Welcome to my website.  Perhaps you’ve arrived here because you’ve been to one of my concerts. Maybe you’re a musician yourself and we’ve worked together or have plans to do so.  However you got here, I hope that the website will tell you a little more about me, and encourage you to come along to a concert.

“We are the music makers; we are the dreamers of dreams.”  So begins Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s ode, so memorably set to music by Elgar.  It seems more and more that we are in need of dreamers, and of ways to draw people together, in an increasingly fragmented world.  The work done by artists like Barenboim, and others closer to home, is needed more than ever before.  Even in my own work I’ve been struck, for example, by how people with diametrically opposing views on like Brexit or on the Labour leadership have been able to find common ground in musical performance.  There can be few more powerful tools in bringing harmony than music, and as young people become more engaged in the political process it becomes ever more vital that we involve young people with the creative arts at every opportunity.

I’m delighted that the various amateur groups I work with are increasingly attracting young members (and by young I mean, of course, less old than me), and the youth orchestra scene remains vibrant.  I am optimistic about the future!
Karen continues her fascinating projects as Research Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.  Our daughter Elsa is nine, and her life centres around her dance school and her growing love of the theatre.  Her favourite composers remain Beethoven and Wagner, to my great pride.

Do come along to one of my concerts – live music is the most thrilling experience for me, and, I hope, for the audience. For me, something special happens in concerts, in the mystical space between composer, performer and listener, and I hope I can share that experience with you.