• Developing listening

    I love working with other music teachers on INSET courses, and I had a particularly enjoyable day leading a course for a group of passionate teachers on Monday. Much of my course looks at approaches to starting compositions and the afternoon focused on perception skills. I had such a thought-provoking time in Berlin while on…

  • National Curriculum Draft

    It’s always exciting to read yet another education document, and the publication of the draft National Curriculum is rather hefty at over two hundred pages. Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and…

  • Ignite inspires at Wigmore Hall

    I’m all for collaborative composition; new music works best when it is a partnership between performer and composer that allows both parties to communicate confidently and faithfully. Ignite gave a short but compelling recital as part of Wigmore Hall’s Aperitif Series on Tuesday 4 June 2013 that demonstrated how successful this collaborative work can be.…

  • 50 Years of Minimalism @ Kings Place

    – already published on I Care if You Listen(.com) at http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2011/11/50-years-of-minimalism-rock-n-rollers-kings-place-london/ – I felt fortunate to attend the final concert that formed part of a short series at Kings Place, London, called ’5o Years of Minimalism’. Igor Toronyi-Lalic curated the series and from what I saw and heard at the concert this was clearly something…

  • Forward and Up: The Alexander Technique

    Catching up with the various social media feeds recently I noticed Pedro de Alcantara had posted with pride a photo of the new edition of his Indirect Procedures. I first encountered the book as a student when I discover the technique through lessons offered at my students’ union. To say the technique had a massive…

  • London Sinfonietta: Renewal

    Published originally here for I Care If You Listen(.com) The London Sinfonietta continue to experiment with different approaches in their presentation of contemporary music, and they struck a winner with their Luke Bedford: In Portrait concert on 22 May 2013 at the Purcell Room of the Southbank Centre in London. Bedford is a young British…

  • Pitching it right: My first concert talk

    Vivace Chorus kindly invited me to introduce the programme at their ‘Best of British’ concert last Saturday; my first pre-concert talk. I’d received the scores a few weeks prior to the concert and was quickly reminded of my own experiences of singing similar repertoire as a child, and an adult. Reading that the concert was…

  • Imagined Occasions: London Contemporary Orchestra celebrates its 5th birthday

    I don’t recall what I did for my fifth birthday but I certainly will remember the London Contemporary Orchestra’s fifth birthday. I visited the abandoned Aldwych Underground Station on the 24th May to experience behind the scenes of the first of the London Contemporary Orchestra’s ‘Imagined Occasions’ series (performed that evening). Helen Scarlett O’Neill and…

  • Vivace Chorus – Best of British 26 May 2013

    The Guildford based Vivace Chorus were in full voice last weekend at Guildford Cathedral, giving a ‘Best of British’ concert as part of their Contemporary Choral Classics series. Will Todd’s Angel Song II opened the concert; a beautiful, ethereal evocation of angels on Christmas night. The commited performance was controlled with immense aplomb by Jeremy…

  • Vocal Tai-Chi

    I realised this weekend how powerful voice work can be. More importantly, how powerful group work with the voice can be. Jenni Roditi’s Vocal Tai-Chi workshop this weekend was a pleasure to experience. I offered some additional backing to the solo performances in the second half of the workshop – improvising on the piano –…