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 →

This is the organ at St Michael’s in Lewes, where we are moving towards the completion of our rebuild. Andrew and John removed much of the organ in early September to their workshop on the Isle of Wight. The two manuals you see here have been refurbished. The buttons below each keyboard are pistons. Each piston selects one or more stops, so the  five pistons under each manual allows the organist to ‘bring out’ a particular selection of stops on that particular keyboard. OK so far? There used to be just 6 pistons below each manual and now there are more: six extra General pistons below the SwellRead More →

Hi everyone. Today I was due to be conducting the Community Choir in a joint concert with the Paddock Singers (with Ruth Kerr), at St John sub castro, celebrating the centenary of the Pells area being donated to Lewes council by Baxters – the old printing company based down one of the twittens off the High Street. Our choir were going to sing a short programme which we would then have taken to Lisieux in Normandy later in the month. And yesterday, I should have been directing New Sussex Opera’s production of Handel: Acis and Galatea at the All Saint’s Centre in Lewes. Instead, NSORead More →

As most of you know, I spend lots of my time working with choirs and immersing myself in choral music. I’ve usually got a rehearsal to prepare or a concert to plan. But today, I’d love to share with you two of my favourite orchestral pieces. Actually I’ve got many favourites, so this is just two of them. Sibelius: Symphony No.2 When I was studying A level music, my main set work was Shostakovich: Symphony No.5 (1937), and I absolutely love that. I remember one of my lecturers was a viola player, Stephen Williams, and he introduced us to a number of other symphonies writtenRead More →