Last Friday morning, I stood in the beautiful parish church of Birdsall, in North Yorkshire, and said good morning to the eager crowd gathered before me. I pointed down at the navy blue waistcoat I was wearing, and took a moment to offer the service announcement that I had, in
The temperatures are still high, the Orange Menace will soon be leaving the UK, and I’ve spent the last couple of days shuttling between Yorkshire, where I’m giving talks and leading interviews over the course of the wonderful Ryedale Festival, and London, where I was speaking on Record Review yesterday
As I was scrolling through Twitter on Wednesday, I came across the news that it was National Writing Day. Various people were tweeting advice and enthusiastic messages over the course of the day, encouraging people to tell their own stories and find their own words. Some of them, though, seemed
After a couple of months of relatively regular driving (well, at least a few times a week, depending on how much time I’m actually at home), I reached a sort of milestone this weekend. Whilst I’ve been happily pottering to and from the supermarket without much trouble, this weekend marked
At the beginning of this week, I had the very sad news that Professor Robert Pascall, internationally-renowned Brahms scholar, wonderful teacher, and dear friend, had died. Robert was the most amazingly generous, inspirational man and had friends and grateful students all over the world. I wanted to take a moment
For anyone who’s been paying attention to the raft of Leonard Bernstein centenary events going on this year, you’ve probably heard (at least once) someone singing the ‘Simple Song’ from his Mass, a rather curious music theatre piece from 1971. The lyrics, by Stephen Schwarz, begin like this: Sing God
Since life has calmed to a pace slightly less frantic that normal just of late, and I’ve caught up with sleep sufficiently to actually have the energy for some late nights and beer drinking, I spent two pleasant evenings in a row in London last week, chatting and carousing with
It’s that time of year again: essay marking. My lovely undergraduates at Middlesex University have been beavering away all year on long projects, which I am now tasked to assess. This is the time of year when academics sit together to discuss bloopers, inadvertently hilarious appealing spooling mistales (see what
Let me tell you a fairy tale. It’s probably familiar. Once upon a time, there was a talented musician. Their family was almost certainly poor. When they were a small child, their parents noticed with astonishment that they could sing back entire complex melodies before they could even really walk.
When did you last get to know someone new? No, I don’t mean the last time a new colleague arrived at work and you had to show them where the teabags and kettle were kept. Or the last time you went on a date with someone you matched with on
