Beka Classics

Going to this tomorrow at the World Intellectual Property Organisation in Geneva: 

Image: WIPO WIPO Conference on the Global Digital Content Market April 20 – 22, 2016 (Geneva, Switzerland The creative content economy has seen radical change to access and…

five15 Launch Video from London Oriana Choir on Vimeo.


Bravi to the London Oriana Choir. When it turned out that fewer than 4% of people questioned could name a composer who was female, they decided to do something to…

The composer Roxanna Panufnik isn't only writing an opera at the moment (our Silver Birch for next year's Garsington). She's also raising money for Friends of Cathedral Music, which aims  to support the making of music in cathedrals and…

A concert in a car park, pufferfish with doughnuts and a dancing Katie Derham: here's my Proms preview for the new-look Independent. 
It's a very safe season, on balance, but there are some great experiments with venues, five women conductors…

If you'd like to be credited as a patron of GHOST VARIATIONS, but haven't stepped up yet, then please PRE-ORDER BY TUESDAY 19 APRIL! Going, going... https://unbound.co.uk/books/ghost-variations

The composer Emily Doolittle has been pondering the niceties of the word "talented". She Googled "talented composer" and was both interested and not too delighted when she saw what happened. But it's not simply a patronising way in which women…

Meanwhile in Westminster, it's not all scandal: over in the Westminster Cathedral Hall, the splendid Chopin Society continues to hold piano recitals on Sunday afternoons, given by some of the world's leading artists. Next up is the adorable Piers Lane…

Jeremy Siepmann Very sad to see that Jeremy Siepmann, the critic, broadcaster and writer has died, aged 74.

I grew up listening to his mellifluous broadcasts, in conversational Bostonian baritone, on BBC Radio 3, where he often presented the forerunner…

Sir András Schiff is giving a masterclass at the Royal College of Music at 3pm this afternoon and if you can't get along 
to hear it, you can watch it on a live stream HERE. The students playing…

As promised a while ago, here is the Director's Cut of my interview in Budapest with Iván Fischer, the founder and conductor of the Budapest Festival Orchestra. We covered a great deal of ground, from the unique qualities he has…

Ghost Variations came back from the Unbound editor the other day 14,000 words shorter. Getting my head around the remaining 84,000 is likely to take a little time, so I may be going to earth for a bit, though looking…

The most touching moment of the BBC Music Magazine Awards, held last night at Kings Place, was when the Instrumental Award winner took the platform. Cellist David Watkin received his prize for his CD of the Bach Cello Suites…