Manca, money and more Brexit thoughts
It is hard to believe that it is nearly a year since the horrendous Paris attacks led to the cancellation of half of Nice’s Manca Festival programme in November 2015.…
It’s time for us to wake up: Brexit is happening.
Like many Remainers I tend to latch on to articles that suggest that the whole ugly Brexit business might go away. There has been no shortage of these: the possibility…
Why We Should Hate Music
One of my favourite radio shows at the moment is Radio 5 Live’s Film Review Programme, dubbed Wittertainment by its devoted army of listeners ('Hello to Jason Isaacs'). It’s hosted by Simon…
Boulez at Ninety: a Personal Perspective
On March 26th Boulez will turn ninety. Even at this grand old age he hasn’t entirely cast off the image of enfant terrible, the man responsible for some of the most…
SaM Commissioning Report – An Alternative View
I suppose as a composer I should be filled with self-righteous anger after reading the report. The bottom line is that most composers receive very few commissions, get paid very…
>reinhören
Over the last week I have watched with fascination this odd-looking structure taking form outside the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel: Today it finally became clear what it was all…
On Moving to Mac
My home office setup. The computer is that elegant little box to the right of my main monitor. Many composers I talk to, even if they use a Windows PC,…
Open Letter to Sound and Music
So did anyone sign the open letter to Sound and Music? I received a copy a couple of weeks ago, but in the confusion of moving house forgot about it.…
Does Contemporary Music Do Christmas?
I said last time that December is the month without contemporary music. By this I meant performances of contemporary music. There exists plenty of Christmas music by contemporary composers, though…
The Sacher Foundation
With a good friend of mine, the Mexican composer Mauricio Beltrán, I have just spent a fascinating few days in the Sacher Foundation Library in Basel, Switzerland. Paul Sacher (1906-1999) was a Swiss…