Out to Lunch with Zoë Conway and John McIntyre

Zoë Conway was on the lunchtime menu at the Out to Lunch festival on Friday. The perfect way to relax in the middle of frantic box-unpacking. Fiddling alongside her talented guitar-playing husband John McIntyre, she wowed the gathered crowd with blue grass amongst a wide variety of musical styles.

While the music was amazing, the body language was fascinating to watch. Often playing with her eyes closed, as if feeling her way through the music, Zoë would look up at the appropriate moment, catch John’s eye and the rhythm would switch or the tune would change.

Now speaking (posting?) as someone with a lowly Grade 4 certificate in the violin, Zoë’s nimble finger work was amazing. It’s obvious now that God didn’t intend violins to be limited to being played on one string at a time, or for pizzicato to be purely the preserve of the player’s right handed fingers ... or for the four strings to be locked into being tuned to G D A and E.

If only the photographs could have captured the clouds of rosin that scooted up into the air whenever the strings were particularly strongly attacked with the bow.

A great concert. And for me, the last ticket for this year’s enjoyable Out to Lunch festival.