Features & Interviews
From cancellation to new vigour: pianist and artistic director Joseph Middleton on Leeds Lieder
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
April 2020 was to have been the celebratory 10th Anniversary Festival of Leeds Lieder, the organisation I’ve been fortunate enough to direct since late 2014.
First Person: Director Maria Aberg on drawing fresh inspiration for the future
Saturday, 12 June 2021
When theatres in the UK closed last March, I found myself in a vacuum. Having been a freelance theatre director for over 15 years, I was used to busy – juggling a hectic schedule of directing shows with the reality of being a mum to two toddlers. Inspiration was something I might find in between opening nights, meetings and nursery runs – if I was lucky.
First Person: playwright Tanika Gupta on being...
Monday, 07 June 2021
On the first day of rehearsals for Out West at the Lyric Hammersmith in May, myself and fellow playwrights Roy Williams and Simon Stephens stood,...
Glastonbury Festival: Live at Worthy Farm...
Tuesday, 25 May 2021
INTERLUDE 1: INVALID CODE-AGEDDON6.45 PM on Saturday 22nd May and all is well. Like tens of thousands of others across the UK (or maybe even more?)...
Music books to end lockdown: Sam Lee, Hawkwind,...
Friday, 14 May 2021
It won’t be long now before concert halls and back rooms, arts centres and festival grounds fill with people again, and live music, undistanced,...
Christa Ludwig, 1928-2021: a selective tribute
The German mezzo-soprano embraced the light and the dark at a transcendental level |
Extract: Blackface by Ayanna Thompson
Examining the history and legacies of this racist performance mode |
First Person: Boris Giltburg on lockdown interruptions to filming Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas
The Moscow-born Israeli pianist on an odyssey that took several unexpected turns |
First Person: composer and Renaissance man Tunde Jegede on transcending genres
Crossing boundaries for Southampton's 'Mayflower 400: Voyages of the Heart' project |
Helen McCrory: 'If there's one interesting thing about acting it's trying to lose your ego'
Three encounters with the great actor who has died at the age of 52 |
The Royal Ballet - variations on a comeback
How one major ballet company survived to dance another day |
The Master Musicians of Joujouka review - a 4000 year-old rock'n'roll band
Healing music from the Rif Mountains of Morocco |
Filmmaker Darius Marder: 'Deafness is a culture. That's not being PC'
Writer and director on Sound of Metal's long journey from concept to award nominations |
Extract: TV by Susan Bordo
On 75 years of changing TV, changing habits and the relationship between TV and Trump |
First Person: violinist Abigail Young on getting back to her Japanese orchestra in Covid year
Leader of the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa on the trials of returning to what she loves |
Extract from Sauntering: Writers Walk Europe, introduced and edited by Duncan Minshull
An ode to leisurely aimlessness |
First Person: Anna Lucia Richter on Monteverdi and a transition from soprano to mezzo
A last gift from the pre-Covid era followed by surprises in a time of pandemic |
theartsdesk Q&A: Daryl Hall
Legendary singer-songwriter talks recording, vaccines and reaching a billion streams |
First Person: Clare Norburn on how she came to write her ambitious Zoom-era drama, 'Love in the Lockdown'
Writer-producer Clare Norburn elaborates upon her self-isolation online play |
‘The Healing Power of Music’: composer Nigel Hess on great-aunt Myra’s wartime concerts
Parallels between lockdown solace and a great Dame's National Gallery events |
Britney Spears (1998-present): The Video Special
Britney on video: 23 years of salacious self-objectification and hyper-kitsch |
Disc of the Day 10th Anniversary: the level playing field
Ten years of record reviews show how sometimes deranged variety works in our (and the records') favour |
Reviewing music off-piste: reflections on working beyond the comfort zone
The joy of adventure on unfamiliar ground |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 4: singers speak out
Top tenor Nicky Spence introduces five other distinguished voices on the visa debacle |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 3: violinist Sara Deborah Struntz-Timossi
Another previously free-ranging player adds her voice to individual stories featured here |
Classical musicians on life after Brexit - 2: violinist Victoria Sayles
First sequel to pianist Sophia Rahman's assembly of musical voices on the visa situation |
'The total confusion about post-Brexit rules adds to the distress': classical musicians speak out
Ten players and administrators on the fallout in government restrictions to EU touring |
'Having to establish a real conversation with the audience is a good challenge': Raffaello Morales on a possible musical future
Pioneer of a rare 2020 success story, the Fidelio Orchestra Cafe, on adapting to change |
Book extract: Fat by Hanne Blank
The multiple personalities of a public enemy, sexual fetish and essential organ |
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