Category Archives: composers

Piano exam

Posted on 19 May 2012 by

My piano exam was yesterday and I think it went pretty well. Two of my students were doing their Grade 4 exams right before me, so that was a bit of a distraction from my own nerves. There were a … Continue reading →

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Oh WOW! (James Rhodes)

Posted on 12 May 2012 by

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fghIc3OxzI

I love how we can now finally *see* how incredible performers play. Video can get right up close and record jaw-dropping things like James Rhodes playing Moskowski’s luminescent ‘Etincelles’. (I like Mr Rhodes because he sent me a signed copy of his debut CD a few years ago when I correctly identified a piece of music he tweeted a picture of!)

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First solo gig in a long time (and a bit about playing Bach on piano)

Posted on 15 April 2012 by

Emma O’Reilly asked me to play at a songwriter evening she curated the other night in The Mercantile bar. It’s a long while since I played my own stuff, so I jumped at the chance. I took out the guitar … Continue reading →

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Piano practice

Posted on 6 April 2012 by

Practice continues for the Grade 8 exam. The three pieces I have to perform are coming along: Bach’s Fugue in Bb from the first book of ‘The 48′, Schubert’s Scherzo in Bb, and Shostakovich’s Prelude in D (from the Op. … Continue reading →

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Grade 8

Posted on 17 February 2012 by

  I have set myself a new goal — to do the Grade 8 piano exam in May. Grade 8 is traditionally the highest level of performance attainment. (It actually just occurred to me that this is probably because there … Continue reading →

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Superbos!

Posted on 6 December 2011 by

Last night was the performance of Bach’s Magnificat and it was such fun. We met at the concert hall at 4.15 and went through the programme with the organist and the orchestra. We stood on the stage (five rows, I … Continue reading →

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Notes tremendous thundered out

Posted on 22 November 2011 by

Today is St Cecilia’s Day, the patron saint of music. It’s also the day Benjamin Britten was born. One of his compositions, the ‘Ode To Saint Cecilia’ (from whence comes the title of this blog post), is a setting for … Continue reading →

Posted in Brilliant, composers, composition, forthcoming events, New Dublin Voices and other choral singing, Technical, what I'm up to | 1 Comment

Scorn Not His Simplicity

Posted on 13 July 2011 by

My Dad was a big fan of Phil Coulter. He was at Queen’s at the same time as Phil and liked to tell us about the time Phil locked him and a bunch of other students in a room on … Continue reading →

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Ecstasy

Posted on 24 May 2011 by

John Adams gave the commencement speech at Juilliard this week, where he was being presented with an honorary doctorate (along with the amazing Herbie Hancock—if you love music, get his album ‘The Imagine Project’). It’s a great speech about being … Continue reading →

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Cuban Landscape with Rain

Posted on 16 May 2011 by

A beautiful performance of Leo Brouwer’s ‘Cuban Landscape with Rain’ by Dublin Guitar Quartet. I came across Leo Brouwer’s work while helping catalogue guitar music at The Victorian Music Library in Melbourne in November. One afternoon I popped out for … Continue reading →

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