Michael Hersch in the Studio – Kreutzer Quartet at work
A glimpse of what we have been doing this week – one of the 13 movements of Michael Hersch’s ‘Images from a closed ward’. With…
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A Cornish Herbarium emerges!
The opening of one of Sadie Harrison’s exquisite Cornish plants for her Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens Herbarium, which I will premiere there on May 8th. More…
Celebrating G F Handel
It’s Handel’s birthday- so he is 341 years and 1 day old. In 1985, much-missed Dmitri Smirnov celebrated his 300th, with this extraordinary piece (based…
Inspiration on the overnight practice table
A masterpiece from Jolivet (the ‘Suite Rhapsodique’) and the Joachim Quartet (a daily memo to do better, work harder, dig deeper). Here are two movements…
First chance to hear – an extraordinary quartet in the studio
Here it is … session outtakes of David Hackbridge Johnson’s 7th Quartet, in the studio at the beginning of the week. With Neil Heyde, Morgan…
Upcoming Michael Hersch Release.
Michael Hersch and I have spent the weekend working on the programme book materials for our upcoming release of his epochal ‘Zwischen Leben und Tod’…
Dialogues between old and new.
First chance to see – ‘Dialogues’, the performance that Evis Sammoutis and I presented, with his music and 17th century miniatures, in Grenoble.
Happy New Year – return to the recording studio with wonderful duos!
Here’s what we were up to yesterday: unedited outtakes from Gregory Fritze’s marvellous Three Duos, with Morgan Goff With some pictures from the path across…
On the Road – a violin with ideas
15th December 2025 – St Paul Minnesota – 5 am It’s 5 am and I am sitting at my desk-for-the-day, on the 13th flower, downtown…
First chance to hear – Divisions on a mysterious prelude
David Hackbridge Johnson’s divisions on a mysterious prelude by ‘Mr Simons’ – the violin tuned to FDae (a new scordatura for me – and I…
The end of the concert – Beethoven, Schubert, Matthews, Ellerby at St Johns
The end of an exciting evening – with our dear composers – David Matthews and Martin Ellerby, inviting Linda Merrick to the stage, after Schubert…
Latest review:
‘ …this is violin playing of the highest level. Sheppard Skaerved has dedicated his life to the violin music of our time, inspiring, I imagine,…
Interview for The Strad magazine
A collaborator in Sweden
I was, as every, so happy to sit and plot with my friend and collaborator Staffan Storm in Malmö today – here’s a reminder of…
Celebrating Ole Bull – 17th August 2025
Today is the 145th anniversary of the death of Ole Bull. So here’s my playlist, beginning with my reimagining of his lost ‘American Fantasy’, which…
Thoughts on the road – August 2025
August is my quiet time, and for me, quiet involves conversation. The conversations include the talks with friends as we travel across the Midwest of…
Celebrating Paul Pellay’s Birthday – the Astonishing ‘Thesarus…’
Celebrating Paul Pellay’s birthday (two days late!!!). One of my most treasured collaborators – here’s just a sliver of his epic ‘Thesaurus of Violinist Fiendishness’…
People/watching – Spring- Summer 2025
If the art we love is about anything, it is about us. People are a never-ending source of inspiration for me, and I am lost…
The Fall of Icarus – collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums, Brussels
First chance to hear – another of Nigel Clarke’s miniatures inspired by the Bruegel Here’s the wild pastoral, ‘The Fall of Icarus’, a picture, of…
More wonderful music for violin alone !
More from a busy month in the recording studio. Mihailo Trandafilovski’s eloquent response to Joanna Jones wonderful work.Two of my favourite artists, in dialogue (…
In the Studio with the Kreutzer Quartet
This is what we have been up to – first chance to hear Martin Ellerby’s delicate meditation on an East End tragedy, and its memorial…
Thinking about Diego Ortiz
A conversation with Robert Saxton about Diego Ortiz (1510-1576?)this morning – music at its purest, most practical and exquisite; Diego Ortiz was a composer/performer from…
Back to Telemann
Back on the desk – a lifetime’fascination – a moment of simplicity and perfection from Telemann. These cycles are at the heart of what I…
New Music for New College Oxford
First chance to hear Evis Sammoutis latest ‘Nicosia Etude’ (no 6) at New College, Oxford last week (thanks to Tom Metcalf) just a few weeks…
Return to Zagreb – May 2025
Day by day – May 5th – 10th 2025 Zagreb Croatia I first came to play in Zagreb in 1999. That visit was as an…