Iona Brown

June 15, 2004 at 11:44 PM · Greetings,

Sue, I mentioned her on another post and Mattias provided a litlte background. No prunes today!

Howveerr, it is a great idea to start a thread in tribute to her as she was a phenominal player. I heard her many times in London, both a concertperson of the Academy and soloist. In particlar her Lark Ascending stands out in my memory.

Cheers,

Buri

June 16, 2004 at 12:39 AM · Check the thread "Ian Brown."

Apparently someone got confused.

June 16, 2004 at 12:42 AM · Hahahaha... I always thought Ian Brown was the lead singer of the Stone Roses.

June 16, 2004 at 01:32 AM · Greetings,

everyone has to have a hobby,

Cheers,

Buri

June 16, 2004 at 01:56 AM · You're just jealous.

June 17, 2004 at 01:04 PM · Ian Brown (pianist with the nash Ensemble) was Iona's brother. I posted this on the 'Ian Brown' thread.

June 17, 2004 at 01:21 PM · Sue - I saw Iona direct a concert at Nottingham's Theatre Royal in the mid-1980s. My overall impression of her was boundless energy and VERY glamourous - a terrific 'stage presence'. I spoke to her afterwards and told her how much I had enjoyed her performance, and she signed some very nice remarks on my programme. She came across as very friendly and chatty, a real 'life and soul of the party' type. As a violinist, I don't think that she was in the very top flight (Kyung Wha Chung, Viktoria Mullova etc) but she was superb in baroque music especially, and had a long association with the Academy of St Martins-in-the-Fields playing this style of music. She will be sadly missed.

PS - where has the 'Ian Brown' thread gone?

June 17, 2004 at 04:04 PM · When I was part of a training orchestra at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto in the very early eighties, Iona came to conduct us for a week. She was good fun, and had the very British trait of being slightly self-deprecating while letting you understand that her standards were nothing but the highest............she would NOT allow us to play badly, in spite of ourselves.Demanding and yet always friendly and willing to go out for a pint after rehearsal!

Concert was on the friday night: Pachelbel canon, a Mozart violin concerto and the Mendelssohn Italian, all led by her from the front desk a la Academy. Wonderful gracious Mozart, fiery at times as she was, but the highlight was the Mendelssohn which went at breakneak speed, but never seemed uncontrolled, and left the crowd on their feet. Memorable concert, lovely violinist and a great leader.