First Person
First Person: cellist Matthew Barley on composing and recording his 'Light Stories'Tuesday, 24 December 2024
For many thousands of years, humans have turned to art to tell stories about themselves and others because it feels good. It feels good because we sense that it helps us to understand ourselves, and the sharing of these uniquely human stories brings... Read more... |
First Person: singer-songwriter Sam Amidon on working in Dingle with Teaċ Daṁsa on 'Nobodaddy'Monday, 25 November 2024
Walking in the morning from my Airbnb along the road in West Kerry, a seven-minute walk with ocean on one side and farmland on the other, down to the Teaċ Daṁsa workshop space. I would bring all possible clothes for the short walk because the... Read more... |
First Person: Alec Frank-Gemmill on reasons for another recording of the Mozart horn concertosWednesday, 13 November 2024
One former teacher of mine said of their recording of the Mozart horn concertos “I’m not really sure why I bothered”. Said recording is excellent, so they were probably just being excessively modest. Nevertheless, every new version of these pieces... Read more... |
First Person: Bob Riley on Manchester Camerata's championship of a Centre of Excellence for Music and DementiaThursday, 24 October 2024
In May, it was announced that Greater Manchester was to become the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Music and Dementia, hosted by Manchester Camerata.The Centre is an incredible opportunity and the result of the vision and energy of many people,... Read more... |
First Person: Lindsey Ferrentino on the play that has led Adrien Brody to the London stageFriday, 11 October 2024
I turn 36 this year, while living in London and rehearsing my new play The Fear of 13 at the Donmar Warehouse. The cast places a cake on my desk, covered in script pages and 10 pairs of handcuffs. I video the cake, the handcuffs, the singing actors... Read more... |
First Person: conductor Robert Hollingworth on a four-choir rarity by BenevoliFriday, 04 October 2024
I’m sitting in a café in Kraców, Poland, rehearsals finished for the resurrection of a mass setting written nearly 400 years ago in Rome. Nothing particularly odd about this except that the virtually unknown composer – Orazio Benevoli, master of the... Read more... |
First Person: soprano Elizabeth Atherton on the decimation of the classical music sector in WalesMonday, 23 September 2024
Is it an opera company’s role to avert climate change? Should a circus troupe have to prioritize promoting the Welsh language? Is the purpose of a dance ensemble to bring about social justice? Should these issues be the main focus for our arts... Read more... |
First Person: Alexandra Dariescu on highlighting women at the Leeds International Piano CompetitionMonday, 09 September 2024
This year, I am delighted to be supporting the Alexandra Dariescu Award at the Leeds International Piano Competition for an outstanding performance of a work by a female composer. This marks a significant milestone in the 60-year history of The... Read more... |
First Person: trans opera singer Lucia Lucas on Tippett’s 'New Year' and her life in musicTuesday, 16 July 2024
Until last week, Tippett’s New Year had not been staged since 1990, probably because it’s considered very hard to produce. I think it is generally harder than Britten. It’s also an ensemble piece; you need 10 people who are fairly accomplished in... Read more... |
First Persons: composers Colin Alexander and Héloïse Werner on fantasy in guided improvisationWednesday, 17 April 2024
For tonight’s performance at Milton Court, the nuanced and delicate tones of strings, voices, harmonium and chamber organ will merge and mingle together to tell tales of a rain-speckled landscape, luck and misfortune, forgotten valour, daily... Read more... |
First Person: actor Paul Jesson on survival, strength, and the healing potential of artMonday, 08 April 2024
In September 2022 I had an email from my American friend Richard Nelson: "Would you like me to write you a play?" Such an offer probably comes the way of very few actors and I was bowled over by it. My astonished and grateful response was tempered... Read more... |
First Person: author-turned-actor Lydia Higman on a play that foregrounds a slice of forgotten historyThursday, 28 March 2024
I first read Anne Gunter’s story about five years ago, when I was in my first year of university at Oxford, little knowing it would over time lead to our play Gunter [seen first in Edinburgh and transferring 3-25 April to the Royal Court]. The... Read more... |
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