On Saturday there was a lovely article in The Guardian about Paul Barton, a man who plays the piano to elephants at an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. The elephants have often been overworked or mistreated before they come to the sanctuary, but it seems that they...
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There was an article in The Guardian this week about the dwindling number of highly-trained piano tuners in Australia. Not only is the pool of piano tuners getting smaller, it is in danger of not being replenished because there aren't enough training courses in this...
Hyperion Records, which was recently bought by Universal, has decided to make its catalogue of recordings available on streaming platforms for the first time. The first batch of 200 Hyperion recordings has just gone up on Apple Music, Spotify, iTunes and so on. As the...
In our local department store today, I was looking at the autumn collection of clothes. A young sales assistant in her twenties stepped forward to help me when she saw me studying a particular pair of wool trousers. I asked her if they were washable. 'I wouldn't...
To Sadler’s Wells to see the Tanztheater Wuppertal, Pina Bausch’s dance company. Sadly I never saw them while Pina Bausch was still alive (she died last year). The audience was packed with dancers, or at least that was how I interpreted the fact that there were so...
The clocks went back last night, and we all had an extra hour in bed. This should have been ideal at the end of a day of recording Shostakovich. Recording is an arduous process and I was looking forward to relaxing when it was all over. But could I take advantage of...
Yesterday, when I was coaching at King's Place, we had a tea break between sessions. Some of the younger participants were airing their current dilemmas about fees and conditions. In particular, they were wondering aloud about their situation as young professionals:...
It's getting cold... When I was out for a walk on a chilly morning this week and saw this little round creature staring into the lake, I felt I was seeing a kindred spirit.
On Tuesday morning, 19 October, I'm giving a masterclass in 'the art of piano chamber music' in the Recital Hall of the Royal College of Music in South Kensington from 10am-1pm. Tickets are free, but you have to book them via this link or by calling the RCM box office...
The third and final instalment of my readings from 'Out of Silence' is aired tomorrow by Canadian Broadcasting's 'In Concert' programme. I'll be reading one short chapter from my book, and I'll also be chatting with 'In Concert' host Bill Richardson. They'll be...
I’m excited about Sunday, my first day of teaching at ChamberStudio, the new venture at King’s Place in London. ChamberStudio offers high-level coaching for post-graduate and young professional chamber groups who don’t have access to regular tuition any more. As...
Bemused by all the talk about university degrees and their supposed link to salaries. Lord Browne’s report seems to assume that if you go to university you will inevitably have more earning power than non-graduates in the years ahead. In the performing arts, however,...
To East Bergholt in Suffolk for a concert with the Florestan Trio. The artist John Constable was born in East Bergholt, and used to walk through the fields to school in Dedham. He later said it was that landscape which inspired him to become a painter. Before the...
In the mysterious world of performance there aren't many markers of how far you've come, so it was a pleasure to walk into the backstage area at Wigmore Hall on Monday and see the Florestan Trio's photo on the wall of the stairwell (see right of picture). I have been...
Yesterday I was at a conference about creativity in performance. There were many interesting speakers, several of whom told anecdotes to make their points clear. At one point we were talking about the curious blend of involvement and detachment that seems to be...