 Maggie Cotton, former percussionist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, give the inside picture of what it is like working in an International Symphony Orchestra.
Now retired and no longer silenced by a contract, Maggie Cotton presents an honest and long-overdue player’s perspective of life inside a professional symphony orchestra, describing how she became the first female percussionist in what was initially a staunchly male-dominated world.
Now retired after forty years with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Maggie gives a fascinating and humorous insight into every aspect of her working life, including tours, conductors, composers, soloists, colleagues, recording contracts and educational work, as well as her own family life and the social conditions of wartime England and post-war Eastern Europe.
Bolstered by her gritty Yorkshire roots, and naively undeterred by overwhelming odds, Maggie overcame many hurdles in pursuit of her ambition to play percussion in a professional symphony orchestra, in so doing transforming the face of women in that field from one of novelty circus performer to respected professional and colleague.
About the Author: Maggie Cotton was born in Yorkshire in 1937 and has devoured music since her very early pianistic beginnings as a child. In the late 1950s, three years after leaving school, she trail-blazed her way into the male-dominated profession of symphony orchestra musician, landing herself a contract as a percussionist with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Since retirement, having played for the orchestra for forty years (eighteen with Simon Rattle), she has also worked as a music critic, and has at last gathered her experiences, from a player’s perspective, of the colourful and deeply satisfying world of the professional symphony orchestra in her autobiography Wrong Sex, Wrong Instrument. To buy this book contact: Apex publishing on 01255 428500 or www.amazon.co.uk |
