Tippett’s ‘Negro’ Spirituals

Tippett’s ‘Negro’ Spirituals

An email this morning got me thinking. Dear Ken I’m not sure you’d remember me, but I used to go to Hereford Sixth Form College and sang in the choir and you did several events and workshops with us whilst I was there. I’m now an undergraduate at Merton College,...
Berlioz 150 Years Later

Berlioz 150 Years Later

150 years after his death, Hector Berlioz remains one of music’s most fascinating and contradictory figures. He wrote some of the most exciting music ever to be heard in the concert hall, and yet even in a work as popular and electrifying as Symphonie...
Tchaikovsky’s Magnificent Manuscript

Tchaikovsky’s Magnificent Manuscript

  I’ve wanted to make a string orchestra version of Tchaikovsky’s Third String Quartet for almost as long as I’ve known the piece.  Growing up in the USA, most musicians I knew seemed to only know of “‘the’ Tchaikovsky String...