What it's like to be a composer

But she also enjoyed a spell at sea as a Warfare Officer with the Royal Navy before returning to her first love of music six years ago

“Music is everywhere. You can’t go many places without hearing music. It’s such an important part of our lives and so important to so many people,” says Joanne.

Her passion began when she was 11 and was offered the chance to play the violin while a pupil at Chasetown High School.

“I fell in love with it. I’m not from a musical family although my parents do like live music. Music changed my life. I owe my career to the Staffordshire schools music service because they gave me the opportunity to play the violin,” says Joanne, who is a member of the Lichfield Sinfonia orchestra.

“I love that it’s all about creating something together when you are playing in an orchestra. Sight-reading is also a real brain work out and it’s all really good fun,” adds the 39-year-old.

Joanne, who plays both the acoustic and electric violin, went on to graduate from the London College of Music and Royal Holloway University of London in 2000, specialising in composition and violin.

During her first year at music college she won the British Reserve String Prize for performance before choosing to specialise in composition.

She went on to compose various works for short films including the award-winning Tides of Time before studying for a Secondary Music PGCE at the Institute of Education.

But after holding various posts as Head of Music in London and the Midlands, including Cheslyn Hay Sport & Community High School and as leader of the Birmingham Concert Orchestra, the allure of the sea proved too tempting.

Joanne moved to Plymouth to become a Warfare Officer in the Royal Navy, taking her violin and trumpet, with her on her travels.

“I had always toyed with the idea of joining the military and the Navy is where women pretty much do everything the men do.

“It was brilliant and opened me up to things I would never have experienced. I was also a boarding officer so would lead boarding teams on to other vessels looking for drugs.

“It was a lot of responsibility but I got to see other parts of the world and gain an understanding of other cultures,” Joanne, who works as CAVE – (CAVE – Composer, Arranger, Violinist and Educator), tells us.

Her treasured musical instruments were by her side and she would often play at ceremonies and Armistice Day events while she was away.

After seven years, mostly at sea as an Officer of the Watch, Joanne returned to her home town of Burntwood and reignited her passion for music.

As well teaching string and brass, she also works as a composer.

Her recent work includes The Three Spires Suite which was written especially for Lichfield Sinfonia’s 60th anniversary concert, which is taking place on November 26.

The Suite has four movements which each depict an element of Lichfield’s varied history from the cathedral sieges of the English Civil War to poet and physician Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of naturalist Charles Darwin.

Joanne was recently commissioned to compose and perform a soundscape to accompany the National Memorial Arboretum’s art installation Heartfelt Messages, which commemorated 100 years since First World War’s Passchendaele battles.

“My inspiration for composition varies but I like to tell a story and have meaning to each piece. The Three Spires Suite is based on Lichfield’s history from Henry VIII up to modern day.

“My Heartfelt Messages composition is inspired by First World War communication and uses morse code and songs and music from the time as well as The Last Post and other remembrance related music alongside original composition,” explains Joanne.

She said rehearsals were going well ahead of the anniversary concert, which will also include a special performance of the Schumann Piano Concerto by acclaimed pianist Robert Thompson.

For the project, Joanne and the orchestra has been collaborating with students from South Staffordshire College in an educational project involving media, film and sound recording for the composition.

And she says she is looking forward to hearing her work, which took six months to write, performed at the event for the first time.

“It’s an amazing feeling to know my composition is being performed in full. It’s been a big celebration and it’s a great project to be involved in,” Joanne tells us.

Her other work sees her performing an functions and writing music and arrangements for events such as weddings.

“It can be varied. I’ve done arrangements for weddings of Guns N’ Roses Oasis but then I will do classical or dance. I enjoy it because it’s way of making people’s special occasions more special and personal for them.”

The Lichfield Sinfonia 60th anniversary concert will take place at Nether Stowe School in Lichfield at 7.30pm on November 26. Tickets are available from www.ticketsource.co.uk/lichfieldsinfonia

For further information about Joanne’s work as CAVE see www.facebook.com/CAVEdodds