I have been going to events at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival. There seems to be a lot of overlap between the audiences, because I keep seeing the same faces. It's interesting to observe the effects that different performers have on the audiences. Some performers banter...
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A friend and I have been discussing the career of a mutual friend who died recently. He was a fabulous musician who wasn't as well known as he should have been. Writers and visual artists can stay put in the place where they choose to live, and create their work...
I have been keeping half an eye on the 2025 Van Cliburn piano competition in Texas, partly because when I was writing Women and the Piano I did a fair amount of research into the gender disparity one can see in the lists of piano competition prizewinners around the...
Today I was at a major exhibition, 'Ages of Wonder - Scottish Art from 1540 to now' at the Royal Scottish Academy of Art in Edinburgh (it's free, and very enjoyable). As I went round, reading the plaques which explained the artworks, I was struck by how often they...
Four stars from The Herald today for my Glasgow concert with Jamie MacDougall and the Maxwell Quartet, marking the 75th anniversary of Milngavie Music Club with a very special programme: 'To mark the club's 75th birthday, current president Hugh Macdonald introduced a...
Italian jazz pianist Rossano Sportiello was visiting Edinburgh from New York last night and I went to hear him. The jazz musicians in the audience ruefully acknowledged that Sportiello's elegant appearance had put them to shame. Beautifully pressed grey suit, pink...
The other night I went to hear a great Irish folk band, Lankum, at the Traverse theatre bar. I first came across them in a BBC Alba television programme when they were called 'Lynched', a name they have understandably ditched. Their talent stuck in my head, so when I...
I'm reading Andrew Solomon's fascinating 'Far from the Tree', a 900-page study of parents 'who learn to deal with their exceptional children and find profound meaning in doing so'. Many of the chapters focus on conditions which are obviously challenging for families:...
Recently I came across folders of notes I had made when serving on international competition juries over the past decade or more. Pages and pages of detailed notes on people's playing. Most of them played for at least half an hour, sometimes an hour, so there was...
Articles and letters in The Guardian recently have explored why some of today's singers suffer from vocal problems, develop nodules on their vocal cords from singing so loudly, etc. Curiously, the use of powerful amplification has not taken away the need to sing...
Interesting discussions with friends about 'concert performances' of operas they've attended at this year's Edinburgh Festival. I have been to two: Wagner's 'Die Walküre' and Monteverdi's 'L'Incoronazione di Poppea', both excellent, and I've been told that Britten's...
Last night I went to a stupendous concert performance of Wagner's 'Die Walküre' at the Edinburgh International Festival. (Thank you, Amber Wagner, Simon O'Neill, Christine Guerke, Bryn Terfel, Karen Cargill, Matthew Rose, conductor Sir Andrew Davis and the RSNO!) The...
The Edinburgh Festival and 'Fringe' begin this week and the city is plastered with publicity posters. The trend towards anti-glamour continues. Even if a performer wants to look glamorous, they are portrayed in a jarring context. Someone in a beautiful suit lounges in...
A friend told me a tale of a violinist friend of his who came across a mass-produced violin for sale on eBay for €23. It was even cheaper than it sounds because the price included the violin, a bow, and a case. He bought the violin, which arrived with a set of...
For various reasons I've been to quite a few amateur performances recently. All were enjoyable, but I noticed something that was common to them all. It puzzled me, but I am not sure if I have simply forgotten what it is like to be a beginner or a non-professional....