doing extraordinary things. Women who've overcome huge obstacles who are now here with me to empower you. On the Radical Wellbeing Show, you'll be inspired to kick away the roadblocks and live your life to the fullest. If you're ready to get radical about your wellbeing, then this is the show for you. Hi, I'm Hazel Butterfield, a blogger, book lover, and mental health advocate, and you can listen to my show Get Booked here at Women's Radio Station daily at 5 AM and 5 PM. PM. Throughout my shows, we'll talk about the books I've read, new releases, chat to authors, publishers, and book enthusiasts, all with the theme and aim of supporting women's emotional well-being. If you have a book to tell us about, get in touch at presenters@womensradiostation.com. Join me on my show and share my love of books and writing. Hi, I'm Valentina Barbacci, and I'm the Executive Director of Media Matters for Women. We're a registered charity operating in Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. And we produce and share podcasts via Bluetooth on mobile phones, focusing specifically on women and girls excluded from information due to extreme poverty. We empower those living in rural areas with media that transforms how they access, own, and share information. To find out more and be part of this movement, come check out our website at MediaMattersForWomen.org. You're listening to Women's Radio Station supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station's creating a global network for the empowerment of women, and we want you to be involved. Join us on Instagram and Twitter @WomensRadioStation, that's Women's Radio Station, or Facebook Women's Radio Station to keep up to date with all our exciting programs. Welcome back to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station. Our guest that we've been talking today is Philippa Ma. Philippa, so that was very fascinating, all your trips to Mongolia, to China. So what's your next project? Well, I'm involved right now in a continuation of a series which I set up in the beginning of 2018, and currently is being held at The Curtain in Shoreditch, which is an amazing venue, and it's just called Philippa Mo at The Curtain, and I'm taking the opportunity to invite different duo partners to come and collaborate with me each month. It was hopefully gonna be the last Tuesday of every month, and we've kind of stuck to that actually, so I had a lovely performance last month, September, with Jakob Kuhlberg from Denmark. Oh, I know, he's a friend of mine. Okay, well he brought all his students from the Royal College of Music So we had an amazing lineup of cellists. Super cellists, yeah. Absolutely phenomenal. He played the Shostakovich Cello Concerto with special arrangement with, you know, 10 cellos, and I played the Four-Jet Romance with them, which was just wonderful. This coming month I've got the wonderful harpist Olivia Jaegers to come and join me. We've got a gorgeous program, and one of the things I'm trying to do is really mix up the repertoire so the audience are getting a range of particularly contemporary music. But interspersed with beautiful classical music, earlier Baroque music. So with Olivia, we're going to have a UK premiere by Paul Paterson, which will be very exciting. I've had a lot of premieres in the series so far, and there'll be another one in November with the wonderful guitarist Jakob Bangso from Aarhus in Denmark, who has asked the Danish composer Andrea Andrisch to write us a new piece. So that's going to be actually a world premiere there, and he's coming over from Denmark especially to play in the concert. So that's really, really exciting. And I think we'll be playing the Piazzolla as well, so another incarnation of Histoire de Tango. And in December, the phenomenal countertenor Will Towers will join me, and that's just an amazing combination, just voice and violin. Will has some secret weapons in that he also plays viola and electric guitar, which appeared the last time we played together. So in fact, that's going to be— That's quite unique. Yeah, it's a wonderful opportunity to showcase each of those instruments or the voice alongside the violin. And in January, I'll be collaborating with Gabriel Prokofiev, who— I know him as well. That's going to be really exciting because the venue is really non-classical, which is just a fabulous thing. I know, I saw. It's a low, it's a sort of third basement sort of pop venue really in a very cool hotel private members bar. And so it's the most unlikely place for a classical concert, but I think people have really enjoyed coming there, getting a drink at the bar, sitting around small tables, and it's very intimate. I've been trying to make it really comfortable for artists and audience alike so that, as I was saying before, so no division between— that we usually have on a concert stage. So it's intimate, it's really up close, you get an opportunity to really see to see the players at work and, you know, how the music's actually kind of physically managed, which I find really exciting too. Shoreditch is a great place to hold it, so I've really enjoyed this. I'm going into sort of programming into the beginning of spring next year and inviting in February the violinist Mislav Mikhailić to come and join me, and she's based in Nice in France, so we'll be doing a really good violin duo programme then. This has been an opportunity for me to sort of try my hand at programming, to explore so much new repertoire, to involve composers in as many players as I can. So it's been really exciting to have the support of the Curtain in that and have something that's happening regularly in London as well. It's been a lovely crowd of audience, artists and writers. Very inspiring, absolutely. Yeah, it's been great. So the next one is October 29th at the Curtain. Fantastic, we will be looking forward to that. Now before we finish, just one question: do you ever relax? Do you have— I do relax more than I used to, I think. I think I've got slightly better at that. So what do you do for relaxation? Well, I love to run. I try and run every day and the Thames is a bit of a lifesaver, I think. So I love the river path there and whenever I'm on tour I like to go running. It's a great way to discover things as well, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it's just great to to get out and have some air, even if it's city air. I love that. And recently got a motorbike, so I've been really enjoying— oh wow— having a bit of speed and getting better at that. So that's been really, really exciting. Fantastic. Now the last piece of today is Kreisler Prelude and Allegro with Marin Bach on the wind. What a unique version with marimba! So we heard Kreiser, Prelude and Allegro with Philippa Meier, the violin. If you have any question that you would like to ask to our guest or nomination for our future Classic Women Award, please email presenters@womensradiostation.com or tweet us @WomensRadioST. STN. A big thank you to our guest Philippa for the great chat and the beautiful music played today. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure. It was beautiful to travel around with your, with your charming stories. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on Women's Radio Station, live every day at 10 AM and 10 PM London time. If you want to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to the presenter page Stefania Passamonte, Future Classic Women Awards women'sradiostation.com. Thank you for listening. Welcome to the Women's Radio Station, supporting women's well-being. Women's Radio Station is all about diversity, from opinions, career, ethnicity, education, and most importantly, women's well-being. 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