Blog
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.
Wimbledon fortnight improves my playing
Wimbledon Championship Fortnight is halfway through and I have spent quite a lot of time watching tennis, with occasional breaks for some piano practice. Whenever I watch a lot of tennis, or more particularly when I listen to a lot of expert commentary, I feel that my...
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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,...
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...
Ice dancing
On a walk today I found myself passing the ice skating rink ('the coolest place in town!') where my late father was a devoted member of the skating club for about fifty years. He went every Saturday evening and every Sunday afternoon. We children tried ice skating as...
Checking proofs of my new book
Over the last few days I have been checking the proofs of my new book, Speaking the Piano, due out in June from Boydell Press (see photo). Before we got to this point, there have been several other stages of editing. Various friends read the manuscript and gave their...
Snow and cancellations
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...
5-star ‘Winterplay’ review in The Scotsman
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...
Scotsman Magazine article about Winterplay
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...
‘Speaking the Piano’ – my new book, due out in June
I have a new book, Speaking the Piano, due out in June from Boydell Press. My previous four books are about performance. This new one is about my experiences of learning and teaching (though performance sneaks in too). The title was inspired by a remark of Artur...
Winterplay, Queen’s Hall, 10-11 Feb
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...
Starfish
Yesterday a strange sight greeted us when we went for a Sunday morning walk on Portobello beach. At first glance we thought the beach was covered in long drifts of pinkish seaweed, extending almost the whole length of the beach. As we got closer we realised with...
Shiny piano
My piano, which I've had for almost thirty years, has just come back from a six-month trip to be renovated by Steinway in London. Before you ask, I wasn't without a piano for the whole of that time: they kindly lent me a very nice Steinway 'B' grand to tide me over....
A piano in every Victorian home …
I've been reading 'Tales and Travels of a School Inspector' by John Wilson, an account of travelling round the Highlands and Islands of Scotland in the Victorian era, in the years after the groundbreaking 1872 Education Act which gave every child between the ages of 5...
Different attitudes to the artist’s mental processes
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...
Herald review of Milngavie 75th anniversary concert
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...