Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been a little while since I last wrote - this year has been very busy and before I knew it three months have flashed by! So, a little update as to what I've been up to...
Well, firstly, lots of teaching of my lovely students! Lots of composition happening this term and the ideas are flowing aplenty from everyone, which is really exciting. We've had a mixture of minimalism, atonal exploration, Romantic-era lyricism and some symphonic poems in the making, which will be interesting to see develop...I'm hoping to make a video outlining some of these over this half term.
Lots of interesting composers being explored also this term: Chee-Hwa Tan, Einaudi, Chaminade, Messiaen, Scarlatti, Coleridge-Taylor, and Helen Hopekirk among others...! It's been really fun discovering some new works and I'm going to make a post reviewing some recordings of works I've been listening to!
I've started to get back into a recording schedule and am going to start with the easy stuff - scales! I'll be working my way through the circle of fifths to create a compendium of videos for students to reference to make sure they're all on top of their scales and arpeggios. You can find the first one here: https://youtu.be/SFEsIKmcxsc
I've been asked back to help with WNO's local rehearsals for the Solent Male Voice Choir of Blaze of Glory! (no, not the Jon Bon Jovi one!) which I'm really happy to be getting involved in. It looks like a fantastic opera and well worth catching at the Mayflower on the 20th May - you can find tickets here!
I'm also getting knee-deep into new repertoire for my next concerts which I'll be announcing the dates for in due course - so keep your eyes peeled!
The workshops have been really fun with our players stepping up and sharing what they've been continuing to work on and sharing their experiences across all ages and abilities. It's really amazing to see players starting to get more and more comfortable playing in front of others - the regular exposure therapy seems to be doing the trick.
Anyway, that's all for now - more recording, marking and editing to get back to! See you all soon!
Myles