www.ciol.org.uk
Celia Pond Miller tells Miranda Moore why languages are
vital to her work managing the European Chamber Orchestra
W
hen cellist Celia Pond Miller
established the European
Chamber Orchestra (EUCO) with
her husband Ambrose Miller, she knew that
her language skills would come in handy. But
she didn't quite imagine the extent to which
she would need her French, German and
Italian – from arguing with airport staff about
why the neck of a double bass had fallen off
to interpreting between French musicians
and an East German musical director.
The idea for a Europe-wide orchestra
emerged soon after the couple met, while
Pond was studying cello in Germany and
Miller was Director of the Royal Ballet
Orchestra. "We don't do things by halves,"
she laughs. They got married in 1981 and
formed the EUCO that same year. "Our first
leader was Italian and his wife, a viola player,
was German, we had a Dutch player, and it
grew from there."
At first the Millers continued with their
other work, organising tours with the EUCO
on the side, but by 1985, it had become "all-
consuming". In 1991, they secured funding
from the European Commission and were
soon doing 12 tours a year with 10-25
musicians. Beginning each tour with two
days of rehearsals at the first location, they
have performed in Thailand, South America,
North Africa, India and the Middle East, as
well as countries across Europe. Although
funding from Brussels now comes only for
occasional projects, the focus remains both
on supporting young musicians and on
being musical ambassadors for the EU.
For Pond, it has been the perfect union of
her passions for music, travel and language.
Her love of the latter began at a young age,
thanks to her physicist father – a musician and
francophile, who arranged French lessons for
his daughter when she was nine and sent her
on a six-week home-stay in Paris aged 12. At
school she was good at Latin but insisted on
learning German for music reasons, instead
of continuing with the Classics, and quickly
fell in love with the language. "I had a
marvellous German teacher, so inspirational.
She took us, as a group of 17-year-olds, to
Moscow on the train, and that's where the
travel bug also set in."
Pond spent her adolescence listening to
romantic songs in German, and was always
fascinated by music that used language –
from Schubert's songs to operatic traditions
from across Europe. Although she initially
went to Cambridge to read music, which she
describes as "a complete obsession", she
soon converted to languages, studying
German with Italian ab initio, and graduated
with joint honours. University gave her "this
wonderful block of study, with music tying
up with language". Concerts in Italy and
Harmony in Europe
