Enjoying a day off from fairly intense orchestra rehearsals for @regentsopera.bsky.social production of Salome, directed by Mark Ravenhill. But I'll soon be heading (ho ho) to York Hall in Bethnal Green as we prepare for Friday's opening night. 6 shows between then and 23 April.

When Zappa meets Ives meets... Jackanory? Spent yesterday rehearsing this piece of far-outery by Sean Noonan for its world premiere performance on Monday 30 March. At Milton Court, London; tickets still available!

If only he had had one to hand! (From Nicola Barker, Reversed Forecast)

Tomorrow's concert: Ruth Gipps oboe concerto (ft Nicola Hands) and Avril Coleridge-Taylor Sussex Landscape, lovely stuff. Also Malcolm Arnold 7th Symphony. With St Paul's Sinfonia at St Margaret's church SE13 5DL. www.stpaulssinfonia.com/2025-26/

Made a rare trip to the cinema today, to see Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling. More films like this!

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that ding.

This is such a beautiful essay with such a beautiful first sentence - such a beautiful first three words, even. Nobody writes it better.

Superb idea for an opera right here...

looking to speak to freelancers in the arts, culture, and heritage sectors for a story - if that's you, drop me a message! #journorequest

Did you hear Karthi Gnanasegaram's shoutout for Doreen Carwithen on the Today programme sports report this morning (at 2'28")? www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Just back from a trip to see my parents, where I seem to have unearthed a fourth stanza of This Be The Verse: As for us the die is cast: We're fuck-ups along with all the rest. There's no way forward in the past Just love your neighbour and try your best #larkin

Abscond to Marseille and sit in restaurants ready to translate the menu for English-speaking visitors. (This kind of happened a couple of times when I was there on holiday.) The restaurants would pay me in meals and perhaps characterful if temporary lodgings. (This didn't.)

Taking people for a walk. I know the directions, and also where all the best cafes and pubs are. And where the toilets are. We can talk about whatever they want.

Halloween reminder that Beethoven's Ghost Trio doesn't have a WoO no., but Schumann's Ghost Variations does.

There was a king named Ozymandias Whose visage was once Marlon Brandious Now his statuesque legs Were but truncated pegs With nothing beyond his sad sandy ass

My brother @andrewwyld.bsky.social's song on the subject (I played the synthy bits, it was always so fun to perform this at gigs too) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttfZ...

Slightly diminish a book: Mr Dalloway

Good news - we've just created a new arts funding hub, which provides links to funding pots in the UK that are currently open for applications 🎉 Hope it's useful! www.alternativeclassical.co.uk/classical-mu...

Northern Ballet, having recently ditched their live orchestra, now crowing about offering a "rare opportunity" to conduct a ballet. Must have own Spotify Premium account.

Perfect timing by the EFL to arrange the Coventry vs Hull match on Larkin’s birthday. The classic Larkin derby, nature vs nurture.

I don't believe in ghosts, but then again, what if the things I don't believe in aren't ghosts?

There should be a hire bike style scheme for music stands. Or Airbnb style: anyone not using theirs can rent it out to anyone in the area who needs one.

My favourite tempo marking in music is 'tempo giusto', ie basically 'the right speed'. I wish there were also a similar marking for dynamics: g, say, instead of mf or pp, etc

Quite an itinerant, varied month with my viola, that. Yesterday in Kent, a one-of-a-kind programme at Stour Music. Previously: Saint-Saens with New Sussex Opera in Worthing and Winchester; recording with Southern Sinfonia in Christchurch; UK premiere of Dan Forrest’s Creation for Vox Anima in Ely...

People in classical music: I’m interested in documenting AI, LLM, ChatGPT etc. use in the workplace - looking at images and texts in particular. If you have any examples, do send them my way x

I'm still looking for a tenor for the MA in Solo-Voice Ensemble Singing at the U of York this September. A year's course, coaching every week from me and top quality singing lessons (not from me...) Please be in touch if you're interested - and do pass on. Current lot (2 groups) pictured.

Not in my name, Toby Carvery, not in my name! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Since Fanny was older than Felix, is there any reason why, to avoid confusion between the two, we shouldn't refer to her as Mendelssohn major and her brother as Mendelssohn minor? Does anyone in fact do this?

Just off to the bank to pay in a cheque. Gasp, right? It has been quite some time since I was paid that way, and I'm wondering if I should phone in advance so they can get together a ceremonial welcoming party.

I wrote about why I hate AI "art" www.theneweuropean.co.uk/emily-herrin...

Pierre #Boulez centenary birthday menu: Tomato sans maitre Pea, sirloin, pea Cabbagesquisse Eclair (multiples)

Does the existence of the Toblerone imply also the existence of the Toblerino, indeed also of the Tobleroncello?

A report on an orchestra that vanished for @londonermag.bsky.social www.the-londoner.co.uk/london-chamb...

Hey! HEY!! Don't tell anyone but we just released more £30 tickets for our opening show #DasRheingold this Sunday at #Yorkhalla (Bethnal Green, London) there will also be a small number of £25 rush tickets on the day, but we're very nearly full don't miss it! Www.ticketsource.co.uk/regents-opera

Life's not a rehearsal, and when you put it like that, neither are rehearsals. Especially when it's a Ring cycle and you're about to do the fourth dress rehearsal in as many days. To Bethnal Green today for Götterdämmerung with @regentsopera.bsky.social. Opening Sunday!

Back home from rehearsing at York Hall in Bethnal Green for @regentsopera.bsky.social's Ring Cycle, the orchestra's first outing in the venue. It's looking incredibly dramatic: the audience really do have ringside seats regentsopera.com/ring-cycle-2...

We're grateful to This Is London's New Year 2025 edition for this preview - TAKE THEIR ADVICE!

Thought I'd try drinking black velvets for my solo Christmas this year. (On the menu: bought-in game pie with home-made bubble and squeak.) Taking it easy though as I'm back in the pit at the Coliseum tomorrow for Boxing Day Nutcracker. Tcheers!

Should we have a Campaign for the Protection of Traditional Sound? Its aim would be to defend the noise of pubs, farms, church bells, sport… from Nimbies who move in next door and then complain about the sounds that have been there for decades and centuries. #CPTS

Since it's St Cecilia's Day, I'm about to sightread my way through the book of viola studies I've just bought. But I'm not letting you hear that! Here's my illustrious forebear instead with some Purcell recorded in 1956 (Michael Tippett conducting btw) www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoCj...

Something for #frenchhorn fans in London tomorrow: Nivanthi Karunaratne playing the Gliere concerto with us at St Alfege's church Greenwich, 7.30pm. Also featuring Ina Boyle's Wild Geese and Schubert 9 www.stpaulssinfonia.com

Brandenburg concertos ranking (highest to lowest): 6, 4, 1, 5, 2, 3

In Manchester for the second leg of the Giselle tour, or given the weather so far maybe that should be Driselle

Lovelock's Coffee Shop in Liverpool is just my kind of place and I'm very glad it's so close to where I'm staying this week. www.lovelocks.coffee

Very happy to be in Liverpool for a few days to play Giselle, one of those occasional times in my work where viola playing overlaps with my French lit background. Oh là là, la!

Stop reading your smartphones and trying to walk at the same time. You can't do it! Also, stop dropping them all the time.

Someone asked me once which composer I would choose if I could choose only one. I said Bartok but then had the thought... maybe Tippett??

Heading to Oxford on Friday to play Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. At lunchtime! If you want to join us (for a donation of your choice) in contemplating the fruits of the earth and the passing of the seasons, we'll be at the Wesley Memorial chapel at 1pm. muzikfermata.com/2024/10/01/m...