We’re often asked how we ended up curating The Green Room and as Gravel answered simply: because of Salome Quartet.
Not many know that at the beginning we almost ended up in a different Grand, one that provokes Marmite-like reactions. Cementa’s first love was the magnificently ugly ship-shaped shape-shifting Grand…Burstin. It was only when she joined her friend and composer, John Woolrich at The Grand that she realised it was where she wanted her ideas to bloom.
The occasion was pure magic. Salome Quartet was recording John Woolrich’s ‘A Book of Inventions’, fragments of which Cementa was using in an installation she was preparing with Gravel at that time. The moment first strings resounded in the Dining Room, she couldn’t wait to share the news with Gravel.
Once we decided that we wanted to curate an exhibition at The Grand, things just fell into places very quickly and at the end of February we could welcome Salome Quartet in The Grand again, this time in The Green Room.
It was our first big event, but the numbers exceeded our wildest expectations. Over eighty people showed up to listen to four fantastic young players who are making waves all around Britain working with contemporary composers and exploring both challenging and familiar programme.
We were watching them from our little impressionistic bar. Our ears bathed in awe.
