Seeing the sound
I have been practising lots this summer, climbing the personal Everest that is the Kodaly Sonata for performances in October and November and I have… Read More »Seeing the sound
I have been practising lots this summer, climbing the personal Everest that is the Kodaly Sonata for performances in October and November and I have… Read More »Seeing the sound
My cello project to document my learning of the Kodaly sonata every day leading up to a lecture and performance on October 18 at the University of Chichester.
What a pleasure to be invited to talk here. It is always with a combination of anticipation and excitement that I go to a new… Read More »Keynote: University of South Wales, Creative Industries Conference
The past 24 hours have been spent with a load of varied people coming together to play Herbie Hancock’s Chameleon, yes, FOR 24 HOURS without break. My friend, colleague, and head of Jazz at uni, Nick Reynolds had this idea of doing a big performance for International Jazz Day that started as a dream, but then when we were in America, Nick was really moved by the school we worked with and decided to use the occasion to raise funds for the school. (you can read about the event here)
Nick organised the players from the university community and I organised the logistics and the tech side of the event – so we could stream the full 24 hours and make this accessible for people to view and potentially join in. Together we made a good team and the event went off without a hitch. Many thanks go to all who helped from set-up of sound equipment, to the performers, to the student who brought us coffee just after 3am, and the audience – special shout out to our Deputy Vice-Chancellor who came three times during the 24 hours, and stayed until 3am !!! and also to David, the sax player from my community orchestra who came for over 12 hours of the event – was there at the 8am start and came back pre-dawn to play with us to the 8am finish.
It is a fairly unique situation and I’ll use an analogy to explain.Read More »Jazz24Live – Reflections
Sometimes when we sit with those we respect, our teachers, friends, our elders, and we listen, our hearts open. There are some people who are… Read More »Open: When my heart sings
This question is a tough one. (A little secret… I don’t have the answers to most of the questions I ask.) Here’s some context: In… Read More »How do you do that online thing?
I love this question. It was suggested as part of David Hopkins‘ #OpenBlog19 initiative and the idea is to choose a topic from a curated… Read More »What does innovation in teaching look like?
I cannot understand. I don’t want to understnd. That is the sort of think sympathetic people say when someone has slipped up – oh, I understand.… Read More »Son, Mother, Friend. Thoughts on NZ
I started reading Stephen Downes’ book Toward Personal Learning quite some time ago, and various projects have interrupted my reading and reflecting on it. This… Read More »Toward Personal Learning: Post 6
This month I’m taking a course with violinist Zach Brock called ‘In the shed with Zach Brock, Structuring Practice for Spontaneous Performance’. I first met… Read More »Stepping into the shed