Features & Interviews
First Person: Mark Bromley of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain celebrates a milestone in its history
Friday, 05 August 2022
Television coverage of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend included footage filmed in the monochrome world of postwar Britain. Old ways of doing things, however jaded and narrow, were deeply ingrained then. Yet they were offset 70 years ago by the optimism of the new Elizabethan age and its egalitarian spirit of growth and renewal.
theartsdesk at the Pärnu Music Festival 2022 - conductors from 15 to 85, and the greatest players
Wednesday, 27 July 2022
When I first came to Estonia with a then still-exiled Neeme Järvi and his Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in 1989, the world-class young musicians who dazzled at this year’s Pärnu Music Festival hadn’t been born.
Bob Rafelson (1933-2022): New Hollywood's...
Tuesday, 26 July 2022
Bob Rafelson finally exiled himself, unable any longer to countenance the consuming nature of his filmmaking. As director, producer and writer in the...
First Person: Angela Slater on reaping the...
Tuesday, 12 July 2022
When I applied to the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composers programme and found out that I had been accepted, I was expecting to be working...
2022 Parliamentary Jazz Awards: baubles, bromides...
Thursday, 07 July 2022
The winners of this year's Parliamentary Jazz Awards were announced at a convivial ceremony held on Tuesday night at Pizza Express Live Holborn....
theartsdesk in Zurich - forging a brilliant new Ring
Gianandrea Noseda, Andreas Homoki and top cast dazzle in an unforgettable 'Rheingold' |
First person: Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov on performing while his homeland is destroyed
His home city of Kharkiv in ruins, a great musician plays on |
First Person: director Richard Wilson on a musical midsummer night film premiere
Mendelssohn around London with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields |
The superstar, the Svengali and a rising young talent
What can singer-songwriter Tom Webber learn from the Costello legacy? |
First Person: composer Gavin Higgins on his new cantata 'The Faerie Bride'
Aldeburgh premiere tonight for setting of Welsh tale about acceptance of the other |
10 Questions for art historian and fiction writer Chloë Ashby
On sights, acts of seeing and book 'Wet paint', inspired by Manet’s 'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' |
Venice Biennale 2022 review - The Milk of Dreams Part 1: The Giardini
The biggest and most challenging exhibition you’ll be seeing in some time |
First Person: folk violinist István 'Szalonna' Pál on true Magyar style
Lynchpin of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble on their visit to London |
First Person: Christina McMaster - seeking musical cures for modern malaise
Lying down and listening; a pianist and healer contemplates her work |
theartsdesk at the Dresden Music Festival - orchestral abundance in a spectacular setting
The Saxon city’s world-famous orchestras front and centre in a full programme of events |
'How that music was created remains to me a complete mystery': John Tomlinson on fellow Lancastrian Harrison Birtwistle
The great bass remembers the composer who wrote two roles with his voice in mind |
Clubbing with the Stones: Live at El Mocambo
Prior to their European tour, one of the band's finest ever gigs sees the light of day |
'An invitation to stillness and reflection': saxophonist and composer Christian Forshaw on collaborating with top choir Tenebrae
On the vocal quality of his chosen instrument and an invitation to stillness |
First Person: playwright Naomi Wallace on finally hearing her work performed in English
Set in America, 'The Breach' was first seen in Paris, as its author explains |
First Person: composer Michael Price on responding to Bach's Second Brandenburg Concerto
'The Malling Diamond' is one of six commissions for an ambitious Music@Malling project |
Extract: Catching Fire by Daniel Hahn
Laying bare the translator's quandaries, including the problem of gendered language |
First Person: playwright Chinonyerem Odimba on birthing her potent and timely new show
The musical 'Black Love' places the reality of racism centre-stage at the Kiln |
Extract: Where My Feet Fall - Going For A Walk in Twenty Stories
Writing in the year of lockdown, writers remember their paths and paces |
First Person: composer Mason Bates on the powers and perils of musical storytelling
From Beethoven to Pink Floyd and 'Liquid Interface', premiered in the UK on Wednesday |
Russians and friends play on for Ukraine
Who's doing what, with focus on a fundraiser from Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy |
‘Slava Ukraini!’: Russian musicians worldwide show solidarity
Ukrainian anthem performed in concerts everywhere is only the start of musical support |
First Person: Tim Walker on crossing over from critic to playwright
A longtime critic shifts gears to bring Gina Miller and Theresa May to the stage |
‘Let me be your main course’: composer Jimmy López on why new music needs time and space
Thoughts from a brilliant Peruvian, whose Piano Concerto is premiered on Wednesday |
First Person: Pavel Šporcl on Paganini and the Czech violin tradition
A Bohemian master on a virtuoso and his followers, whose music he has just recorded |
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