Opinion

archive-post-image
Live lessons – thoughts on performing
Performing can take many forms – from informal playing at home with friends to a recital at a world-renowned concert hall – and each performance presents its own difficulties, stresses, pleasures and revelations. I believe it is important to perform
Read more
archive-post-image
Be More Amateur
The self-help/life coaching section of my local bookshop is full of books on how to learn from the professionals – think like a pro, act like a pro, be more pro. We are encouraged to draw inspiration from successful professionals
Read more
archive-post-image
No Introduction Needed?
Thoughts on How to Introduce the Music Appropriately Before a Performance There is a growing trend amongst concert hosts and performers to introduce the music to be performed ahead of the concert, and on radio for presenters to describe the
Read more
archive-post-image
The Creativity Routine
Where does inspiration come from, the spark to create? ….even fairly mundane activities can feed in to the discovery of new insight, new knowledge and new means of expressing ideas in all sorts of ways – Professor John Rink
Read more
archive-post-image
The Myth of ‘Natural Talent’
I watched with interest some of the Winter Olympics coverage from South Korea, in particular the snowboarding and skiing. It’s easy to spot the winners – people like Chloe Kim and Redmond Gerard (both from the US team): they display
Read more
archive-post-image
Small Is Beautiful – the Piano Miniature
When considering the piano repertoire, and piano instrumental music, we tend to focus on the big works in the canon – the great concertos and piano sonatas, and large-scale works like the Goldberg, Diabelli or Handel Variations, or the Rhapsody
Read more
archive-post-image
How do Musicians Define Success?
In our commercially-driven modern times “success” tends to be measured in monetary terms, and those people who have achieved the dizzy heights of a very large salary and financial security long into the future are generally regarded as “successful”.
Read more
archive-post-image
Relaxing Classical Music?
Is this the most “relaxing” piece of classical music? asks Radio Three of Arvo Pärt’s contemplative and spiritual ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’.
Read more