English violist Lionel Tertis was born in West Hartlepool!
We were invited to participate in the first ever Viola Day in Hartlepool, sponsored by the Tertis and Aronowitz Competitions. It took place on October 5th, 2025.
We were up quite early to catch the Metro to the city center, to catch our train south.
Following the viola players on the streets of Hartlepool…
We felt like we were back in our orchestra-playing days as stand partners! What a great feeling to be in a room hearing only the sound of the viola. It was a mix of young students, teachers, amateurs, and professionals. A representative from D'Addario was there, as well as a few luthiers. We met a lot of wonderful people. We performed Scott's Prelude for two violas just before the question and answer panel began (if you have a picture of us performing here, we'd love to get a copy!).
We met the two winners of the Tertis (Sam Rosenthal) and Aronowitz (Xunyu Zhou) Viola Competitions and they played the Bridge Lament, which we got to hear just before we had to head back to Newcastle. Wonderfully played and very friendly folks!
Thanks to Louise Lansdown and Chrissie Slater for putting this together!! It was really nice to be part of the viola world in the Northeast of England.
Heading home…