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  60 years ago today, Coventry Cathedral was consecrated. The first organist of the new cathedral was David Lepine, who was Organist & Choirmaster for my entire 6 years as a chorister, and my first organ teacher, my hero – to whom I probably owe my musical career.  I didn’t join the choir until several years after the consecration, but I ‘inherited’ this copy of the order of service from David Lepine when he died in 1972. The order of service is a very high quality booklet of over 100 pages, with red and black text, and a rather fine gold on the front cover.Read More →

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Hi everyone. Last time I posted, I’d just got Covid visiting Bristol. That was back in November. To my shame, it’s 6 months since I posted that. Many of you are interested in my garden, and I have to say that it’s doing really well this spring. However, today it’s raining, so I can’t nip out and take any photos. And there’s scaffolding out the back as we’re having the back of the house painted. But I promise that as soon as the sun shines again, I’ll get out there and update you on what’s blooming. I’m fast approaching a busy performing time and IRead More →

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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 →