Music Alive and Well with Vicki

Many Martinborough people know Vicki Jones by her amazing coloured hair. Vicki says, “I’ve had all kinds of different hair colours since I was a teenager, and I think I kept on doing it because when you play in an orchestra you have to wear all black clothes, and I found that pretty restricting, and a bit dull!”.

Aside from the hair, Vicki is also a talented musician who is increasingly spreading her skills and enthusiasm through our community to the benefit of many. Vicki and her husband Ed Allen were both members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra until comparatively recently, Vicki playing the double bass and Ed the French horn.

Vicki and Ed have been residents of Martinborough since 1995, when they came over the hill looking for a weekender, or, as Vicki says, “a ‘days off’ house” since life in the symphony orchestra doesn’t always lend itself to weekends. The real estate agent brought them to look at a house that was “only a bit more than twice our price”, and they both immediately decided that it “felt like the place we wanted to be”. Although commuting was not ideal for orchestra hours, neither Vicki nor Ed regretted their decision to live here rather than in Wellington.

However, after 17 years of commuting and 34 years in the orchestra, Vicki decided enough was enough and retired in 2012. Initially she wondered what she was going to do to occupy her time, but over the past year she has become very busy with some teaching and a range of voluntary musical activities for children and adults alike.

Vicki has piano, cello and bass students at local colleges and in Martinborough she helps with the school choir, which is currently practising for Artsplash in Wellington in September. At the homework club that runs in the Anglican church hall after school Vicki teaches piano. Now she has begun to think about setting up a music school in Martinborough, particularly for children from low income families who might otherwise miss out on discovering the joy of music.

Many of Vicki’s music activities are with children, and she says with a slight air of surprise that “I’ve never spent much time with children and discovered that I really enjoy it, especially the ones who want to learn”. She sees music as a very important part of a child’s life because “music helps kids in other ways such as literacy and numeracy because of the way it uses the brain”.
Adults don’t miss out on Vicki’s skills either. She began a community choir at the beginning of this year because she rightly felt that Martinborough needed one, and has so far brought two choral experts to the town to conduct workshops. Since Christmas she has been playing the keyboard at St Andrews once or twice a month. Vicki also enjoys sharing music with individuals, playing piano duets regularly with Cherry van Kranen and accompanying David Binning’s singing. 

Life in a symphony orchestra is stressful one in comparison with many other types of work. As Vicki says, “you’re only as good as your last concert” and “being part of a team on stage brings its own pressures as you try to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts”. She retired to have less pressure, stress and commuting and, although she is not finding the time she expected for hobbies, her musical involvements in the Wairarapa are “because I like doing it”. We are all the winners in having Vicki’s skills, initiative and generosity in our community.

Rachel McCahon