When I was in Cambridge recently I went to see the photos taken last year by photographer Jooney Woodward to mark fifty years of women undergraduates at King's College Cambridge. Last time I saw these photos, in June 2023, they were in the Chapel (I wrote about the...
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On Sunday of this week I'll be playing a programme of piano music by historical women pianists at the London International Piano Festival at King's Place. Mine is the closing concert of the festival, at 3pm on 6th October. If you live in or near London, please...
Debussy's Prelude 'La Puerta del Vino', from his second book of Preludes for piano (written 1912-13), has been one of my favourites for a long time. I've always loved its evocation of harsh guitar music, flamenco singing and the rhythms of the habañera. Long ago I...
I'm preparing for my two appearances at the London Piano Festival in King's Place on Saturday October 5. At 2pm I have a solo lecture-recital on Schubert's A major Sonata D959. At 7pm I'll be joining the other festival pianists in a 'two-piano marathon' concert. Most...
I've been on holiday in Italy and can feel that it has done me good. What can be more cheering than to start each day by opening the shutters to find a golden haze lying over the landscape (again), the hills receding in layers of paler and paler blue? It was very hot....
I've just returned from a week in Germany, on the jury of the Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar (see photo of the splendid Music Conservatory where it all happened). There were groups from most corners of the world. Many of them were living proof of...
Last weekend I was at a dinner in Christ's College, Cambridge to celebrate 40 years of women in the college (founded 1505). Women have only been allowed to study at the University of Cambridge since 1869, when Girton College was founded. Newnham followed in 1872, but...
As the Brexit story accelerates, musicians are still in the dark about what will happen to their freedom of movement after we leave the EU. For two and a half years now I have been listening to colleagues and students worrying about whether they will still be able to...
In my new book Speaking the Piano, there's a chapter about the time I went to America in the 1980s to learn jazz piano. I loved learning about jazz, but didn't find a way into the jazz world at that time. One of the reasons was my feeling of discomfort at being a...
For over a year I've enjoyed contributing weather-related photos to the Guardian newspaper via their 'Witness' site, which invited readers to send in images that captured the 'feel' of the month. Several times I've been lucky enough to have one of my photos chosen by...
I'm just back from a week at the Gaudier Ensemble's annual Cerne Abbas Music Festival in Dorset - my 25th year at the festival, I think. Some of the core players have been doing it for 28 years! But there are always new players and guest players, and this year we had...
Today I received this nice photo from the Russian violinist and Moscow Conservatoire professor Sergey Kravchenko. It was taken by his wife and shows me and Mr Kravchenko at the drinks party aboard the houseboat 'La Platforme' in the Rhone after the final concert of...
I'm back from chairing the jury at CIMCL, the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. It was won by the Trio Messiaen from Paris, who swept the board with almost all of the available prizes. In 2nd place was the Trio Hélios, also from Paris, and in 3rd place was...
Tomorrow I'm off to France to spend a week on the jury of the Lyon International Chamber Music Competition. This year the competition is for piano trio - the classic combination of piano, violin and cello. From time to time I come across people who think -very...
Last week, when I was in Italy, I went to a concert of a well-known ensemble (I'll be discreet about who and where). Firstly I should say that the large audience appeared perfectly happy with the performance and applauded enthusiastically, but for me as a professional...