Classical Features
First Person: Donatella Flick on why the conducting competition in her name is needed more than everThursday, 23 March 2023
What are the qualities that make a great conductor? It’s something that has been debated for years, brought into focus recently not least because of Cate Blanchett’s award-winning performance as fictional maestra Lydia Tár. Despite what you may think of the film, it has reignited debate about what it means to be a conductor today, and what qualities they should possess. Read more... |
First Person: Anna Clyne on composing collaborations, not battles, in her latest concertosWednesday, 22 March 2023
Collaboration fuels a lot of my music – I love the interaction that takes me outside of my natural tendencies – it’s a source of inspiration and an opportunity to see my own music and creative process through a different lens. Read more... |
Axing the BBC Singers: four associated musicians on why it's so wrongFriday, 17 March 2023
Sent by a surely reluctant BBC PR, an ardent choral singer and supporter of new music, last Tuesday’s email had a title to make one groan: “New Strategy for Classical Music Prioritises Quality, Agility and Impact”. Very W1A. But this was no laughing matter – ker-pow-ing out of the thicket of corporatespeak were two devastating punches to the solar plexus. Read more... |
First Person: conductor Harry Bicket on filming the complete Handel for The English Concert's big new projectTuesday, 28 February 2023
Of the many questions we asked ourselves during lockdown, I suspect that many of us looked at our lives and professions and asked, “Why?”. Read more... |
Extract: The Northern Silence - Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture by Andrew MellorWednesday, 15 February 2023
“Silence,” Andrew Mellor contends, “is more prominent in the northernmost reaches of Europe.” Yet it is more like a texture or an apprehension of vacancy than a state of true soundlessness: sometimes “real and pure”, sometimes it “lingers despite the noise”. Read more... |
First Person: Kings Place Artistic and Executive Director Helen Wallace on a year of 'Sound Unwrapped'Saturday, 21 January 2023
2023 is surely the year the performing arts reach peak "immersive", a word endangered by its own ubiquity. From Punchdrunk’s Burnt City to Danny Boyle’s The Matrix we are promised a swallowing-up by art. Kings Cross is the location for two visual and aural initiatives: David Hockney’s 3D Bigger & Closer at the Lightroom, and Sound Unwrapped at Kings Place, a year-long series of intimate, immersive events kindled by live performance. Read more... |
First Person: Royal Academy of Music Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood on why a conservatoire should make recordingsWednesday, 11 January 2023
Why is it important for a music conservatoire to make recordings? What is the educational context? These are questions we have continued to reflect upon at the Royal Academy of Music – celebrating its bicentenary this year – since we took our first steps towards what has become an established and invigorating part of Academy life. Read more... |
'We wanted to emphasise the “ordinariness” of people affected by torture': Sally Beamish on her new work for Ex CathedraSaturday, 12 November 2022
I was first approached by Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture (Q-CAT) in 2016 with the idea of a creating a piece of music to raise awareness of torture – its use worldwide, and the terrible damage it does both to victim and to perpetrator. Read more... |
First Person: composer and co-founder of The Multi-Story Orchestra Kate Whitley on car-park creativityMonday, 07 November 2022
We started The Multi-Story Orchestra back in 2011 with a group of friends when we’d left university. Conductor Christopher Stark and I basically wanted to find new ways to play orchestral music that would escape formal concert halls and be more exciting and more accessible. Read more... |
'Serving the community means representing the narratives of our time': Elena Dubinets on her responsibilities as the LPO's Artistic DirectorThursday, 29 September 2022
Just as I was moving from the US to the UK to begin working as the Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra last summer, the orchestra was emerging from the COVID-19 period and our audiences began coming back. Read more... |
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