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I’ve been writing this blog since 2009, but there still seem to be plenty of interesting topics to mull over. You can subscribe (it’s free) to follow the blog by email – each new post will pop into your inbox.
Professions which have no amateur version
The other day I was talking about piano-playing with some very good amateur pianists. As it happens, they were all high-flyers in other professions. A surgeon was saying ruefully that people don't realise how much work it takes to be a very good amateur pianist,...
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The imaginary concert hall at the end of the street
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...
Watching the Van Cliburn piano competition
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...
Presto Music Award arrives
I have got so used to everything being online-only that I was very surprised when an Actual Thing turned up in the post to commemorate the Presto Music Award 2021 for my book The Piano. It's a nice little sculpture of the blue Presto Music 'arrows' logo. I knew about...
Good wishes for Hogmanay
At the end of December, I usually reflect on my favourite concerts of the year. This year however, as you will know all too well, we spent the entire year in a pandemic. Concert life is still badly impacted, and freelance musicians have been more impacted than most....
Presto Music Awards 2021
Today I learned that my book The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces has been named as a Book of the Year 2021 in the Presto Music Awards. I feel very fortunate that it has now been chosen as a Book of the Year in The Spectator, the Financial Times and the Presto Music...
Financial Times ‘Books of 2021’
The Financial Times has been publishing its 'Books of 2021', category by category across recent days, and now they have arrived at Classical Music. I'm proud to see that my piano book is one of their Books of 2021. This is the link, but unless you're a subscriber it...
My piano book is in The Spectator’s ‘Books of the Year’
An exhilarating moment in an otherwise quiet stretch of autumn: Jenny Colgan has chosen my piano book as one of her Books of the Year in The Spectator (the print edition comes out on 13 November). She calls it 'one of the two most beautiful books I got my hands on...
A ‘Strictly’ for pianists?
I was discussing 'Strictly' with a friend who's also a fan of the show. He asked me: 'How do you think it would work if celebrities were partnered with professional pianists, to learn to play the piano in a few weeks and then perform, say, a piano concerto in front of...
‘This is a hugely stimulating book that inspires and enlightens’, says International Piano
Renowned piano teacher and educator Murray McLachlan has reviewed my book in International Piano: https://www.rhinegold.co.uk/international_piano/the-piano-a-history-in-100-pieces/ To read more reviews of this book, click here
Musical Opinion review of ‘The Piano – a History in 100 Pieces’
The quarterly magazine Musical Opinion has a review of my book in its October-December 2021 issue. Some excerpts from Julian Jacobson's review: 'Susan Tomes' new book is aimed at the informed amateur or mélomane, in the untranslatable French word: the Radio 3 (perhaps...
In the pocket of the music
The autumn season of Strictly Come Dancing is under way and this year the judges seem inclined to give us a bit more insight into what they are looking for. I have enjoyed learning more about posture, weight, inside edges, head position, arm extensions, 'spotting' ( a...
Review of my piano book on David Barton Music
Another nice review of The Piano - a History in 100 Pieces, this time on David Barton Music, the website of an educator and researcher. He begins with a description of the book's contents - and here's how he sums up: 'Tomes explores each selected piece in turn,...
Playing without effort
I'm playing through the whole volume of Mozart sonatas again. The other day I came to the B flat Sonata K333. This has difficult associations for me because I learned it for one of those endless exams one always seems to be taking in teenage years - I can't now...
Continual assessment
A friend of mine has been musing on this question: How many other professionals are subjected to continual public assessment the way musicians are? For a long time, musicians have put up with being publicly reviewed because good reviews can bring them quickly to the...