I’m so excited to announce a new partnership with the incredible Royal Scottish National Orchestra. This Spring (February to March) I’ll be touring Scotland to present a series of concerts inspired by my Yoto-Carnegie nominated book “Once Upon A Tune”. I’ll be featuring a selection of stories from the book, and some NEW stories too! […]
Category: Musical Notes
This is a blog post category for Music & Concerts.
Concert Catch Up!
It’s been a busy year, and wonderful to be back with audiences after the lockdowns in the COVID pandemic. I think we all appreciate the real world more, and my admiration for musicians, who have fought to survive these difficult times, is boundless. Most concerts this year have been celebrations of my book “Once Upon […]
Legends of Land and Sea in Saffron Walden
It’s hard to believe it is eight years since I first started working with the Saffron Walden Symphony Orchestra, and their terrific conductor Richard Hull, first of all at the Friends School Hall, and for the last five years at the splendid Saffron Hall. In that time, we have covered all sorts of fascinating repertoire, […]
A Festive Four Seasons in the Garden City
The windswept weather almost gave us four seasons in one day on March 5th, as I joined once again with Realm of Music for a special birthday presentation of Vivaldi’s immortal Four Seasons. For March 4th was Antonio Vivaldi’s special day; mine is today, March 7th. A perfect joint celebration, hot on the heels of […]
The Day of the Knight
The Knight Who Took All Day is a picture book I have always been fond of. Inspired by my son’s obsession with finding the perfect knight costume to wear to a party, it saddened me to see it go out of print. But books have lives of their own, sometimes, and find new ways of living on… […]
The knight returns!
The Hertford Symphony Orchestra are about to premiere a new work for children: The Knight Who Took All Day. Based on an old out of print picture-book, it’s written for orchestra, narrater and… illustrator! Bernard Hughes is the brilliant young composer, and I am so incredibly honoured to see my book adapted into this wonderful composition. It’s full […]
Concert round up 2016
As 2016 comes galloping to it’s close, I thought I should catch up with myself and remember some of the exciting events this Autumn; As well as the Saffron Hall concert (see previous blog post) a further FIVE concerts have kept me busy, and to record them here is to thank those who hosted and […]
Musical Pictures in Hertford!
The Hertford Children’s Book Festival is one of my favourite literary festivals, superbly organised and put together. So I am THRILLED to be bringing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to Hertford theatre – my local theatre – with my friend and colleague Alexander Ardakov, the Russian virtuoso pianist. Here we are with a young fan […]
Beauty and the Bard: Family concerts and Shakespeare
The són project – Southampton’s first ever professional orchestra – is the brainchild of conductor Robin Browning. As artistic advisor of the project, Robin and I had always planned a collaboration, and this Midsummer he presented a spectacular day of art activities, drama and music at Turner Sims Concert Hall, at the University of Southampton, […]
Fable and Fantasy: Music, Magic and Marbled Halls!
Yesterday, as I stood on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall, I couldn’t help thinking of the Victorian air, “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marbled Halls”, for here was a pinch-me please dream moment. In the ten years I have been illustrating music at classical concerts, many people have (half jokingly) said “Oh, you should […]
