After a recent concert a member of the audience was telling me how much she’d enjoyed it. ‘I always say it’s great to hear top professionals playing, because it’s only when people have really mastered the notes that they can think about how music communicates’, she said. Actually, I feel sad when I hear people […]

Last week I had the opportunity to sit at the side of a church and watch the faces of the audience as they listened to a wonderful concert. It was interesting to observe the array of expressions, some clearly related to the music, others not. I saw people who were: Transfixed, taken out of themselves […]

The other day I went to the Bridget Riley exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery. In one room, there was a large Riley painting, painted directly onto a white wall. I stepped forward to read the plaque. It said the painting was owned by a gallery in Germany. How could it get to Edinburgh, then? […]

There’s so much talk about ‘fake news’ at the moment. Most of us are gradually getting better at spotting it. Fake news often seems to be accompanied by a certain style of presentation, which we often see in public speaking. Smiles that don’t arise from the inside. An over-developed sense of confidence and authority, a […]

Recently for work reasons I’ve had to look through the websites of lots of different young musicians and chamber groups. Websites are dazzling! It’s clear that everyone now employs sophisticated media skills and professional designers. Gorgeous artwork, glamorous photos easily mistaken for fashion shoots, web pages that dance about to a mysterious rhythm; video, audio […]