want more?Peter Stevenson
Peter has been Chairman of the RTO since its formation. He has shown in this role an alarming tendency towards "control freakery".
He has insisted on retaining also the roles of Treasurer, Secretary, Librarian, Rehearsal Organiser, Concert Organiser and Assistant Music Director. Pressure from some members has resulted in some releasing of his grip over the orchestra and there are hopes that he will be stripped down shortly just to being Treasurer.
This obsession with power has sadly deprived Edinburgh of hearing the best of one of its most talented amateur clarinetists. Peter's clarinet playing, bolstered by a grade 4 (pass) in 1996, blossomed in the early days of the orchestra but has drifted away under management pressures. Edinburgh can now look forward to the re-emerging of this fine young clarinet talent.
George Russell
An oboe player with unbridled enthusiasm and limited talent seeking recognition after 40 years of playing to a grade 3 standard. His claim to musical fame is a last second unrehearsed public performance in 1964 of the 30 bar solo at the start of the 2nd movement of Brahms' violin concerto. That was the peak of a musical career which has been on the slide ever since.
Dr Colin Mumford
Dr Colin Mumford, a child prodigy on the flute at the age of six, has shown a continual and impressive decline in musical skills since then. Famous for getting his thumb stuck in the tail joint of his flute prior to an important solo, he now also plays piccolo, which is too small to accommodate stray fingers.
Jenny Hand
Instruments don't have accents, but when I open my mouth other than to play the flute, it doesn't take too many words to work out I'm an Aussie. I left the warm sunny shores of home in Jan 98 with my husband and 4 month old son. After a year in Oxford, we headed to Edinburgh. I could say that the opportunity of joining the RTO was our motive for the move north, but people would find it odd to learn that I didn't bring my flute over from Australia. Despite this disadvantage, I was kindly offered the loan of a flute (there are several members of the orchestra with so much talent that they play more than one instrument). I joined the group 4 days prior to our brilliant performance in the festival. Although I'm not very good at sight-reading - and didn't have a chance to write the letters under the high notes before the performance - it was still fun to be involved in music again.
Yumiko Iwata
Ever since her first profound musical enlightenment at her debut public performance at a nursery school in Tokyo, Yumiko Iwata 's life has been, is, and always will be filled with music.
Her talent has naturally led her to appearance in top performances all over the world, such as Melbourne, London, New Delhi, Islamabad and Rome. And now, despite the grief of her previous band members in Rome for a loss of a star, Yumi has yet again found a special place in the RTO. (as one of the many flautists)
A sensational star in a sensational band, things just can't seem to get better these days.