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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.
The stages that lead up to submitting your book to the publisher
One of my blog readers recently asked me what stages I had to go through before my latest book was accepted by Yale University Press. He was surprised by how complex the process was, so I thought others might find it interesting too. I don't know how it is with other...
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Different kinds of live music
I was lying awake in the night, with music playing in my head as it usually does when I'm awake in the wee small hours. Sometimes I set the music going consciously, as for example when I'm 'practising' something I'm currently trying to learn or memorise. At other...
News of my eighth book
The manuscript of my new book has been accepted by my publisher, Yale University Press, and I'm delighted to be able give you some news of it. (It's due to be published in March 2026.) The book is called Nocturnes and the Fascination of Night Music. It's essentially a...
Bits of information needed to track down classical music
At a new year party I had an interesting chat with a young man who likes music and likes to listen to it at university along with his friends. He himself likes classical music among other kinds. Many of his friends are not familiar with the world of classical music,...
Thoughts at the end of the year
I haven't written much on my blog recently, for two reasons: 1. My website was hacked (aargh), and I have been struggling to deal with the technical issues that resulted. 2. I have been working on a new book. More of that in the new year! As we come to the end of the...
More on hand sizes
A little while ago I wrote about my sudden insight that most printed fingering in the scores of piano pieces was probably devised by men, and for male pianists. Yesterday I had some follow-up to that from a doctor who had done some further reading about male and...
Programme notes – help or hindrance?
Yesterday I was at a concert where, just as I was thinking of reading the programme notes, the lights went down and I couldn't read them. Some concert halls don't put the lights down; others dim them slightly, and some put them down to 'theatre levels', just leaving...
London Piano Festival pianists
Phew! That was indeed a two-piano marathon at the London Piano Festival. Looking tired but happy after the three-hour concert last Saturday night in King's Place are, from left to right, Christian Ihle Hadland, Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen (co-directors of the...
The male hand as default …?
At the Edinburgh Book Festival I went to hear Caroline Criado Perez talk about her book 'Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men'. The book has just won the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize. The book's mission is simple but profoundly...
London Piano Festival
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...
Feeling the tempo before you begin
I did a piano workshop recently at which a number of different people played. One of our topics was tempo. How do you decide at what speeed to play something, especially if the composer gives no indication? Even written instructions such as Andante or Adagio are...
Sitting at a window, doing nothing
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....
The range of topics at the EdBookFest
For the past couple of days I've been at the Edinburgh Book Festival (one of the world's major literary festivals) listening to other writers' talks - that is, when I could hear them over the noise of the thunder, lightning and rain battering on the canvas roof (in...
NYO Dress Code – then and now
The marvellous National Youth Orchestra Prom concert with Nicola Benedetti last week has set me reminiscing about my time in the NYO (in the photo, I have long fair hair and am just to the left of the middle of the group, playing 2nd violin.) Watching the NYO Prom on...
Edinburgh International Book Festival event
As August approaches, Edinburgh is suddenly full of posters advertising the thousands of Festival and Fringe events about to be unleashed upon us. You can feel the city is about to overflow with visitors. One of the most popular of the several festivals which co-exist...