ABSTRACT
I am a member of the East London Late Starters’ Orchestra (ELLSO) where, like my co-authors Gillian Gould and Sandra Smidt, I am a violist who has learnt the instrument from scratch with this ensemble. The viola is, in fact, the first instrument I have played in my life, having had no opportunities to do so at school and having assumed, like so many others, that it would not be possible to learn one later in life. I am in the perhaps unusual position of beginning practical musicianship with a degree in music already in my possession; the year before joining ELLSO I had completed a degree from the Open University in this very subject.
