Medieval music on Mount Etna
Whilst on holiday in Sicily, I visited the wonderful Casa della Musica in Randazzo, museum and workshop of early music specialist Giuseppe Serverini.
Category: Blog
What I’m doing and what I’m thinking.
Celebrating Durham Music Service
The Durham Music Service Showcase event at Sage Gateshead was a wonderful opportunity for young musicians to perform, and showed just how lucky we are here in County Durham when it comes to music education.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 4: finishing the jigsaw
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I sang Monteverdi Vespers, and the concert of a lifetime was followed by a rather spectacular holiday too, so this final blog post in my Vespers diary comes after a bit of time to reflect. Thank you everyone who has put up with this year’s Monteverdi obsession: here are the final words on the subject.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 3: Listening
When I’m learning big pieces of music, I like to submerge myself in recordings so that I have a deep sense of how my part fits in with everything else that’s going on. Normally, picking a recording is quite a straightforward process, but choosing which version of Monteverdi’s Vespers to listen to has been a bit more of an adventure.
Hunting for the next Sibelius
A blog post with some musings on making choices about what to listen to, as I confront the awful fear of becoming too set in my ways.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 2: Sight-singing by heart
Things suddenly got very real and serious a couple of weeks ago when we had a workshop with Robert Hollingworth to introduce us to the Vespers.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 1. Anticipation
There is no way that I was going to be able to sing in a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers without blogging intensively about it… so here in the first installation of my rehearsal diary, I write about the early preparations, the poster design and the day we finally got to open the score for the first time.
Adventures in French baroque
My recorder teacher has finally let me loose on some French baroque music, so here are a few musings on what I’ve learnt so far about battement and flattement.
What happens at a Samling Masterclass?
I’d always assumed that masterclasses were really only for other advanced students, but an afternoon at the Samling Artist masterclass at Sage Gateshead showed me how fascinating they are for anyone who is interested in how great musical performances are put together.
Pickled cucumbers and cabbage soup
I’m singing Rachmaninov Vespers with Durham Singers at the moment, and although I don’t have to battle with the language, I’ve had to overcome the effect it has on my spirits. Two Russian words sum up the musings in this blog post: ‘toska’ and ‘radost’.