Category: Performance

  • BBC Proms 44: ‘Performing’ Matthew Herbert’s Remix

    Being the first to respond to the London Sinfonietta’s Facebook post requesting a volunteer to be part of an encore by the composer Matthew Herbert meant I was one of twelve to be part of Herbert’s new piece, an encore for the London Sinfonietta Prom on Tuesday 14 August. Using our smartphones we recorded pre-determined…

  • Unbroken Line

    I love collaboration. I thrive on it I think, and it is always exciting to have that first meeting to discuss a new project. My next incidental music project is for a solo show by Jamie Zubairi, Unbroken Line, that will be premiered in Ovalhouse this December. What particularly grabs me by the project is…

  • Three days in Rio

    I can’t believe three days is up. I arrived in Rio 9.30 pm local time Friday and pretty much got to work on the Saturday helping with the final preparations and even devising and recording new material. Saturday ended with the first performance of work, a piece combining visuals, music, acting and movement exploring the…

  • “The Famous Mr Bach”: Concert talk on Johann Sebastian Bach

    ~ Below is the text, slightly edited, of the concert talk I gave at North London Collegiate School for a Bach Concert on 8 February 2012 ~   ‘Johann Sebastian Bach belongs to a family that seems to have received a love and aptitude for music as a gift of nature to all its members in common’…

  • Are conductors necessary?

    Haydn’s last visit in 1794-95 [to Great Britain] had marked both the climax of London’s public concert life and the beginning of its decline. The founding of the Philharmonic Society in 1813 by a group of professional musicians was a rare flash of light in an otherwise sombre scene. Although it helped to make London…

  • Charm is the word of 2012

    Catching up with the latest issue of the Monocle – February edition – and Andrew Tuck’s editorial draws attention to charm as the word for 2012: “Honesty, integrity, simplicity, durability, tactility are words that help all manner of firms thrive but oddly they never seem to make it past the door of a business school.…

  • Operatic vernacular

    Listening to the London Road recording reminds me not only how effective this production was but how the vernacular style of speech and singing is immediately engaging for me. I think back to my interest in the Aberfan disaster of the sixties and how hearing accounts of the event by those in the community was…

  • The Animals and Children took to the Streets – NT

    I am yet to be disappointed by a production at the National Theatre. Perhaps I’ve not seen enough! The Animals and Children took to the Streets was a unique and thrilling experience; animation, film, music and movement synchronised so virtuosically that I was engaged throughout. I am keen to look into 1927 further – their…

  • Tosca to Bostridge in 24 hours

    Tosca at ENO last night was compelling and very moving. Puccini always strikes me as a brilliant orchestrator and I was particularly taken by the cello ensemble writing accompanying Mario in the final act, the off-stage playing and the use of a chamber organ. Puccini’s operas seem to be so complete in their design and…

  • Connect CPD

    It was fantastic to catch Sean Gregory, Director of Creative Learning at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Sean took the time to speak more about the continuing professional development in creative leadership offered by the Guildhall School to help me write an article for Music Education UK (Spring 2012). I attended…