Apparently, yet another series of The Great British Bake Off will be starting later this month. I’d like to say I care, or that I’ll be watching, or that I own a TV, or indeed am remotely interested in spending my evenings cheering and swearing at a group of people
When I was still an undergraduate, I remember sitting with several of my fellow students discussing their recent holidays. One of them had been on a trip with their family to a country rich in ancient buildings, early signs of Christianity, and traces of times past. The guide leading them
It’s that time of year again, and I’m back in the stunning surroundings of north Yorkshire for the 2016 Ryedale Festival. Better still, I’ve been working again with the wonderful Heath Quartet in four concerts, presenting the entire late Beethoven quartets in tandem with T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, read with
Now look, I know this is supposed to be a blog about music and research and education, but today I’m going to write about Ghostbusters. And also research and education, as it happens. Still, don’t say I didn’t warn you. On Friday night, I went off to the cinema to
Tomorrow, I’m off to Oxford to present a paper at the 19th Biennial International Nineteenth-Century Music Conference. It’s a topic which may divide, as well as (hopefully) interest: singing Lieder in English, and both the historical precedence for doing so, and the current performers and writers who are trying it
Those of you who read my post a couple of weeks ago about being reunited with my piano with know that I have recently moved house. In fact, I have also moved counties – from Greater London, where I still spend several days a week working, to the land beyond
It’s been a few years now since I’ve had a job that has included the task of gathering and collating information from other people for the purposes of producing publicity. In the past, I have helped write copy for summer school brochures, written and edited descriptions for events guides, and
On Tuesday of this coming week, a very exciting thing is happening. My piano – a beloved, if not particularly distinguished Yamaha upright that I got when I was 21 – is moving in with me. For the first time since I took ownership of it, it will be living
Yesterday, I had the very great pleasure of giving a lecture at the Marryat Players Chamber Festival in Wimbledon. Over the course of the weekend, professional musicians and students from the Yehudi Menuhin school are performing side by side in repertoire by Haydn, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Korngold, Enescu, Elgar, Shostakovich and
In the midst of a flurry of Schubert, a broadcast on Medici TV and the general celebratory noises emanating from the Wigmore Hall last week as they reach their 115th birthday, you could be forgiven for having missed something which (to this music researcher, anyway) is more exciting than all
