HAMPSHIRE'S Douglas Paterson has managed to plough two very different career paths.

When he's not working on one of his dairy farms he's playing the viola in the Schubert Ensemble.

Douglas, who lives in the village of Hunton, near Sutton Scotney, will be performing with the ensemble at Southampton's Turner Sims Concert Hall tonight.

His grandfather Rex Paterson was known for his system of low-cost dairy farming. He owned the biggest dairy farm in the country after the war.

"I was brought up on a farm in Pembrokeshire and when my grandfather died I wanted to take on what was left of the business."

But Douglas had moved to Hampshire at the age of ten and had already began to study music.

"After university I decided I'd like to be a musician for a few years," he explained. "I joined the RPO, the Hanson Quartet and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

But in 1994 he decided to leave the orchestra and continue with the chamber music, giving himself time on the farms.

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