It has been humour (and remembering to make time for it), that has kept me grounded this year. Whether its gallows humour memes on social media, or the famous British dry wit, shared by colleagues - all have helped.
Like many businesses, (my business is just me), I have had to make adaptions, which have involved increasing and diversifying my teaching, creating new resources for lessons (composing exercises and studies that can be demonstrated on a zoom call), composing music with the current restrictive measures in mind and of course, accepting that performing is not in the equation for the time being.
Salvaging, changing course and making good of 2020
The first major thing that impacted me musically this year was the cancellation of the Beethoven festival. My piece (for piano) was due to be premiered at the festival in March. It was a blow, but compared to what I was reading about people losing their jobs and the media predicting mass devastation, it really wasn’t the end of the world. Shortly after, the news came that the funding for a project to write music for the national geographic app commission had fallen through too.
I was angry rather than ‘woe is me’. My ‘revenge’ on these circumstances were to make them happen via an alternative route! I self released ‘Nine Pieces for B’ Shvat on Apple and Spotify and submitted my Beethoven piece for a project by Maria Marchant called ‘7 Notes in 7 Days’, a live online weekly broadcast, where she premiered new pieces every week.
The piece was selected for Maria’s show and she performed it not long after. Maria’s performance was simply incredible. So much colour and control. We have since become contacts and I hope to write for her in the not too distant future. I wouldn’t have made contact this way, if the festival hadn’t been cancelled.
In August, I was delighted to have been made a Fellow of The Royal Society of the Arts, for ‘outstanding contribution to the arts’. This came just after receiving a redundancy letter from the music service I worked for, so it felt like a sign that things would be well in the end. I have learned to always trust intuition.
Moving Forward - Calling All performers for 2021 and Beyond
February 2020, where we all moved around freely seems like another world, but there are glimmers of hope as I write. I am back to teaching the piano and guitar in schools (face to face) and amazed how much I get done with little time, compared to having lots of it.
As a composer, my passion is intimate music and I am keen to work with more soloists, duos and similar small ensembles. I want to capitalise on the opportunity to explore performances in smaller venues to smaller audiences. If you are a soloist or member of an ensemble please get in touch.
Please visit my composition section of this site to hear recent examples of my work.
Collaborations for 2021
I am really pleased to have made so many good contacts and friends this year. I recently completed a solo violin work for virtuoso Greta Papa (the piece explores Greta’s escape from a country torn apart by communism) and I am working with soprano Bryony Burnham, putting the words of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Theocritus: A Villanelle’ to music. Bryony not only has a rich and powerful voice, but a deep interest in mythology.
In the summer I began making plans for what would be my ‘final’ project for my post graduate course.
I began formulating the idea of composing a piece of music, divided into seven movements, which would draw upon themes from each of the seven days of creation found in the Torah. I loved the idea of the music being alongside imagery.
I was put in touch with award winning artist Mina Kupfermann. We hit it off instantly in our zoom call and after hearing audio samples of the pieces of music, Mina began responding visually. What she has produced so far is fantastic. It is other worldly and also, beautiful. We are at the time of writing, nearly to the half way point.
‘Seven Days’ will have its premiere at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in June 2021 and Mina and I will be promoting it for a series of presentations there after.
Most fun non musical thing of 2020?
As a sign off, what has been the most fun things from this difficult year? It has to be The London Cavalier meet up on Saturday the 12th of September in Greenwich park. My wife and I bought our Blenheim Cavy ‘Ellie’ along (bossy at home, but shy amongst other dogs) and waited outside the Greenwich bandstand in Greenwich Park, wondering if we had the right day. As the time neared, spritely Cavaliers and their owners emerged from all directions.
There were twenty or so Cavaliers ranging from puppies, to seniors. They all had in common, that their tails wagged continuously and they hadn’t a care in the world. What a wonderful way to be.
So farewell 2020, you will not be missed, but better times are coming. I can feel it.
