PrettyInScarlett

Something of a last minute plan but M and I had high hopes of the 18th July Fractal Sparks event based on information from the people at Brass: Durham International Festival . The show was billed as a multimedia spectacular featuring Jo Hamilton , Lanterns on the Lake , Durham County Youth Big Band (DCBB) and The Band of the Royal Corps of Signals .  Arriving early at Durham Cathedral, the venue filled up in a relaxed manner, and was completely full by showtime. The event was effectively 2 concerts and the first concert featured Newcastle band Lanterns on the Lake with DCBB. This 45 minute-odd set was a very relaxed affair. We hadn't heard any Lanterns music before, but they have a keys/guitar/violin/drums setup mixing low-fi indie and post-rock sounds. The band seemed a little nervous (slightly limited stage talk) but we enjoyed the set. The songs which worked best with DCBB (and at least 1 song had been written especially for this concert) were 'To My Soul', 'Cr...

Something of a trend towards piano groups/similar for amateurs seems to be going on at the moment (excellent! definitely a more is more scenario!), with features on blogs such as Practising the Piano and The Cross-Eyed Pianist . The forthcoming issue of Pianist Magazine, issue 79, will feature an article on piano groups, for which I contributed some material regarding both Ottawa Piano Group and Durham Amateur Pianists . More information on the forthcoming magazine can be found here .

Yesterday I was privileged to attend a masterclass at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle by Prof. Vanessa Latarche of Royal Conservatory of Music. The masterclass had been organised by the Gateshead Piano Workshop and featured some of their regular attendees.  The class was informative yet informal. Vanessa worked well with all the performers and made them feel very much at ease. The repertoire presented was a range of known and more obscure pieces from the Romantic end of the spectrum. First up with a 'new to me' piece was Neil, who played beautifully Madeleine Dring 's 'Prelude' from Prelude and Toccata . The Prelude is a fabulous piece, very atmospheric  - English nuances with French impressionism - with an insistent left hand part that haunts the piece throughout. The rest of the class was as follows: Chopin -  Prelude No 25 c# Brahms -  Intermezzo in A Op. 118 Mendelssohn – Andante and variations in Bb Op. 83 - theme and variations 1-4. Schubert  - W...