Robin Hill and the Bronte Sisters

Robin has always felt, and stresses to his students, that it is important to listen to a wide range of music played on different instruments, and not to focus solely on the guitar and its repertoire, but to draw inspiration from the other branches of the arts.
As the Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustin Barrios said:

"One cannot become a guitarist if he has not bathed in the fountain of culture."

With this in mind, he found himself, with son number one, at The Bronte Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, West Yorkshire.

The achievements of the Bronte children are remarkable.
Charlotte wrote 'Jane Eyre', Emily, 'Wuthering Heights', Anne, 'Agnes Grey' and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall', and brother Branwell, shared his sisters' literary gift, if not their success, but his portraits of the three sisters are in the National Portrait Gallery.
It seems incredible that so much was achieved before their untimely deaths, all before the age of 40.

To be surrounded by their personal possessions, and to soak up the atmosphere in which they worked, is truly inspirational, and stresses the importance of widening ones horizons when approaching a career in music.
The fact that Charlotte and Emily Bronte often wrote in the same room, may have fuelled their artistic tendencies, in much the same way as performing with other musicians opens you up to a 'full' musical picture, increases delight in playing, and enables you to play more effectively and musically.