British winters have been so mild in recent years that I had almost forgotten why snowdrops are so called.  But here they are in our garden, living up to their name.  Our poor snowdrops are doubly challenged at the moment because if it’s not snow knocking them down, it’s the local foxes, who trample on them in the night. ‘Foxes?’, I hear you say. Oh yes. They (the foxes, not the snowdrops) have now dug subways under the fence on three sides of the garden.

My publisher, Boydell Press, has put a short extract from my new book Out of Silence on their blog.  You can read it by clicking here. The blog also shows the book’s cover image for the first time. I’m irrationally proud of this cover because I took the photograph! It aims to give the impression of someone coming ‘out of silence’ and into a public space, a journey which performers know very well.

discussing Brahms with Omri Epstein and Sebastiaan van Halsema

A moment during my weekend of masterclasses, which finished last night with a delightful concert by the participants. It was a most enjoyable experience to work so intensively with six young professional pianists, and two fine young string players, violinist Sulki Yu and cellist Sebastiaan van Halsema, who had volunteered to be my ‘resident artists’ for the weekend, playing whatever duo and trio repertoire the six pianists wanted to work on. None of the participants had the opportunity to rehearse with one another beforehand, so the first time they played together was in front of the masterclass audience. I wasn’t sure how this formula would work – I’ve only ever seen it done the other way round, with a pianist as the ‘resident’ – but because they were all experienced musicians, because of the constructive attitude of our two resident string players, and because everyone entered into the spirit of the project, the result exceeded my expectations.