So, enough of my solo soapboxing – on with the interviews. I had the huge pleasure of speaking to Lucy Schaufer and Christopher Gillett, both highly regarded performers in their own right (amongst many other skills, as they will reveal imminently). They are also the creators of the production company
No, don’t worry, this is not a post about Rule, Britannia! or Land of Hope and Glory. Plenty of other people have already written, posted, tweeted, shouted or sat pensively on the fence about that particular chestnut. This is, in fact, a post about singing. If, like me, you watched the First Night of the
A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be part of a filming project at the Wigmore Hall. I hadn’t been to any live music (indoor or outdoor) for months, let alone inside a concert venue. We arrived at the front door as agreed, masks on. The door
With every passing day, we’ve grown more aware of the plight of performing musicians, composers, and organisations such as concert halls and festivals. But today we turn to a different part of the musical world – one with a very particular skill set, which helps to ensure that there can
Christopher Glynn is a highly successful pianist – a song accompanist and chamber musician – as well as being the artistic director of the Ryedale Festival in North Yorkshire, which usually runs for two weeks in July. Since the festival couldn’t go ahead as normal, RyeStream was created to share a series of performances filmed
Let’s Play is a new series of interviews with leading figures in the UK’s cultural sector (particularly in music), exploring what individuals and organisations do and how their work has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. And crucially, every guest has been asked the question: how do we help? Deborah Annetts has
Today’s post is the first in a new series on the site: a collection of interviews with leading figures in the UK’s cultural sector (particularly in music), exploring what individuals and organisations do and how their work has been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. And crucially, every guest has been
How tired we all are of crises. We’ve been living in a seemingly perpetual mushroom cloud of crises for so long now, we can as likely remember the state of not being in crisis in roughly as much detail as the sight of ourselves in proper grown-up work clothes and
Back in 2014, I started this blog because something happened which made me so overwhelmingly frustrated and annoyed that I felt I couldn’t not say something. (If you’re wondering what it was, you can read all about it here). For almost a year now, the blog has been silent –
One of my favourite stories to tell students of nineteenth-century music history concerns Edward Elgar’s trips to hear new orchestral repertoire. As you may know, Elgar grew up in Worcestershire, where there was no permanent orchestra. The best place to go to hear new orchestral pieces was just to the
