Thanks to the kind inviation of Jan Dobrzelewski, Jane and I spent four very enjoyable days in Sion, Switzerland from 20 to 24 January. The invitation came to give a lecture on the instrumental and chamber works of Benjamin Britten in the regular series of the conservatoire HEMU. Leading up to this we rehearsed Britten’s
I have just come back from De Doelen where a concert conducted by Hans Leenders has completed the Codarts autumn Project Week with aplomb. As posted last year on 3 November, Codarts project weeks happen twice a year and suspend the curriculum in order to allow students to do something entirely different. This year we
The most recent Darwin Ensemble Chamber Orchestra (DECO) concert on 24 October was a great chance to play the Haydn and Mozart Sinfonia Concertanti again. I had not played the Haydn for many years and really enjoyed this exuberant and espressive work again – for the oboist pure fun with much of the attention being
Having taken over the role of Chair of the Schubert Ensemble Trust this year, this is to help spread the word about the Ensemble’s Wigmore Hall concert on 29 November. This is the second of a two-concert series devoted to chamber works of Robert Schumann and Gabriel Fauré. On 15 July the Ensemble played the
The idea for the Fifty Fiddles Festival which took place on 26 and 27 September in De Doelen, Rotterdam came from the earlier collaboration that Codarts organised with jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis joining Gordan Nikolic and the Codarts String Orchestra in concerts that combined string works of Mozart and Vivaldi with jazz improvisations. Some Codarts
This year’s Gergiev Festival on 10 to 12 September in Rotterdam was made all the more interesting by the inclusion of a performance of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Symphony played by students from Codarts Rotterdam and KC Den Haag and conducted by Valery Gergiev himself. This was another vintage collaboration between the two conservatoires which produced a
After a silence of some weeks in this blog, it is time to catch up with the many things that have been happening over the summer. When I last wrote we were off to the Kammermusik Summer Workshop in Santa Fe. This was a great week in beautiful New Mexico, playing Mozart Quartets and other
After a hectic June with concerts to play (including a most enjoyable return to the Adrian Boult Hall on 13 June for chamber music with Naoko Senda, Robin Ireland, Jane Salmon and Guy Murgatroyd), exams and end-of-term activities at Codarts Rotterdam, we came to a close today with the Graduation Ceremony for Classical Music. It
Because our daughter Lizzie has been learning the violin with Lucy Akehurst since she was three, it was great to be able to take part in Lucy’s 70th Birthday Concert in the Adrian Boult Hall last Sunday. Lucy has been teaching young violinists in Birmingham for many years and has run the Young Strings Project
I spent a most pleasurable 90 minutes last night in the small recital hall at Codarts Rotterdam listening to seven young flute players in the class of Juliette Hurel, Julie Moulin and Wim Steinmann all playing piccolo solos. The small audience of flute players, friends and partners of flute players and family of flute players