My latest step towards normal music making was a very important one to me personally – my first visit to a live concert in which one of...

Here are the words for woman.life.song, the 45-minute cantata I wrote for Jessye Norman, whose 2000 Proms performance is being...

Neighbours of mine have been sensibly seizing the chance to nip away for short breaks in places which normally are impossibly crowded;...

This photo expresses one of my most cherished impressions of Cheltenham Music Festival; arriving earlyish in the morning at the deserted...

‘The Wigmore’ was busy for this BBC lunchtime recital by Ruby Hughes, Natalie Clein and Julius Drake, which included my recent commission...

It’s something of a cliché to me and my composer colleagues that the second performance of a new work is more important than the first,...

In case it’s useful to know, I discovered that there are three churches in the Haarlem area named after St Bavo. The one I was meant to...

Welcome to Not Now Bernard and other stories, a new album performed by the excellent Orchestra of the Swan under Tom Hammond. Three...

A few years ago I wrote a short piece for viola and soprano, The Sweet Primroses. It had a couple of performances, and I mostly forgot...

Never have I been so glad of long hours in rehearsals. Shut away in Maida Vale Studios (Election Day) and backstage at the Barbican (The...