Today was to be our last day in Iraq. Once we had bade a temporary farewell to orchestra members and staff, we made our way to the airport where once again we found ourselves doing battle with Etihad and trying to convince them that our tickets were actually in their system. This took a little [...]

Time has gone past very quickly here in Iraq and all of a sudden the concert day is upon us. In anticipation of a lengthy search operation by the security militia that police the venue, the bus leaves the Hotel on the dot of 0845 and arrives at Saad Palace just as the venue is [...]

Today was spent ‘rigging’ the concert hall for the recording. This means that we have had to lower the lighting gantry and install cable drops onto which we have installed the Schoeps microphones that will be used for the recording. As the lighting gantry is directly above the orchestra, we are using fishing line to [...]

Last sectional rehearsals this morning and the rest of the day was spent practicing the chamber music programme and with tutti rehearsals of the Beethoven and the Authman commission. There are now three film crews on site, all trying to get out of each others way and stay out of each others shot.

The food here in Erbil is, without exception, awesome. We take breakfast in the hotel, lunch at a restaurant called the “Three Stars” and dinner at a food court called Abu Shahab. At Abu Shahab we can have either Italian, Kebabs or Krunchy Fried Chicken (KFC). Kurdistan’s attitude towards Col. Sanders trademarks is obviously one [...]

Last night didn’t finish with the diary. After writing the article, we went to the “Bar” (room 210) for a beer and a chat with the tutoring team and ended the day at about 3 am after listening to renditions of Haydn Opus 20 string quartets from the strings tutors (with flute as second violin) [...]

Slept like a baby and woke up with a killer sore throat. This usually means that I have snored my way through the night which I usually do when I am tired. Unfortunately Cam was unable to confirm this as he was just as dead to the world as I was.

Cam and I had our first taste of Iraq at the departure gate in Abu Dhabi. Being the only westerners on the plane it was not hard to notice the inquisitive looks from some of our fellow passengers although everyone was very pleasant and polite. As we attempted to locate our seats on the plane, [...]