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Hi everyone.  Last week, Robin and I had a few days away in Bristol. I was at university there (a few years ago!!) and I’ve only been back there a couple of times since, once to play for a trumpeter in a BBC Musician of the Year qualifier (he didn’t get to the broadcast stages), and once to show my son George when he was applying to uni. We were really going away to celebrate Robin’s birthday (she’s many years younger than me of course), but luckily she was just as keen as me to explore Bristol. Thanks to a 9am start from Eastbourne andRead More →

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10 days ago, I was the MD for a concert of opera arias, duets and choruses at the Leconfield Hall in Petworth. New Sussex Opera were due to perform Handel’s Acis and Galatea there last year, but that was coronovirused (I’ve just invented a new word there), so a small chorus together with 7 soloists performed there on 24 September. We thought that Love and Death covered most of the themes in opera. The chorus sang from Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice; Wagner’s Bridal March; and the Chorus of Wedding Guests from Donizetti: Lucia di Lammamoor. And soloists sang arias from Dvorak: Rusalka (Song to the Moon),Read More →

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Hi everyone. Robin and I are on holiday in North Norfolk – right on the coast in a little cottage in Blakeney. This is somewhere completely new for me and it’s lovely. Blakeney looks over salt marshes towards Blakeney point and eventually some sandy beaches. You can see the car park on the ‘front’ but we haven’t parked there because it sometimes floods. On Tuesday we took a boat trip from Morston (just along the road) to see the seals on Blakeney Point. There were hundreds of them, both Common Seals and the bigger Grey Seals, which are apparently just as common! First we sawRead More →

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As you will know if you read my blog August: a time to relax, Robin and I went to London at the end of last week, really to sing Evensong with the Lewes Singers at Westminster Abbey. We went on Thursday, early enough to book into our hotel before going the the Royal Academy to see the David Hockney exhibition The arrival of spring which was stunning. Using his iPad he did 400 pictures in a few months documenting the arrival of spring ‘painting’ trees and landscape. The colours were really vibrant and Robin in particular was very moved by them. I liked the idea ofRead More →

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Hi everyone. The last couple of weeks have been full of exciting things, but I’m told I mustn’t let my blogposts ramble, so I’ll let you know how my weekend in London went in another blogpost tomorrow – there’s lots to tell. But today I just want to remind you all that I’ve got a recital this Sunday with the lovely Ruth Kerr. It’s at St Michael’s Church, on the High Street in Lewes, this Sunday at 3pm. It’s a sort of tour of the places you might have liked to go on holiday this Summer if only things had been different. We start inRead More →

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Hi everyone.It’s been over a month since my last blogpost, but I’m now having a pretty relaxed August. I’ve just been outside reading a novel in the sunshine. The weather is supposed to get worse as the day progresses so you have to take your opportunities. Today I need to do some piano practice, to keep my fingers and brain in trim. Ruth Kerr and I have another recital, this time at St Michael’s Church on Sunday 22 August at 3pm. Our programme will include songs and duets from England, France, Italy, Czech Republic and the USA. A sort of musical holiday without leaving Lewes!Read More →

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Before I get onto the main event – Bobby: the last few weeks – can I just do a plug for my inaugural organ recital this coming Sunday at 3pm. It’s inaugural because it’s the first recital on the very recently renovated Church organ. The £55k project was completed at the very beginning of January, but organs are complex instruments and things take time to settle and to ‘bed-in’. This Friday the builders are coming in to put a few things straight and to give it a fine tune before my recital on Sunday. My programme is: Buxtehude: Preludium, Fugue & Ciaccona in C –Read More →

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Hi everyone. Today is the last day of May, Bank Holiday Monday, and it’s going to be a blistering day of sun, sun, sun. As we all know, both April and May have been extraordinarily cold and blowy, so this is not before time. I resolutely wore my thick winter shirts and jumpers (not to mention a t-shirt/vest) until I was forced to get a box of summer clothes out of the loft on Saturday. And yesterday, I went to church and in my best ‘Michael Portillo’ trousers and flowery short-sleeved shirt. In the afternoon I met 22 New Sussex Opera singers at ‘The DrippingRead More →

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Earlier this week, Robin spotted 2 frogs in our pond. By the time she had got her camera, one had disappeared, but you can see the remaining one, alongside our two goldfish.   We don’t really know if these are the result of the frogs spawn we had a couple of months ago, or perhaps this is the frog that laid them. In any case, he/she seems happy enough and to be making friends with the goldfish. Another good piece of news, is that we have just been allowed to ‘adopt’ Bobby, the downstairs cat who had taken up residence in our flat. He doesn’tRead More →