Heather Corbett Concert

A review by Samantha Payn

How fantastic it was to hear Heather Corbett, supported by Dave Lyons and Julia Lynch tonight at the Community Theatre in Lamlash.

“Percussion” covers such a wide range of sounds, and Heather offered us such a wide, wide range of music. From ragtime (“The Entertainer”, “Jovial Jasper”) through jazz (“Blues for Gilbert” and a Loussier-style “Solfege” by CPE Bach), pieces specially written for Heather (“Sakura for Marimba and Piano” by John Hearne) to classic showpieces like Khatchaturian’s “Sabre Dance” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” – all brilliantly played by Heather and her friends.

Heather played the marimba, the vibrophone and the xylophone – I’d forgotten that the xylophone was once a phenomenally popular music hall act, but watching Heather I could see why. Just about everyone had a xylophone or something like it as a child, but the contrast between what we all achieved as toddlers and tonight’s performance was mesmerizing. Seeing her hands fly over the notes with such precision making such lovely music was an experience not to be missed.

The Isle of Arran Music Society is really lucky to be able to entice world-class musicians to our island to play for us, and it was a real privilege to be at tonight’s concert.