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About John Peel
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Spa Season The Scarborough Spa Orchestra has been performing music to divert holiday makers for the last 90 years. Ken Cooper met Graham and Catherine who are members of this highly decorative ten-part orchestra...  Scarborough |
Dressed in ball gowns and Edwardian finery, it's not a job for a cynical musician. But for musicians who really like entertaining people and who enjoy the challenge of solos, it's terrific.
Catherine is a music teacher, and her husband Graham a free-lance musician.
They live in London, but at the start of every summer, pack up the house and kids and head for the sea. This year they brought seven boxes of toys. But once they are settled they feel it's worth it.
In Scarborough they are celebrities.
There are some very devoted members of the audience - thirty or forty people who come to five or more concerts a week, and who have been doing so for fifteen or more years. The music and the sociability are the reasons that they head for Scarborough.
Such is their celebrity, that Graham remembers being accosted by a man with the words, 'Did you enjoy your chicken and Valpolicella? I wasn't there myself - but a friend of mine spotted you in 'Marks and Sparks' and was behind you in the queue. So, did you enjoy it then?'
As for the children, Daniel who is 4 and Benjamin and Adam who are two, do go to musical toddler groups, but aren't learning the violin yet!
MORE INFORMATION
Scarborough Borough Council: Scarborough Spa Complex
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