Wow!!!!

Well here is something to be passionate about!
My name is Rodgers, my Mother's maiden name is Broadwood and her Mother's maiden name is Purcell. It was always a generally accepted belief in our family that we were descendants of English composer, Henry Purcell. It was not until my good friend, composer Judith Bingham, who between commissions likes to indulge her interest in genealogy, took on the scraps of paper that thus far had formed our family history, that the truth has actually emerged! And, yes, she has been able to trace my ancestry directly back to Henry Purcell who it would seem is a many times great Uncle. The book Judith has produced is a fascinating read back to Sir Richard Purcell (b.1455) and on to Henry Purcell (the elder, d. 1664) and to his sons Daniel, Henry (himself) and Edward, and to Henry Purcell the elder's brother, Thomas. Coming down the centuries we also encounter William Purcell who was a carpenter on the Bounty in 1788-89 at the time of the great Mutiny. He is listed in the ship's log as being 'loyal', so that is one black sheep averted!

I'm having a wonderful time reading up on all these fascinating characters so am probably likely to bore you to death abut it all!

More about me here!

Sarah

Time for Music

I have just realised that it is just about a year since I wrote my last blog. Last year was taken over not just by the normal hurly burly of too much time working and not enough time relaxing but also by deciding to do something about our quality of life and actually move out of London! It was not the fact that we did not like London we loved it but work seemed to fill up all the gaps. We also of course chose to move at exactly the wrong time in the housing market! In the end we saw a house in Nofolk which we not only loved as a building but realised its potential for making music. We at last have the space to house a grand piano and there is also plenty of room to rehearse and so I am looking forward to a lot more music making. We have not moved house for 20 years and I do not want to do it again for another 20 but it does at least make you go through all of your music and recordings some of which have been sitting on the shelf for years without being moved. One of the first things that I played in concert at the Royal Academy of Music was the Mozart Clarinet Quintet. All of the concerts were recorded on reel to reel in those days and I thought I had kept them all but sadly they have not appeared yet! We have borrowed a tape recorder so that we can transfer them to cds but the recordings I have left are all post Academy. Probably a good job but I would have been interested to hear them. Sadly my performing career ended before I made any commercial recordings but we have a super version of the Mozart on tutti.co.uk played by Janet Hilton. OK we are gradually sorting ourselves out and so hopefully it will not be another year before I post another blog! Oh dear it looks like it is snowing again.