Lunchtime concert at church in Morpeth raises funds for charity

She began with a selection of “Pops” with Faure’s “Sicilienne”, Kreisler’s “Tango”, Elgar’s “Chanson de matin” and Dvorak’s “Humoresque” – all played with beautiful tone and control and with masterly support from pianist David Murray.

David then provided a short breather for Iona by playing Percy Grainger’s piano transcription of Dowland’s Air “Now, O now I needs must part”.

Iona then embarked upon three unaccompanied pieces of extreme technical difficulty – Bach’s Four movement First Sonata for Solo Violin, Polish composer Bacewicz’s “Polish Caprice” and Kreisler’s “Recitative and Scherzo Caprice”. Her programme ended with Rav-el’s “Tzigane”, but an encore of Debussy’s “The girl with the flaxen hair” followed.

These were all performed with great technique and there was prolonged applause from the audience.

Iona is undertaking a series of events to raise funds for local children’s cancer charity Henry Dancer Days. Following the concert, the audience donated the sum of £500. This, together with a donation by the Lunchtime Concert funds and Iona and David donating their fee, comes to a grand total of almost £1,500.

The final concert in this lunchtime series will be on Wednesday, May 4 from 12.30pm, featuring Rachel Jeffers (flute), Jessica Graham (violin) and David Murray (piano).