Double bassist Thomas Martin studied with Roger Scott in Philadelphia and can trace a teaching pedigree that goes back to Bottesini. In a career that has combined both orchestral playing in the world’s top orchestras and teaching, he has taught at Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Royal College of Music, and is currently senior professor at Birmingham Conservatoire. In this interview, first published in the European String Teachers Association magazine Arco in Autumn 2016

Paul Silverthorne has led the viola section of the London Symphony Orchestra for 25 years, working with the finest conductors and musicians in the world. So what does he really think of them, and what has he learnt about the art of conducting? Viola player Paul Silverthorne retires from the London Symphony Orchestra this year, after nearly 25 years – he played his last concert with the group on Monday, 5 October, and returns for a performance at St Luke’s on 13 November. I in

I came late to the Kleiber party – I was introduced to him only recently by Burton Kaplan while I was on his Magic Mountain music course. The whole class watched a documentary on Kleiber and then his performances of Strauss, Beethoven and Brahms. I was mesmerised. Kaplan was trying to demonstrate to us the musical logic of Kleiber's conducting, but also the narrative quality of his rehearsal technique, to show us how this could inform our own musical conceptions. As you can s