This week I’m on the jury of the Trondheim International Chamber Competition, which this year is for piano trios. During the day we’ve been listening to nine piano trios playing very demanding programmes, and in the evenings we’ve been rehearsing for and playing in concerts of our own, in the festival which runs parallel with [...]

In Trondheim in Norway, where the chamber music festival this week is featuring the music of Australian composer Brett Dean. Stylish posters advertise the concerts around town, playing on the titles of works being performed in the festival, or on events associated with it. For example, this morning there’s a ‘Chamber Music Orienteering’ event where festival [...]

Usually I take part in music festivals, so to be invited to a Literary Festival is an exciting change. Yesterday I was at the Rye Festival talking about music and musicians. In between readings and bits of talk, I played little piano pieces.
I’d been given one of those microphones which consists of a little box [...]

Delayed for three hours today on a train journey from Edinburgh to London because of the high winds, apparently the tail-end of the hurricane which has now reached the UK from across the Atlantic. Just before leaving Edinburgh, we managed to climb Blackford Hill (see photo) in the highest winds I’ve experienced there – it [...]

For the last month or so I’ve had a wart on the tip of my left index finger. A wart! I’ve never had one before. I think I had associated them with ghastly mediaeval illustrations, or fairytales in which unpleasant things get inflicted by magic on evil-doers. Anyway, my wart has chosen a location particularly annoying [...]