Ben Tarlton (age 13)

Ben achieved a distinction in his grade 8 examination at the age of 11. He has won numerous prizes including winner of “Most outstanding String player” in the Swansea Festival 2009 and winner of the Rotary young musician prize for South, West and Mid Wales 2009. This was achieved by winning three rounds of the competition.

Ben has had his cellos from Beecher Acoustics since his ½ size instrument. When he moved on to his ¾, his Mum, Sally wrote: “Ben is very excited by the cello and practises all the time, even when he has had a heavy day he will come straight in and play it, we never have to ask him to go and work.” Then when he moved from his ¾ to his full-size cello, Ben wrote: “Thank you so much for the time and effort you have put into this amazing cello. I am looking after it with so much care.” Sally, also wrote: “Thank you so much for your help with providing Ben with such a wonderful instrument. It is very exciting the way it is developing, and he took to it immediately - no regrets about saying goodbye to the ¾.” Two weeks later she wrote: “Ben is still thrilled with the cello. We can’t stop him practising!!”

BEN WROTE:

" The way Jonny is able to set up an instrument according to the player’s ability is really remarkable. He is able to make the worst of instruments amazingly better. I have had two cellos from him and the third I am now using. The half size he set up for me was just perfect for my playing ability and the quality of the sound was unbelievable as well as the sound being able to travel and project to the very back of the hall. I sadly had to part from my little cello and move onto a larger one which seemed giant at the time and, at first I couldn’t control the sound. It just exploded out of the cello like a huge bird soaring out of it. I had the cello for about 3-4 years and managed to pass my grade 8 on it at 11. With the ¾ cello I also played in numerous concerts and won many competitions with it. I made it to the second round of the ‘Texaco Young Musician of the Year’.

Looking at the DVD it was quite remarkable how small the cello looked on me. I had only then realised that maybe it’s becoming too small for me and that I should get a new one. In December my family and I went up to Jonny’s to have a look and play the new cello. We compared it to my old ¾ cello and it was quite amazing that the colour was very alike to the new one. It was like just moving up a notch. Jonny made it so that it fitted me and was set-up just for me.  To this day I am still using the cello and the sound seems to be able to change to my style of playing.

I am very honoured that Beecher Acoustics have given me a very generous bursary towards the full-size cello."