Today I met a man whose life revolved around coffee. He had set up a little stall in Handpicked Hall, a sort-of indoor flea market located in Leeds’ Grand Arcade. Overhead, a sign read “Casa Colombiana, for pure 100% Colombian coffee”. To his left was a big complicated machine with…
Had the twelfth piano lesson with my teacher today, and he still manages to throw me off-balance with the things he says. As we worked through Janáček’s ‘The Holy Virgin of Frydek’ from On an Overgrown Path, I asked how the middle section should be played. Although marked Un poco…
Daniel Gordon, piano 1305hrs Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall, University of Leeds One of the last few concerts of the Concert Series 2012/13 was a piano recital by Daniel Gordon, a piano accompanist, examiner and senior teaching staff at our university. I’ve always been amazed at his ability to play difficult…
1930hrs13 April 2013Leeds Town HallFeaturing the great Russian works of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, and Tchaikovsky — and conducted by a Russian guest conductor too — the programme itself was a sure crowd-puller. The only question was, how would an English orchestra play this programme? Conductor Mikhail Jurowski made his way onstage…
The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires11 January 2013Howard Assembly Room,Leeds It was advertised as a performance that had the pulsating rhythms and sultry melodies of Piazzolla; and the vivid, evocative words of Pablo Neruda, so there was no better company than three music-loving English literature majors – one who liked…
…spent away from my family, for the first time. A rather quiet Christmas, free from the present-shopping and wrapping; church rehearsals; and familial duties. I’d been dreading it since I heard the first christmas songs at the Kirkgate Market in October. As Bing Crosby’s voice crooned “I’ll be home for…
.. asked the piano teacher in our lesson this morning. Lessons with him are always funny, challenging, and ridiculous; and he always finds a way to throw me off-balance. Our lesson this morning had been no different. After making it to uni at 8.30am in the dark, foggy weather (climbing…
And so Sibelius Day started with the concert at the Leeds College of Music. A friend came from Manchester to watch his flatmate play the Violin Concerto, and I went along too, mainly because of my love for the work, and also the curiosity to hear how the LCM orchestra…
…it shall be called, 2nd December 2012 because of the amount of works by Sibelius performed in two different locations in Leeds. A friend from Manchester told me that his friend will be performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto at the Leeds College of Music, with the Leeds College of Music…
So I decided to pick up the second English Suite in a minor by Bach again after putting it down for a little while. My teacher here heard it by me for the first time today in lesson, and oh my goodness it was a complete opposite interpretation of Miss Lim’s!He…