My first book was commissioned for Ashgates ‘Landmarks in Music Since 1950’ series. It focuses on a piece of music composed in 1960s Hungary, still today uncompromisingly tough to listen to, even while it was rejected as ‘too 19th-century’ when it was premiered, in 1968, at the hothouse of progressive Read more…
In January 1996 I was selected to play at London’s Purcell Room in the Park Lane Group concert series for young artists. I combined short pieces by György Kurtág, with whom I had studied, with a newly-commissioned work by the Hungarian László Tihanyi, in whose Ensemble Intermodulation I had performed. The largest-scale Read more…
While living and studying in Budapest 1992-1995 I built up a repertoire of Hungarian music, much of it contemporary. I was happy to work with several composers – most intensively with Kurtag, but also with Laszlo Tihanyi (in his ensemble Intermodulation, and also on a solo piece he wrote for Read more…
In January 1995 I put together a piano recital for Bartok Radio, with a programme that was highly unusual for Hungary. I started and finnished with 3 pieces from Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, played the Piano Sonata by Aaron Copland in the middle and – for a local Read more…
Competitions were an inescapable part of concert pianism. The UNISA one was in Praetoria. Looking back at the videos from the first two rounds is like looking back at a different person. I remember two things in particular. First, that I was hugely relieved to be knocked out, so I Read more…
For several years I was a regular guest artist with Graham Hair’s ensemble and concert series Scottish Voices. It was in this context that I presented Kurtag’s The Sayings of Peter Bornemisza Op.7 with Jane Manning. Read more…
I composed ‘Talking about Tatyana’ when I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music in London. It is an oblique homage to Tatyana Nikolayeva, the pianist who premiered Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues. It’s a fugue, and I scored it for clarinet trio. Why? I don’t remember!
Building on my courses in Intercultural Performance run at Royal Holloway, I now lead music workshops for instrumentalists, vocalists and those who just want to have a go at making music in a group. Workshops vary in aim: in the case of Today is Good! (weekly sessions, ongoing) and Welcome Read more…
I have worked in full-time academic teaching since 2000, when I began as a lecturer at the University of Bristol. I was Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London until September 2019, and now I am Professorial Research Associate at SOAS, University of London. My teaching has ranged Read more…
Articles in scholarly refereed journals ‘Bulgarian Rhythm and its disembodiment in Kurtág’s The sayings of Péter Bornemisza’, Studia musicologica XLIII/3-4 (2002), pp. 269-280. ‘To say and/or to be? Incongruence in The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza op.7’. Music Analysis 22/3 (October 2003), pp. 315-338. ‘”Behold! The long-awaited new Hungarian opera has Read more…