I've put together a small choir to explore the legal and ethical issues involved in copyright and publishing of sheet music, and raise awareness of the resources currently available for accessing works in the public domain. We've rehearsed for the last few weeks and tonight we'll be putting on a concert of some of the repertoire we looked at.
Songs of Freedom
a choral exploration of law and liberty
20 March 2009, 8pm
St John On Bethnal Green
(right by Bethnal Green tube station)
200 Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA
Tickets are sold on a pay-what-you-will basis and the funds raised will go to support the Open Rights Group and the fund for building restoration at St John on Bethnal Green.
Friday, 20 March 2009
Saturday, 14 March 2009
London Alternative Copyright Choir
Traditional copyright exists in order to protect the rights of creators. The idea is that if they know their work will be protected and they can profit from it, there will be an incentive for them to create new works. This in turn means that consumers or audiences have a wide range of works to choose from. We all benefit from the cultural richness of a diverse range of artists creating a large number of works.
That's a nice theory, and an admirable goal. But in real life, things don't always work smoothly. There are several problems with the laws of copyright as they exist today, and with the business models that emerged around them in the 20th century.
In the music world one of the biggest problems is that of getting your music heard. It's not enough to write music and then leave it in a desk drawer where nobody will hear it, or not if you want to make a living. Before mass communications were around, the way to get your music heard was to perform it as much as possible and try to get your friends to do the same. The printing press and increasing literacy changed that a fair amount, but performance was still a very important factor. Audio recording and playback technology, paired with the broadcasting possibilities of radio and television, changed it profoundly. It was possible, if you could raise the funds, to have your music played to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people at once. It was possible to play your music once, twice, ten times until you got it nearly perfect, and then sell a duplicate of that nearly perfect recording without having to do it again. Word of mouth became less important than airtime.
High-quality recording equipment was still relatively expensive in the 20th century. To have a song recorded was simply beyond the means of most musicians. So a system emerged where publishers and recording companies would enter into a partnership with composers and performers. The creators of the music would give up some control over their work in exchange for money, and the recording companies would worry about the details of recording equipment and distribution of the finished product.
Again, this is alright in theory. But what happened in practise was this: recording technology got cheaper. Mass distribution got cheaper. Recording companies got better at marketing, and at making money. It was very difficult to get your music heard in the mass media unless you had a deal with a recording company, and very difficult to get a deal with a recording company at all, and even then you might not make much money unless your track was a hit. Depending on the details of the contract you might not make money even if your track was very successful. And the mass media was the only one where you were likely to make significant amounts of money. The widespread availability of cheap recorded music meant that live performances weren't so easy to fix any more. Copyright became something the recording companies would defend in order to preserve their profits, but which didn't necessarily benefit artists, and which actually reduced the average audience's access to a variety of music. If you wanted something different from the offerings of the mainstream media, you had to go out of your way to find it.
This, too, is changing: technology has moved on. The biggest change is that the mass media is becoming more and more audience-controlled. I'm writing this to post on a website; I'm willing to bet that many of the people reading it will have websites or blogs of their own. People are creating, for the sake of it. Some may get paid in advertising revenue or support themselves through other means, but many don't bother. Some of the best bloggers out there have day jobs. A significant portion of people are starting to question or outright ignore what the mainstream media says, whether that's in journalism or visual art or written fiction or music. The thresholds to mass broadcasting are much lower than they have been before, and a lot of us have something to say.
What that means, in practical terms, is that we're back to word-of-mouth again, but in a much different environment than the one where personal, face-to-face contact was the main form of communication. Word of mouth has gone global. And it's noisy.
For creators this has some interesting implications. Broadcasting is cheaper than it has ever been, but so is copy&paste. Artists who try to keep their copyrighted works out of the public domain have only limited success in doing so: do a Google image search for 'Gary Larson' if you don't believe me. Before the printing press if you wrote or told a story and someone stole it and claimed it as their own, there wasn't a lot you could do, but you could try to tell the same story more than they'd have a chance to, and probably still make some profit. Mass duplication makes that a technology race as well a social skills race, and ultimately the choice to say anything at all is also an acceptance of the risk that someone else might try to steal it.
The challenges for the music industry are similar to those for the written word; the technology is different, but not far behind. The technology that lets me record a music rehearsal at a reasonable quality and put it online, should I wish, costs less than a month's rent. The expertise required to do so really well is something I can learn. The equipment to create a CD-quality recording, isn't much more expensive than what I've got. But once it's out there, I have very little control: I can't easily dictate whether it is duplicated or not. I certainly can't afford legal fees against someone who attempts to profit from my own work. Participation is an act of trust.
We need new business models to deal with this environment.
We can lean toward more control, more stringent laws to prevent the theft and piracy of intellectual property. That way lies stifling bureaucracy and an endless arms race against what technology can do. And as shown, it doesn't always benefit artists or audiences. If I hear something I like I'm going to try to show my friends by whatever technology I have available; making that illegal doesn't benefit anyone.
Alternately we can tread the careful path toward increased openness and trust. We can build communities where intellectual property rights are respected, but not in a punitive manner: where people create for the sake of creating, not for the reward, but where reward is still possible.
The London Alternative Copyright Choir exists to explore some of the alternative business models available, at least as far as choral music is concerned. Our concert, "Songs of Freedom", will be this Friday, 20th March, at St John on Bethnal Green Church.
That's a nice theory, and an admirable goal. But in real life, things don't always work smoothly. There are several problems with the laws of copyright as they exist today, and with the business models that emerged around them in the 20th century.
In the music world one of the biggest problems is that of getting your music heard. It's not enough to write music and then leave it in a desk drawer where nobody will hear it, or not if you want to make a living. Before mass communications were around, the way to get your music heard was to perform it as much as possible and try to get your friends to do the same. The printing press and increasing literacy changed that a fair amount, but performance was still a very important factor. Audio recording and playback technology, paired with the broadcasting possibilities of radio and television, changed it profoundly. It was possible, if you could raise the funds, to have your music played to hundreds, thousands, even millions of people at once. It was possible to play your music once, twice, ten times until you got it nearly perfect, and then sell a duplicate of that nearly perfect recording without having to do it again. Word of mouth became less important than airtime.
High-quality recording equipment was still relatively expensive in the 20th century. To have a song recorded was simply beyond the means of most musicians. So a system emerged where publishers and recording companies would enter into a partnership with composers and performers. The creators of the music would give up some control over their work in exchange for money, and the recording companies would worry about the details of recording equipment and distribution of the finished product.
Again, this is alright in theory. But what happened in practise was this: recording technology got cheaper. Mass distribution got cheaper. Recording companies got better at marketing, and at making money. It was very difficult to get your music heard in the mass media unless you had a deal with a recording company, and very difficult to get a deal with a recording company at all, and even then you might not make much money unless your track was a hit. Depending on the details of the contract you might not make money even if your track was very successful. And the mass media was the only one where you were likely to make significant amounts of money. The widespread availability of cheap recorded music meant that live performances weren't so easy to fix any more. Copyright became something the recording companies would defend in order to preserve their profits, but which didn't necessarily benefit artists, and which actually reduced the average audience's access to a variety of music. If you wanted something different from the offerings of the mainstream media, you had to go out of your way to find it.
This, too, is changing: technology has moved on. The biggest change is that the mass media is becoming more and more audience-controlled. I'm writing this to post on a website; I'm willing to bet that many of the people reading it will have websites or blogs of their own. People are creating, for the sake of it. Some may get paid in advertising revenue or support themselves through other means, but many don't bother. Some of the best bloggers out there have day jobs. A significant portion of people are starting to question or outright ignore what the mainstream media says, whether that's in journalism or visual art or written fiction or music. The thresholds to mass broadcasting are much lower than they have been before, and a lot of us have something to say.
What that means, in practical terms, is that we're back to word-of-mouth again, but in a much different environment than the one where personal, face-to-face contact was the main form of communication. Word of mouth has gone global. And it's noisy.
For creators this has some interesting implications. Broadcasting is cheaper than it has ever been, but so is copy&paste. Artists who try to keep their copyrighted works out of the public domain have only limited success in doing so: do a Google image search for 'Gary Larson' if you don't believe me. Before the printing press if you wrote or told a story and someone stole it and claimed it as their own, there wasn't a lot you could do, but you could try to tell the same story more than they'd have a chance to, and probably still make some profit. Mass duplication makes that a technology race as well a social skills race, and ultimately the choice to say anything at all is also an acceptance of the risk that someone else might try to steal it.
The challenges for the music industry are similar to those for the written word; the technology is different, but not far behind. The technology that lets me record a music rehearsal at a reasonable quality and put it online, should I wish, costs less than a month's rent. The expertise required to do so really well is something I can learn. The equipment to create a CD-quality recording, isn't much more expensive than what I've got. But once it's out there, I have very little control: I can't easily dictate whether it is duplicated or not. I certainly can't afford legal fees against someone who attempts to profit from my own work. Participation is an act of trust.
We need new business models to deal with this environment.
We can lean toward more control, more stringent laws to prevent the theft and piracy of intellectual property. That way lies stifling bureaucracy and an endless arms race against what technology can do. And as shown, it doesn't always benefit artists or audiences. If I hear something I like I'm going to try to show my friends by whatever technology I have available; making that illegal doesn't benefit anyone.
Alternately we can tread the careful path toward increased openness and trust. We can build communities where intellectual property rights are respected, but not in a punitive manner: where people create for the sake of creating, not for the reward, but where reward is still possible.
The London Alternative Copyright Choir exists to explore some of the alternative business models available, at least as far as choral music is concerned. Our concert, "Songs of Freedom", will be this Friday, 20th March, at St John on Bethnal Green Church.
Friday, 23 January 2009
London Alternative Copyright Choir
I'm running a very exciting project as part of my BMus degree. I am putting together a choir, which will do eight weeks of rehearsal and then a concert. The exciting part? All the music used will be acquired, copied, and performed using non-traditional alternatives to copyright, and the part of the proceeds will go to the Open Rights Group. You don't need to read music and there are no auditions.
We will be rehearsing on Thursday evenings from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on the following dates:
29th January
12th, 19th and 26th February
5th, 12th and 19th March.
Please note: no rehearsal 5th February!
The concert will be on 20th March at 8pm. Rehearsals and the concert are at St. John on Bethnal Green church, conveniently located at Bethnal Green tube station.
The website (still under construction, but it has the important details) is here:
http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc
The Google Group is here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/lac-choir
There is a poster which you could print out here:
http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc/publicity/lacc-poster-002.pdf
So: Five Reasons Why You Should Sing With The London Alternative Copyright Choir!
1. It's only a small time commitment
Just one Thursday evening a week for eight weeks, and then a concert. A great way to try out the choir thing without committing to giving up an evening a week for the rest of your mortal life!
2. You will get to meet and spend time with shiny people!
Singing in a choir is a great way to meet new people, and to regularly see old friends.
3. Singing is great!
Singing is fun - and it's good for your well-being and mental health! Breathing to sing is physically relaxing, creating music with other people is one of those things which is amazing in ways that it's hard to put into words. Performing can be a buzz! (And it's legal, and you don't get a hangover).
4. You will get to learn some awesome music!
Purcell! He wrote the first opera in English! He wrote loads of music that was used as incidental music in contemporary productions of Shakespeare's plays! And now you can access his music for free on the internet! How cool is that?
Plus, we'll be doing some new music written specially for the choir. Honestly, there is nothing more exciting than getting to work on new music with the composer for the first performance - and amateur choirs are rarely able to do it, at least partly because commissioning fees are extremely expensive (after all, composers have to eat). We are lucky to be working with composers who believe that there are models which allow them to perform and spread their music differently, so that all sorts of groups have access to new music. Which leads neatly on to the big one:
5. The renegotiation of Intellectual Property Laws is one of the most important socio-political / legal debates of the Internet age.
This is about who has the power to profit from our music, our art, our ideas. This is about how we assign value. Some of you have already seen this debate go past, and already know how relevant it is to you. Some of you work with open source code. Open source music (and other forms of art) will have to work to a slightly different model, which we haven't quite got figured out yet.
Regardless of whether you see this like I do, I invite you to explore the Open Rights Group website, and think about why this is so important in an age when our methods for dissemination of ideas are becoming something new and unforeseen and glorious.
Great! I'm sold! Sign me up!
If you want to take part in the London Alternative Copyright Choir, see the website (still under construction) for more details: http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc/join.html or join the Google group at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/lac-choir
That all sounds amazing, but I don't have the time / don't live in London
There are still loads of ways you can help out!
1) Spread the word, and help us recruit singers! I'm sure you lot know musical geeks in London that aren't likely to be reading this. Let them know! Link to this post or point them at the website.
2) Come to the concert! It will be on the 20th of March, at St John on Bethnal Green, right by Bethnal Green Tube on the Central Line. Tickets will be sold on a 'pay what you think this will be worth' basis on the night, or you can get them in advance for a fiver. Details are on the website.
If you're feeling really enthusiastic, you can help publicise the concert nearer the time.
We will be rehearsing on Thursday evenings from 7.30pm to 9.30pm on the following dates:
29th January
12th, 19th and 26th February
5th, 12th and 19th March.
Please note: no rehearsal 5th February!
The concert will be on 20th March at 8pm. Rehearsals and the concert are at St. John on Bethnal Green church, conveniently located at Bethnal Green tube station.
The website (still under construction, but it has the important details) is here:
http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc
The Google Group is here:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/lac-choir
There is a poster which you could print out here:
http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc/publicity/lacc-poster-002.pdf
So: Five Reasons Why You Should Sing With The London Alternative Copyright Choir!
1. It's only a small time commitment
Just one Thursday evening a week for eight weeks, and then a concert. A great way to try out the choir thing without committing to giving up an evening a week for the rest of your mortal life!
2. You will get to meet and spend time with shiny people!
Singing in a choir is a great way to meet new people, and to regularly see old friends.
3. Singing is great!
Singing is fun - and it's good for your well-being and mental health! Breathing to sing is physically relaxing, creating music with other people is one of those things which is amazing in ways that it's hard to put into words. Performing can be a buzz! (And it's legal, and you don't get a hangover).
4. You will get to learn some awesome music!
Purcell! He wrote the first opera in English! He wrote loads of music that was used as incidental music in contemporary productions of Shakespeare's plays! And now you can access his music for free on the internet! How cool is that?
Plus, we'll be doing some new music written specially for the choir. Honestly, there is nothing more exciting than getting to work on new music with the composer for the first performance - and amateur choirs are rarely able to do it, at least partly because commissioning fees are extremely expensive (after all, composers have to eat). We are lucky to be working with composers who believe that there are models which allow them to perform and spread their music differently, so that all sorts of groups have access to new music. Which leads neatly on to the big one:
5. The renegotiation of Intellectual Property Laws is one of the most important socio-political / legal debates of the Internet age.
This is about who has the power to profit from our music, our art, our ideas. This is about how we assign value. Some of you have already seen this debate go past, and already know how relevant it is to you. Some of you work with open source code. Open source music (and other forms of art) will have to work to a slightly different model, which we haven't quite got figured out yet.
Regardless of whether you see this like I do, I invite you to explore the Open Rights Group website, and think about why this is so important in an age when our methods for dissemination of ideas are becoming something new and unforeseen and glorious.
Great! I'm sold! Sign me up!
If you want to take part in the London Alternative Copyright Choir, see the website (still under construction) for more details: http://www.etla.org/krose/lacc/join.html or join the Google group at http://groups.google.co.uk/group/lac-choir
That all sounds amazing, but I don't have the time / don't live in London
There are still loads of ways you can help out!
1) Spread the word, and help us recruit singers! I'm sure you lot know musical geeks in London that aren't likely to be reading this. Let them know! Link to this post or point them at the website.
2) Come to the concert! It will be on the 20th of March, at St John on Bethnal Green, right by Bethnal Green Tube on the Central Line. Tickets will be sold on a 'pay what you think this will be worth' basis on the night, or you can get them in advance for a fiver. Details are on the website.
If you're feeling really enthusiastic, you can help publicise the concert nearer the time.
Monday, 5 January 2009
The week ahead, the year ahead.
It's Monday, just barely. I've had a good couple of days of teaching, and got back to Trinity for the first time in 2009 today.
I have a lunchtime recital to play in next Wednesday, so most of my practising goals this week are related to making sure I'm in good form for that. This means lots of long, gentle warm-ups, lots of mental study of the pieces I'll be playing and lots of playing through the pieces in their entirety, both to cement my memory and to keep my endurance up. This latter is quite important as I had a few days off playing last week.
The lunchtime recital on 14th January will be at St John on Bethnal Green, 200 Cambridge Heath Road. Repertoire will be:
Dunhill: Cornucopia - Six Miniatures (horn and piano)
Butler: Hunding (unaccompanied horn)
Debussy: two of the Preludes for piano
Beethoven: Sonata Op. 17 (horn and piano)
I also need to get some programme notes sorted out, and make a poster to put up!
Most of tomorrow will be spent in sectional rehearsals for Wind Orchestra (which always reminds me of my teacher in Lethbridge, Dr Tom Staples, saying, "It's a band, folks!"). This band is playing some of the usual Ralph Vaughan-Williams but also Messiaen and some other challenging works.
Other projects I'll be working on this week include some last bits of planning and publicity for my Year 4 Project (I'm still waiting on date confirmation so not announcing anything just yet!), and writing a cadenza for the Gliere concerto which I'll be playing in the Soloists Competition on 25th January. And I want to get things sorted out for teaching a horn scales class again: we had one session last term and it went well, but I can't cover twelve keys (and their relative minors) in two hours and also teach thoroughly, so these need to happen on a weekly basis if they're going to be of any use to anyone.
I've also been offered a serpent. No, not the infamous reptile that once got Eve into a spot of trouble, but the musical instrument. I have been singing with the London Gallery Quire for most of the last term and enjoyed it heartily; now it seems I will be their serpentist. More on this after I actually meet the instrument in question on Wednesday night! I have wanted a serpent for some time, you might even say I have been tempted by them, but before Sunday afternoon I did not get a chance to play one. Now I've played one for probably the better part of 45 minutes.
So, that's the week ahead. I believe it's also traditional, with the new cycle of the arbitrary Gregorian calendar we use to mark time in the West, to think and write of the year ahead.
The year ahead... well, the first half of it is a matter of trying to get this degree finished without too many catastrophes. The second half of it will be the transition from being a good-for-nothing student with hardly any free time to being a good-for-nothing musician with a bit more free time. I think they call it a "portfolio career" these days. For me, that means more teaching, hopefully some of it in schools and some of it privately, and trying to keep some performance (particularly chamber music) going, perhaps with organisations like Live Music Now. It means I'll have time to learn things as and when I'm interested in learning them and have the spare brain cycles, rather than keeping to a set syllabus: I'm very, very glad I ended up at Trinity but I am looking forward to the freedom of dipping into one thing or another at my leisure and pleasure! I'll also be moving house at some point this summer. I cannot keep a serpent and three horns in this flat indefinitely, and I want somewhere that I'll be able to start teaching from home, and preferably a garden too. But really, for now, it's a focus on academic work from now until around June, and after that I'll relax, take some deep breaths, and see what happens.
I have a lunchtime recital to play in next Wednesday, so most of my practising goals this week are related to making sure I'm in good form for that. This means lots of long, gentle warm-ups, lots of mental study of the pieces I'll be playing and lots of playing through the pieces in their entirety, both to cement my memory and to keep my endurance up. This latter is quite important as I had a few days off playing last week.
The lunchtime recital on 14th January will be at St John on Bethnal Green, 200 Cambridge Heath Road. Repertoire will be:
Dunhill: Cornucopia - Six Miniatures (horn and piano)
Butler: Hunding (unaccompanied horn)
Debussy: two of the Preludes for piano
Beethoven: Sonata Op. 17 (horn and piano)
I also need to get some programme notes sorted out, and make a poster to put up!
Most of tomorrow will be spent in sectional rehearsals for Wind Orchestra (which always reminds me of my teacher in Lethbridge, Dr Tom Staples, saying, "It's a band, folks!"). This band is playing some of the usual Ralph Vaughan-Williams but also Messiaen and some other challenging works.
Other projects I'll be working on this week include some last bits of planning and publicity for my Year 4 Project (I'm still waiting on date confirmation so not announcing anything just yet!), and writing a cadenza for the Gliere concerto which I'll be playing in the Soloists Competition on 25th January. And I want to get things sorted out for teaching a horn scales class again: we had one session last term and it went well, but I can't cover twelve keys (and their relative minors) in two hours and also teach thoroughly, so these need to happen on a weekly basis if they're going to be of any use to anyone.
I've also been offered a serpent. No, not the infamous reptile that once got Eve into a spot of trouble, but the musical instrument. I have been singing with the London Gallery Quire for most of the last term and enjoyed it heartily; now it seems I will be their serpentist. More on this after I actually meet the instrument in question on Wednesday night! I have wanted a serpent for some time, you might even say I have been tempted by them, but before Sunday afternoon I did not get a chance to play one. Now I've played one for probably the better part of 45 minutes.
So, that's the week ahead. I believe it's also traditional, with the new cycle of the arbitrary Gregorian calendar we use to mark time in the West, to think and write of the year ahead.
The year ahead... well, the first half of it is a matter of trying to get this degree finished without too many catastrophes. The second half of it will be the transition from being a good-for-nothing student with hardly any free time to being a good-for-nothing musician with a bit more free time. I think they call it a "portfolio career" these days. For me, that means more teaching, hopefully some of it in schools and some of it privately, and trying to keep some performance (particularly chamber music) going, perhaps with organisations like Live Music Now. It means I'll have time to learn things as and when I'm interested in learning them and have the spare brain cycles, rather than keeping to a set syllabus: I'm very, very glad I ended up at Trinity but I am looking forward to the freedom of dipping into one thing or another at my leisure and pleasure! I'll also be moving house at some point this summer. I cannot keep a serpent and three horns in this flat indefinitely, and I want somewhere that I'll be able to start teaching from home, and preferably a garden too. But really, for now, it's a focus on academic work from now until around June, and after that I'll relax, take some deep breaths, and see what happens.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Concert reminder; London miscellany
The London Gallery Quire presents a
Christmas Concert
of West Gallery Music
as sung during the Georgian period (1720-1850)
Wednesday 10th December
6.30pm for 7.00pm.
Tickets - £5 on the door
An opportunity to see inside the oldest German church in England
St George's German Lutheran Church
55 Alie Street, London E1 8EB
Aldgate East tube station - exit Leman Street
In other entirely unsurprising news, I have been madly busy. More on that when I don't have to leave ten minutes ago...
Also, the other night on the Tube I heard Russian throat-singing. How cool is that? I have come to expect random singing drunks on public transport, but they don't often sing something so specialist, or so well as this particular vodka-pickled individual.
Remember the East London Cockney Awkestra I posted about, ages ago? They do have a website now, as none other than the esteemed Professor Eel himself dropped by to point out.
Christmas Concert
of West Gallery Music
as sung during the Georgian period (1720-1850)
Wednesday 10th December
6.30pm for 7.00pm.
Tickets - £5 on the door
An opportunity to see inside the oldest German church in England
St George's German Lutheran Church
55 Alie Street, London E1 8EB
Aldgate East tube station - exit Leman Street
In other entirely unsurprising news, I have been madly busy. More on that when I don't have to leave ten minutes ago...
Also, the other night on the Tube I heard Russian throat-singing. How cool is that? I have come to expect random singing drunks on public transport, but they don't often sing something so specialist, or so well as this particular vodka-pickled individual.
Remember the East London Cockney Awkestra I posted about, ages ago? They do have a website now, as none other than the esteemed Professor Eel himself dropped by to point out.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
The performance project that put Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Elgar's Enigma Variations is over; we recorded the last notes yesterday. It was going so well that we actually finished a full half-hour early. It was going so well that if they'd asked me to stay an hour later, I gladly would have done so! I think I enjoyed that project more than any other orchestral project in which I've been involved during my time at Trinity. I certainly learned a huge amount, which is why I'm here in the first place.
Now that I have a bit more time, I'm working on my arranging coursework (due 4th December), my Year 4 Project (Watch This Space! More News Soon!), my improvisation coursework (due sometime in January) and quite a bit of playing. I'm playing in a lunchtime recital at St. John on Bethnal Green Church on Wednesday, 14th January; on 25th January I'm playing in the Soloists' Competition at Trinity, and on 11th February the Lichtental Trio is playing the Brahms Horn Trio in a lunchtime concert at Southwark Cathedral. Of course there is also an exam to prepare for, and various other bits and pieces, and a whole pile of horn and organ repertoire that I ordered ages ago arrived this morning so there is that to look through as well. Classes are finished for the term but as I've often pointed out, discretionary time and free time are not the same thing and I remain extremely busy.
The next time I'll be performing in public, though, is with the London Gallery Quire on 10th December. Our Christmas Concert is at St George's German Lutheran Church, 55 Alie St, Aldgate E1 8EB, 6.30 for 7.00pm. Tickets are £5 on the door. I'll mostly be singing, but there is one piece where I may play the horn if they'll let me. I've very much enjoyed rehearsing with the choir and I hope I am able to continue in the spring and summer terms when my academic workload will be increased.
Now that I have a bit more time, I'm working on my arranging coursework (due 4th December), my Year 4 Project (Watch This Space! More News Soon!), my improvisation coursework (due sometime in January) and quite a bit of playing. I'm playing in a lunchtime recital at St. John on Bethnal Green Church on Wednesday, 14th January; on 25th January I'm playing in the Soloists' Competition at Trinity, and on 11th February the Lichtental Trio is playing the Brahms Horn Trio in a lunchtime concert at Southwark Cathedral. Of course there is also an exam to prepare for, and various other bits and pieces, and a whole pile of horn and organ repertoire that I ordered ages ago arrived this morning so there is that to look through as well. Classes are finished for the term but as I've often pointed out, discretionary time and free time are not the same thing and I remain extremely busy.
The next time I'll be performing in public, though, is with the London Gallery Quire on 10th December. Our Christmas Concert is at St George's German Lutheran Church, 55 Alie St, Aldgate E1 8EB, 6.30 for 7.00pm. Tickets are £5 on the door. I'll mostly be singing, but there is one piece where I may play the horn if they'll let me. I've very much enjoyed rehearsing with the choir and I hope I am able to continue in the spring and summer terms when my academic workload will be increased.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Concert tomorrow
It's been a while since I've updated, I've been madly busy for the last several weeks. I'm hoping to get writing again soon.
In the meantime, do come to the concert tomorrow:
Trinity College of Music Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36
Thursday 20 November, 7.30pm
Blackheath Halls
£10 (£7 concessions)
Trinity College of Music welcomes for the first time the celebrated conductor Edward Gardner to lead its Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Perhaps not obvious bed-fellows, the music has been specially chosen as part of a major collaboration between Trinity College of Music and BP, for whose centenary film the Symphony Orchestra will be recording the soundtrack.
Depicting the birth of the company quite literally from the earth to its establishment as one of Britain’s giant corporations the music will accompany a major film written and directed by BAFTA/Emmy award-winning screenwriter, novelist and playwright Nigel Williams.
To book please ring the Blackheath Halls Box Office on 020 8463 0100 or online at www.blackheathhalls.com or drop in person to 23 Lee Road, Blackheath, London SE3 9RQ.
(I've stolen the text from the TCM website.)
In the meantime, do come to the concert tomorrow:
Trinity College of Music Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme, Op.36
Thursday 20 November, 7.30pm
Blackheath Halls
£10 (£7 concessions)
Trinity College of Music welcomes for the first time the celebrated conductor Edward Gardner to lead its Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Elgar’s Enigma Variations.
Perhaps not obvious bed-fellows, the music has been specially chosen as part of a major collaboration between Trinity College of Music and BP, for whose centenary film the Symphony Orchestra will be recording the soundtrack.
Depicting the birth of the company quite literally from the earth to its establishment as one of Britain’s giant corporations the music will accompany a major film written and directed by BAFTA/Emmy award-winning screenwriter, novelist and playwright Nigel Williams.
To book please ring the Blackheath Halls Box Office on 020 8463 0100 or online at www.blackheathhalls.com or drop in person to 23 Lee Road, Blackheath, London SE3 9RQ.
(I've stolen the text from the TCM website.)
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