‘Pythagoras’ Toolkit’ snaps

Had such a blast conducting the UK premiere of ‘Pythagoras’ Toolkit’ last week. Very grateful to Turner Sims, especially Jessica Santer, for all their support. Great to work with regular musical collaborators (Nici Heinrich, Anna Durance, Amy Green, Ali Hughes) but also happy to wave at Rowland Sutherland, Cat Lawlor, Aaron Townsend and Bob Allan. Amazing puppetry work from Edie Edmundson and Bori Mezo. Awesome lights from David Duffy. Rachel Warr was brilliant as always directing. Thanks to Tom Crame for the photos. Hope we can do it again soon.

Echolocations & Entail

Had a great time playing new music with friends and colleagues from the University of Southampton at Winchester Cathedral last week. I made a new piece with Will May and collaborated with Gre, Drew Crawford and Pablo Galaz on a new piece Echolocations. All played under the amazing whales created by Tessa Campbell. Thanks to Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities and the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute for organising.

Month at the piano…

Had a big month of playing the piano this January. Lots of practicing for 4 gigs…

First, music by Carla Bley ith my friends and colleagues Drew Crawford and Gre at a staff/student showcase at work. Here is the recording of ‘Wrong Key Donkey’, one of my favourite Bley tunes..

Then (23 January) a gig with the Dan Mar-Molinero band in Exeter, playing three great new tunes by Dan alongside 3 belters from his album ‘Taproot’. Always fun to play his music. Picture of Exeter from the carpark below!

And then this Monday, again at Turner Sims for the Department of Music, I played my Love Letters with superstar Hannah Williams before conducting awesome students in Milhaud’s La création du monde.

I’m really glad I started playing the piano again more a few years ago, and grateful to friends who invite me to play or are willing to play with me! Practising a lot feels good and hope to keep it going this year.

Looking forward to playing new music with Gre, Drew Crawford and Pablo Galaz as well as a new poetry-music collaboration with Will May next week at Winchester Cathedral:
https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/ocean-giants-whales-and-the-worlds-they-shape/

VENT with Musarc

Had a wonderful time on Saturday at the premiere of VENT, which is a new piece for choir, electronics and object puppetry. I made the piece with my friend Rachel Warr, who is a fantastic theatre maker and puppetry director in response to a commission from the excellent organisation MUSARC. Rachel wrote the libretto and work narrative and also directed the movement and puppetry. The piece explores themes including protest, anarchy and ventriloquism. Was a lot of fun making it, and I found it very moving on Saturday. I also enjoyed playing ‘harmonium’ in Gavin Bryars’ On Photography and some kind of synth bass thing in Julius Eastman’s Stay On It. The concert went really well and the following are some rehearsal pictures from the gig by Yiannis Katsaris. I’ll post some other pics in the New Year.

Look forward to seeing how the piece can evolve in the world.