First Person
First Person: Angela Slater on reaping the rewards of the LPO's Young Composers programmeTuesday, 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 on a new orchestral work as in previous years. However, this year, we were invited to explore the... Read more... |
First person: Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov on performing while his homeland is destroyedFriday, 24 June 2022
A fortnight ago I performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Aurora Orchestra, joining them and their Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon in Cologne. Tonight we shall present the same programme at the Royal Festival Hall. These are my first... Read more... |
First Person: director Richard Wilson on a musical midsummer night film premiereTuesday, 21 June 2022
In today’s near-normal times it is easy to forget how hard COVID-19 had hit the music industry, especially for touring orchestras like the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Masked, socially-distanced performances; streamed concerts from empty... Read more... |
First Person: composer Gavin Higgins on his new cantata 'The Faerie Bride'Friday, 17 June 2022
I was a strange child, I didn’t really fit in. I would twitch and distort my face into awkward shapes. I obsessively bit my fingers and knuckles till they bled. I collected leaflets and piled them high in neat stacks in the corner of my room. I was... Read more... |
First Person: folk violinist István 'Szalonna' Pál on true Magyar styleThursday, 02 June 2022
There's a famous saying that Hungarians are in the middle of Europe. From the West, we have Bach and Palestrina holding our hands; from the East, the Caucasian Turkic peoples. Other nations still need 1,000 years to understand what it means to be... Read more... |
First Person: Christina McMaster - seeking musical cures for modern malaiseSaturday, 28 May 2022
In 2020, during a gentle easing of lockdown restrictions, I was asked to play for the Culture Clinic sessions at Kings Place, a creative initiative where small groups of up to six people could book a ticket for a private, personally tailored... Read more... |
'How that music was created remains to me a complete mystery': John Tomlinson on fellow Lancastrian Harrison BirtwistleFriday, 20 May 2022
It has been a difficult couple of years for us in the world of opera, losing several of our most respected and admired colleagues who have inspired us over several decades. The names of Harry Kupfer, Graham Vick, Bernard Haitink come immediately to... Read more... |
'An invitation to stillness and reflection': saxophonist and composer Christian Forshaw on collaborating with top choir TenebraeSaturday, 30 April 2022
The idea of recording an album with Tenebrae has been bubbling away for a number of years. Nigel Short and I first worked together in 2007 when I asked him to direct the vocal consort for a UK tour I was doing with my own group. Since then we have... Read more... |
First Person: playwright Naomi Wallace on finally hearing her work performed in EnglishSaturday, 23 April 2022
The Breach is a coming of age story and an age-in-the-making story. The play takes place in the U.S. in the 1970s and 1990s, switching back and forth between teenagers in Louisville and their older selves 15 years later. The promise of the... Read more... |
First Person: composer Michael Price on responding to Bach's Second Brandenburg ConcertoFriday, 22 April 2022
There are lots of ways that we respond to great works of art – intellectually and emotionally, then visually, aurally and even by taste and smell, depending on the art in question. I have a habit of screwing my eyes tight shut and bringing to mind a... Read more... |
First Person: playwright Chinonyerem Odimba on birthing her potent and timely new showWednesday, 30 March 2022
People often ask how long a play takes to make its way out of you. And it’s always a valid question because no matter how beautiful, soft, joyful, or short a play is, there is a wrestling match that takes place between the idea lodging itself... Read more... |
First Person: composer Mason Bates on the powers and perils of musical storytellingMonday, 28 March 2022
What do Beethoven and Pink Floyd have in common?Narrative – ingeniously animated by music.From the Ninth Symphony to The Wall, narrative music has brought a new dimension to the forms and genres it has touched.Musical storytelling is on my mind this... Read more... |
