Vladimir Naoumov has been touring with ETO as a freelance musician for 25 years! Producer Lucy Walters sat down with him to hear more about his experience in and out of the pit.

What is your role with ETO?

I play the violin. For the past 25 years I have been extremely fortunate to be a part of a fantastic second violin section, starting off as a last minute deputee and then eventually progressing a bit further. For the past few seasons I have been entrusted with leading the section of second violins, which I have enjoyed doing enormously.

What is your favourite thing about being a freelance musician?

I suppose the variety of things that one does. It's great and really broadens one's horizons when you can be with an opera company one day and the following day be over at the symphony orchestra and the day after you're back in the pit doing a West End show. You can never get bored or tired playing different styles of music and working with different people all the time.

You've been working with ETO for 25 years - happy anniversary! What has been your favourite piece to play with ETO?

That's a tough one! As you can imagine, out of the last 25 years, I personally have done quite a large number of operas, including some rarely performed ones. I don't think I'll be able to single out one particular piece for you, but I personally love playing Puccini's operas. We have done quite a number of those.

Being a Russian musician, I've always enjoyed and always will enjoy playing the Russian operas. We've done Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) here on at least two occasions. This season, we performed The Snowmaiden by Rimsky-Korsakov, which is an opera that's quite well known in Russia but to my knowledge hasn't been performed recently in the United Kingdom. To me, it's a new discovery because I've never done that opera before.

After working with us through so many operas, are there any pieces that you've not done but would really like to?

Being a Puccini fan, I'd absolutely love to try Turandot one day. I do of course realise that it's a huge opera, probably requiring massive forces. That's one opera that I'd absolutely love to do that I've never performed.

It would also be really great to touch a Wagner one day. To my embarrassment, I have never performed any opera by Wagner in its entirety.

Not to pick any favourites... but do you have a favourite place that we tour to?

Oh yes, I have quite a number of those actually. Recently, we went to Buxton Opera House. That's been one of the regular venues ever since I joined English Touring Opera. It always feels different and exciting. I enjoy exploring places around Buxton. That's something I always try to do wherever I go, to explore the area. I remember one particular occasion where quite a number of colleagues of mine and I went for a long walk out in the Peak District. That's part of touring, it's not just about sitting in the pit and playing the violin.

Exeter is also probably one of my favourites. We didn't go to Cheltenham this tour, but we did in the Spring. That's another place that I like very much. In many of these places I have actually made friends with the people that I've stayed with. We stay in touch, send Christmas cards, things like that, which is quite nice.

As a veteran touring musician, do you have any top tips about how to survive a touring period?

What has helped me personally quite a lot is staying with people that I know and like year in and year out. In Cheltenham, I've stayed with the same hosts for about 20 years. The same goes for Buxton and Exeter. It may sound like a minor thing, but when you're staying in a nice place with lovely people that make you feel at home, it makes the whole process of touring much more productive. Not only does it help you get through it, it makes the experience much more enjoyable.

Exploring new restaurants, new walks, things like that make it very fun. It's probably one of the greatest things I've enjoyed about touring, and I'm immensely grateful to ETO in that department. Discovering the country and visiting places that I'd probably otherwise would have never visited. Going back to those places has also always been enjoyable.

Can you share a funny story from your time with ETO?

My mind goes back to staying in Cheltenham for the first time. I ended up staying with a lovely couple whom I didn't know at that point. We started talking about music, as you do. They were very musical, though they weren't professional musicians. Then all of a sudden, the husband started talking to me in Russian. You can imagine how surprised I was! He turned out to be a huge enthusiast of Russian culture and champion of Russian choral music. There's nothing that he didn't know about the opera. He had a massive collection of DVDs and CDs. He sang something back to me in perfect Russian, which was quite amazing. We are still in touch!