When I was playing in Birmingham a couple of weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with a student there. (Birmingham University is rightly protective of its students' identities, so I won't name her.) She was studying aspects of the history of women playing...
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News of the death of the wonderful comic actress Prunella Scales at the age of 93 has reminded me of a little anecdote in my first book, Beyond the Notes, in the section about touring Japan with the Florestan Trio in 2000. Twenty-five years ago! For context, I should...
On Wednesday I played a solo recital in Ambleside Church as part of the Lake District Summer Music festival. My programme contained six pieces by the female pianist-composers whose work I have been performing in the past couple of years. In the context, I was touched...
We're in the grip of bitter winter weather. For several days it's felt as if the country has ground to a halt while 'The Beast from the East' roars around us. My inbox is full of mail from fellow free-lancers who, like me, have had concerts cancelled because of the...
Winterplay - Beethoven concert, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh 'The dark days of February have been indelibly brightened by Winterplay, a new weekend chamber music festival curated by pianist Susan Tomes. With workshops for children and concerts featuring teenage talent and...
It's just ten days now until the Winterplay mini-festival of chamber music in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. My tally of organisational emails has probably doubled since I last reported that I had written 568 emails relating to the festival - and of course I was only...
Just a month now until Winterplay, my mini-festival of chamber music in the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh. The weekend of six events is designed to bring in listeners of all ages. We start on the morning of 10 Feb with a children's 'music and movement' workshop run by...
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...