James Craig
Position: Sub Principal, Cello
Joined: 1985
Thing I most enjoy about being part of Royal Northern Sinfonia is… The versatility of a chamber orchestra with enormously varied repertoire in both size and style. Every voice matters in RNS, if one piece of the jigsaw is missing the hole left behind is obvious!
I am most proud of… Having played a central part in our ‘Make Music’ education programmes. It’s a tremendous reward when former students become professional colleagues, and to sometimes share a desk with a former student in RNS is a great thing!
When I’m not performing or rehearsing you can find me… I split my time between fishing for the salmon and sea trout of the River Tyne and fly fishing for the wild brown trout of Ireland. We have a house on the edge of Lough Mask a huge wild fishery, one of the best in Europe and not so far from Galway.
The piece of music that changed my life is… I remember so vividly as a young child seeing for the first time two great cellists. Mstislav Rostropovitch and Paul Tortelier, and for such different reasons. Rostropovitch, an extraordinary cellist seemed to achieve the near impossible with such little effort. He had the reputation of learning new concertos commissioned for him on the train journey to the first rehearsal. Not content with this, he also memorised them. He became a huge figure worldwide both through his playing and commissioning. The Shostakovich concertos stand out amongst one hundred others including Prokofiev, Lutoslawski and Benjamin Britten. He took his time with Shostakovich’s first concerto, taking a full four days to commit the work to memory. Tortelier, a totally different style of player exuded an incredible passion and humanity. He brought joy to everything he got involved with, a genius eccentric known for singing some of his encores at prestigious concerts. One of my regrets was joining Royal Northern Sinfonia shortly after his last visit to play with the orchestra.
This season I am mostly looking forward to… I always enjoy the sense of electricity and energy that Thomas Zehetmair brings to RNS. The long-standing relationship between Thomas and the orchestra has been a highlight.