This morning we listened to a delightful edition of ‘Desert Island Discs’ featuring Sir David Attenborough, irresistible as always. What a lovely voice he has!
‘Desert Island Discs’ is a long-running radio series in which each ‘castaway’ chooses the eight records they’d like to take to an imaginary desert island. In between musical choices, they talk [...]

An intriguing article in the Guardian this week about The Chemical Brothers. They’re  thoughtful and interesting, but some of their comments about music and audiences were startling for me, because they showed such a different facet of the music world.
“I don’t really think people get that absorbed in music at the moment,” says Simons. “They’re [...]

Went to a lovely concert given by a group of distinguished European string players in memory of the Hungarian violinist Sandor Vegh, whose centenary falls this year. Sandor Vegh founded the International Musicians’ Seminars in Prussia Cove, an inspiration to many of today’s leading players.
At the concert there were two different string quartet groups, giving [...]

On the last day of the year, I find myself pondering the things that gave me most satisfaction during 2011. To my surprise, I realise that some of my happiest working moments were to do with teaching masterclasses. I say ‘to my surprise’ because I fended off teaching for a long while, thinking it was [...]

Today there’s an interview with me by Kate Molleson in the Herald, one of Scotland’s leading newspapers. The interview was triggered by the interest in my Mozart Series with violinist Erich Höbarth in Perth Concert Hall. The next concert in the series is on December 14 at 7.30pm.
You can read the Herald interview here.

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