In
the autumn of 1982 Carolyn became principal viola with the BBCSSO, featuring as
soloist on radio 3 in ‘. She was also a member of the Chamber Group of
Scotland, with who she performed the UK premiere of Penderecki’s string trio
and clarinet quartet.
Since
moving to Stirling Carolyn has plunged herself into local music making, both
professional and amateur, very much believing that since music is a part of who
she is and not just her profession, it’s something that she will carry on doing
for as long as she possibly can!
On leaving the BBC orchestra in 2001
Carolyn began a second career as a composer, one of her first compositions
being a viola concerto requested by the internationally known violist, Rivka
Golani, and which, when entered for the 2008/9 International Uuno Klami
competition in Finland, was chosen from186 works submitted from composers in 27
countries to be included in a list of 17 recommended works. On receiving the
score, Golani wrote. “I would like you to know how grateful I am for the
wonderful concerto you have written for me”, instructing her
Canadian agent to find a conductor/orchestra who would premiere it. To date
this concerto is still awaiting a first performance. In 2010 her commission for
‘Red Note’ Ensemble, “Out of the Ashes” was inspired by Chopinʼs Nocturne No.20
in C sharp minor, its relationship to Warsaw, and the Polish pianist Wladyslaw
Szpilman who was featured in the film “The Pianist”. The Herald music critic
Keith Bruce wrote, “in the hands of conductor Garry Walker and the Red Note
Ensemble, Carolyn Sparey’s commission, Out of the Ashes, was a wonderfully
original approach to the telling of a story through music”. Carolyn’s
composition, “Fereshtehha” [Angels], for twenty solo string players, was
composed in memory of ten Iranian Baha’i women who were hanged for their faith
in 1983; having studied the score Alasdair Nicholson, composer/conductor and
Artistic Director of St Magnus International Festival wrote, “Carolyn
Sparey's music inhabits an individual and intriguing soundworld with a deeply
intense outpouring written with the expert knowledge of a professional string
player.” The Dunblane Chamber Orchestra commissioned Carolyn for it’s 10th
anniversary(Celebration) in May 1018, for which she composed Comharrachadh
(Celebration) for string orchestra.
Since 2014 Carolyn has published six
books under the name Carolyn Sparey Fox. The first two involved a period of
history during the 19th century which she felt had been neglected, with the
latest three written and illustrated for children. All her books are now available on Amazon.
