Jill Barnes

12th September, 2006
"Nell of Old Drury", Catherine Street, W.C.2

Michael Ludgate, Chairman, introduced tonight's guest Jill Barnes, who is well known to many of our members as accompanist for the classes and demonstrations at the Yorkshire Ballet Seminars. She has had a wide ranging career in the music profession and comes from a musical family background so we looked forward to a most interesting evening. Jill was interviewed by Tim Rooke who is also a musician, having played the oboe in the Halle Orchestra and has traveled with orchestras allover the world. We were also delighted to welcome Michael Broderick, Associate Vice President.

Jill was a student at the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied piano and gained her LRAM and RA Diploma for Accompanists, and it was while she was still a student that she first played for dance. She studied ballet as a child with Hilda Greenaway, an ex member of Ballet Rambert, who also taught Janet Lewis of London Ballet. She worked through the grades and had piano lessons at the same time, but as her parents thought she would have a longer career as a pianist, she had to drop her dance studies and has loved dance ever since. While a music student she worked at Doreen Bird's school in Sidcup, which was quite small then. On leaving the RAM she worked with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (with her husband who was a violinist) as keyboard player, which included playing for auditions, and developed her sight-reading and accompanist skills. All this experience has helped her in accompanying dance classes; she has learnt from dance teachers, and hopes they have learnt something from her! She pointed out that some dancers are very unmusical and need a lot of help, but it has to be offered with subtlety. During twelve years in Bournemouth she started her family, while teaching and playing with the BSO, and then moved to Wales as her husband got a job in the BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra where she worked with the orchestra and continued teaching, performing and bringing up her family. While in Wales she taught children at the School for the Blind in Bridgend and, with her help, they achieved very good results in their grade music exams.

Eventually, she returned to London and was offered a job playing for Barry Humphries. She described the audition, as part of a all-female trio, and when they met Barry he said they were too young, as he had envisaged a trio of housewives with their hair in rollers covered with scarves. Instead he decided they would be a group of nuns called The Sisterhood of Sound. Under that guise they played on his show for three months at Drury Lane. She described Barry Humphries playing Dame Edna Everage as not just a drag act but a wonderful acting performance, and a completely different personality from his other role as Les Patterson, the Australian Cultural Attaché. They toured the show around England and then went to Australia.
On her return to the UK Jill was asked to play for dance, which she hadn't done for a long time. She had played for syllabus classes and student shows, but had never played for a large open class and was a little apprehensive. Her first experience in this new field was for Maryon Lane at the Extemporary Dance Theatre, which led to an introduction to Terry Etheridge, at the Pineapple Studios. Terry Etheridge referred her to Gary Sherwood at the Rambert School and she has been there ever since, with gaps now and then to do other things.

For eight years she worked for English National Ballet (Festival Ballet) on a freelance basis when it was directed by Peter Schaufuss. She began by playing for a class given for the office staff once a week, and then was asked to play for private classes given by Natalia Makarova during the day. She worked with the late Richard Collins and Eileen Ward and told us about Makarova's long and dedicated classes, which lasted for most of the day with just a break for Makarova to have a couple of cigarettes and a glass of wine. She also played for Nureyev when he returned to the company to play Mercutio in his "Romeo and Juliet" which was a big thrill for Jill. She noted the broken mirror in the studio where Nureyev had thrown a chair against it during a previous visit! When Peter Schaufuss started the ENB School he asked her to take over all the music there. She very much enjoyed working with die first director of the school the late Kerrison Cooke, who was followed by Lucia Truglia. However, under the new management Peter Schaufuss had to leave; the school also suffered the

departure of Lucia Truglia, who had brought in interesting people to talk to the students, she arranged make-up classes and prepared the pupils for the stage. Lucia had become a great friend of Jill and she was very much missed when she left. After these changes and the re-organisation of ENB, Kathryn Wade took over the school and after a further year, Jill returned to Rambert. She also worked at Elmhurst, and other schools, and has played for many exams and events all around the country during these years.
At about this time Jill began to compose music for ballet classes and has produced CDs which have been most successful, and is working on further CDs at the moment. She used to improvise for classes but never wrote down what she played, so she began to train herself to remember the music she had improvised and disciplined herself to write it down so it could be used again.
Jill was invited to play at York by David Gayle, who used to come to ENB classes and said how much he would love her to play for his "little school" at York, but he already had his own accompanists so it was not possible. However, the Royal Ballet pianists who played at York were needed to play for the RB Summer School so at last the opportunity arose for Jill to go to York, where she has been for four years. She has enjoyed York, though the piano leaves a lot to be desired and the classes are very big, the working day is very long, and involves playing for demonstrations as well as for classes. Also the large number of students in classes and people in the studio make it very hard for her to see the teacher and keep in communication during the class.

Jill then spoke about the many kinds of dance she has played for (except jazz) and the freer approach of teachers of contemporary dance, which is less structured than a formal ballet class. At Rambert the teachers are very different and all are musical and she enjoys the mutual communication through music. However, not all teachers she has met were musical, and she told of some experiences she has had with those unable to specify exactly what they want, and asked her "to play something beautiful". She has developed a repertoire of music varying from Italian opera to music from old ballets, light opera, ragtime and bits of Brahms! Jill has given a series of lectures to dance teachers on music theory to help them with time signatures etc. This led on to a general discussion about the need for co-operation between dancers and musicians, dancers with no musical training, the need for education of students in the history of their art, and appreciation for the work of the dance accompanist etc.

In her long career, Jill has moved out of the studio and has been involved in ballet performances when she played the piano for "The Lesson" with the Royal Danish Ballet in Edinburgh. She has played the celeste, piano and organ with the ENB orchestra, and had to grope about in the dark under the stage at the Festival Hall from instrument to instrument while playing for "Romeo and Juliet" which requires three keyboard instruments.
The evening ended with Jill telling us about her family, who have all studied music. Her father was a violinist and she has been married to two violinists (not at the same time!), and her mother's family for several generations were in music hall, so there are lots of musical genes in the family.
Jill has enjoyed all the things she did and had always wanted to be an accompaniment. She has enjoyed composing, and her one remaining ambition is for the opportunity to play more chamber music. Much to our regret, Jill told us she will not be at York next year. We all wished her well for the future and presented her with the customary gift from the members.