Featured Articles and News

Poetry Truth and Understanding

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Poetry Truth and Understanding. That trinity comes out from my church-attendance friends as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Pontius Pilate was almost as witty as Jesus himself. My vote for the fifth Prefect of Judea goes with the Orthodox Church’s, who revere him as a hero: unlike the spoilsport Western Church, who portray him as a villain. What is truth? is the question that the Godhead Himself must constantly ask as well as urge his followers to ask. Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s says Jesus, in the response to the Pharisee’s trick question as to whether it is lawful to pay your taxes. Good Christians do well to follow Our Lord’s advice. So, no apologies to the super-taxed wealthy. And absolutely no excuse for your responsibilities toward God.  Those responsibilities are both complex and a delight. Further thought is needed.

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Pianist Duncan Honeybourne in conversation with Robert Beattie

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New piano music emerges from the Covid lockdown

Duncan Honeybourne © Kris Worsley Photography

Duncan Honeybourne gave his first London recital at 15 and his first BBC broadcast recital at 17. He was a prize-winner at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he graduated with First Class Honours and later received the honorary award of HonRBC for professional distinction. His teachers included Rosemarie Wright, Philip Martin, John York and Dame Fanny Waterman, and he completed his studies in London for three years with Mikhail Kazakevich on a Goldenweiser Scholarship awarded by the Sheepdrove Trust.

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PIANIST ELEONOR BINDMAN IN CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT BEATTIE

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Pianist Eleonor Bindman talks to Robert Beattie

Eleonor Bindman (c) Masataka Suemitsu

Eleonor Bindman is a New York based pianist and chamber musician who has received extensive praise for her piano transcriptions. The New York Times commented on her ‘lively, clear textured and urbane’ performances and ‘impressive clarity of purpose and a full grasp of the music’s spirit’. Eleonor has appeared at Carnegie Hall, The 92 Street Y, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and on solo concerto engagements with the National Music Week Orchestra, the Staten Island Symphony, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the New York Youth Symphony, and The Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, Russia. She is a prize winner of the New Orleans, Busoni and Jose Iturbi international piano competitions and is a recipient of a National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts award.

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A Suitable Stirring Solution for the Pandemic

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Eternal gratitude is what I feel when my excellent ear training for the musicality of the spoken word is needed. Whatever the situation. It goes back to the time I was at London University’s Institute of Education, studying for the Postgraduate Certificate in Music Education, just specifically introduced for Music two years earlier. It would … Read more

Composer Alexey Shor in conversation with Colin Clarke

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Alexey Shor (c) ALIKHAN

It is an exciting time for composer Alexey Shor. I personally first came across his music on a Delos release entitled Classical Music Stars in Malta in which four of his chamber pieces (Farewell Nocturne; Addio; King Matt the First; Coming of Age) shared disc space with music by Ilya Dimov, Khachaturian, Joseph Vella, and the fabulous Handel/Halvorsen Passacaglia. Then, the superstar violinist Maxim Vengerov, no less, performed Shor’s St. Elmo Barcarolle at the Barbican in January this year under the baton of a conductor who is a tireless champion of Shor’s music, Sergey Smbatyan (review); and Vengerov’s encore, after Bruch’s First Violin Concerto and Ravel’s Tzigane, was another work by Shor: his Elegy for violin and orchestra.

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Members of the public needed for Lost in Song and join a study to evaluate mood and general well-being

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Call for participants for a study into the effects of virtual choral singing on mood and well-being

Brought to you by Limina Immersive, NHS Arden & GEM and Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song is a web-based application that has been specifically developed to lift spirits and provide an opportunity to experience the joys of choral singing from the comfort and safety of your own home. With songs arranged and performed by award-winning Birmingham-based choir Ex Cathedra, Lost in Song allows you to sing along with a choir, while enjoying 360 degree footage of natural landscapes from around the UK.

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