2011 so far

This year so far has been quite a varied one. In addition to working with a number of ABRSM exam candidates, I've been involved as an organist with the University of Edinburgh Renaissance Singers and have worked as an accompanist and piano teacher at Clifton Hall School near Ratho.

Performing with the Renaissance Singers has been great fun. Inevitably concerts this year have taken the opportunity to mark the 400th anniversary of the death of Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) with a series of concerts featuring his music and that of his contemporaries. Previously unfamiliar with much Victoria, I was convinced by the end that this is truly great music. For the concerts I sung bass (and sometimes tenor!) and played some keyboard dances by Cabezon on the organs at St James the Less, Penicuik, and the Canongate church, Edinburgh, as best I could (I am not trained as an organist!).

At Clifton Hall School, I have been accompanying students for exams, and for what was a spectacularly successful production of The Sound of Music, the first large-scale production the school has attempted since it expanded to become a senior school as well as a junior school. It was a pleasure to be involved in this production, which ran for two nights at the end of March, was many months in the making, and pulled together an array of expertise and support. Together with a small group of student and teacher instrumentalists, I was responsible for providing the accompanying music. What I need to do now is to compare how this production fares with the film, which I've never seen...