Broken arm forced me to bow out of big show

As a result the 38-year-old has had to undergo an operation and will miss today's The Voice of a City concert - the Capital's first Lord Provost's People's Concert.

Ms O'Dea, 38, who lives in Inverleith, was due to perform with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO), of which she has been a member since September 2007, at the major event taking place at the Usher Hall today.

But after her slip on ice in Dundas Street at the end of last year, which left her with a colles fracture to her right arm - her bowing arm - she has been unable to play the violin for more than nine weeks.

She said: "I was in shock. I landed on my hands, I heard the impact. There's a very small percentage of you that's praying it's not a fracture but I knew straight away it was broken, which made it even worse. My wrist had gone into an S shape.

"I was very hysterical. For anybody who's a performing artist, be it a musician or a dancer, if you break a limb that you are using in order to execute what it is you do, your whole career and livelihood just flashes before your eyes. You think, 'this can't be happening'.

"It is any musician's or dancer's worst nightmare.

"It was a very traumatic experience."

Ms O'Dea, who still can't move her wrist and has now missed more than 20 performances across the country as a result of the accident, started taking regular violin lessons at the age of nine and is also a member of the Artisan Trio.

She had just finished performing at St Andrew's and St George's Church with the Artisan Trio, which also consists of a pianist and a cellist, and was walking home with her husband when she fell.

Ms O'Dea, who is originally from Dublin, was taken to the Royal Infirmary where her arm was placed in a cast for two weeks.

After the cast was removed, she underwent an operation to fit an external fixator to her arm - to keep the bone in place - which was kept in for a period of five weeks and removed around a fortnight ago.

Ms O'Dea, who has previously performed with Ensemble Oriol in Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra in London, said she was "very sad" to be missing out on today's performance.

The Voice of a City by the late Edward Harper is a musical portrait of Edinburgh with references to the One o'Clock Gun, Jean Brodie and Sean Connery.Ms O'Dea graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1995 and has been working as a professional violinist ever since.

She said: "I'm the second of the SCO violinists in the last 12 months to break her wrist.

"It's amazing how, literally within one second, your life can change and all of a sudden you're taking a diverted route that you didn't think you would be taking.

"It is a very emotional wrench as well because being a musician is not just about going on stage and playing an instrument, coming off and then going home necessarily - it's part of your whole lifestyle."

Ms O'Dea has been left with three large scars on her arm and has to undergo physiotherapy three times a week at the Royal Infirmary.

She said she planned to watch The Voice of a City concert at the Usher Hall with friends and added: "I will be back playing but it's difficult to know when that will be."