Like many other musicians and freelancers in the arts world I have been shocked this week by further evidence that we are being treated less well than employees on furlough. Our workplaces remain closed by government order. Many freelance musicians have earned nothing at all since the pandemic began. Yet government support is about to […]

Since lockdown, I’ve only had the chance to do one concert. It was a special one, though! – the Edinburgh Festival’s Chamber Soundscapes online series. Although there was no audience, the performance took place under concert conditions. In five months of lockdown, I haven’t been bothering to wear much make-up as I wasn’t going anywhere […]

Today is a melancholy day, the funeral of one of my first college friends. He had battled for years with depression, anxiety and a cascade of associated health problems. His passing led to a burst of correspondence between those of us in his circle in those university years. We agreed that if we had been […]

During lockdown I have had plenty of time to practise slowly. Normally, I practise things because I’m getting ready to perform them. But with all concerts cancelled, there was no reason to prepare in the usual way – that is to say, securing things in a way that I knew I could depend on when […]

Most people who learn piano will have come across Bach’s Two-Part Inventions, but their eyes may not have alighted on his Foreword. Mine hadn’t until the other day. ‘Forthright instruction, wherewith lovers of the clavier, especially those eager to learn, are shown in a clear way not only 1) to learn to play two voices […]