Kevin Daly, second horn

What do you do for a living?: For a living these days I do woodwork, mostly reproduction joinery. A lot of the work I do is replacing original features, wall panelling — the linen folds I’ve carved in the last few years! — carved doors, hand-rails etc, removed during modernisations over the last one to two hundred years from public buildings in Greenwich & Woolwich.
Tell us a little about the instrument you play? Do you play any other instrument?: I play the horn — but not just ‘the horn’, I play 2nd horn, a much tougher proposition! I also play ocarina and nightingale but I’m not proud of that.
When did you start your musical education?: I started playing the euphonium at school in (and I remember it like yesterday) 1967. I am very old. The horn came a year or so later at the Bexley Borough Music School so you can blame them for that. I should add that in about ’73 or ’74 I met a very very young Andy Feist, our current 1st horn, at the same BBMS. I think we played Mahler 1 that day – Andy will know.
How long have you been with the CCO?: I’ve had the 2nd seat at CCO for about 4 or 5 years but was the occasional 4th since 2000 — or maybe it was 1999 — I don’t know. I’m old. It all seems like yesterday to me.
What has been your favourite CCO concert?: The Brahms 3 concert last year that had Alan in tears. I can’t remember CCO playing better.
Which piece of music do you most enjoy playing?: Bruckner 9 – gloomy optimism.
If you could take a recording of one piece of music to a desert island, what would it be?: The desert island piece? RVW Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis or Flos Campi or An Oxford Elegy. All three are on one disc. Can I have them all?
Who are your musical heroes?: Jean Sibelius – give the man a pension and he doesn’t write another note. What a man. What a star!
When was the last time you attended a concert as one of the audience?: The last concert I went to hear — oh, the shame — was a Prom and not even last year but the year before. I don’t remember what it was. I’m not very good at concerts.
What do you listen to in the car?: I don’t drive any more, not for the last 30 odd years in fact but in the workshop whilst knocking lumps off the latest project I mostly listen to 15th, 16th and early 17th Century choral music. The Tallis Scholars have a lot to answer for.
What are your other interests?: In my spare time (mostly just a notion) I make toys big & small, puzzles & games. I’ve contributed the odd article to the trade press (that’s to say the woodworking press — I don’t take The Hornist), been a member of The Guild of Rocking Horse Makers for 10 years or so and drunk quite a lot of Guinness though not too much, of course.