Interview with Shmuel Ashkenasi
The former Vermeer Quartet leader and Curtis Institute professor discusses the negative sides of Ilona Fehér's 'tough love' school of...
top of page
- Apr 14, 2015
Pinchas Zukerman: violin geek
In honour of Pinchas Zukerman's performance tonight of the Elgar Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London's...
- Mar 12, 2015
Violin competitions: participant’s view
Violinist Benjamin Baker has just been selected for the final rounds of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition. Such contests are...
- Feb 24, 2015
The case for modern instruments
As two top violinists are forced to give back the classic instruments they've been borrowing, should more performers consider modern...
- Feb 10, 2015
Viktoria Mullova on inspiration, rules and coughing
The Russian violinist is forthright about Baroque rules, the narrow-mindedness of only listening to classical music, and allowing...
- Jan 14, 2015
9 ways to succeed in music
Today's classical music business may be competitive and tough, but there are also more opportunities than ever. Success lies in knowing...
- Jan 13, 2015
The violinist’s guide to learning mandolin
For violinists, playing the mandolin offers instant rewards and benefits, but some challenges, too. I asked for advice from the best in...
- Nov 29, 2014
The Charlie Chaplin guide to violin playing
Charlie Chaplin was one of the most expressive and popular communicators ever. What can string players learn from his art? Light and...
- Nov 10, 2014
Eugene Drucker on Beethoven
I recently interviewed Eugene Drucker about his Southbank Centre concert with the Emerson Quartet on Sunday, 16 November, which you can...
- Oct 5, 2014
The return of Kyung Wha Chung
The legendary violinist Kyung Wha Chung makes her much-awaited London comeback this December, after more than a decade away. On a recent...
- Sep 9, 2014
Should classical players cross over?
While I’ve been researching my article on violinists who’ve crossed musical borderlines, for Sinfini Music, I found myself debating with...
- Sep 5, 2014
The science of violin making
There are many different tribes of violin makers, in my experience. Conservatives, Futurists, Archivists, Geometrists, Philosophers,...
- Aug 29, 2014
Everything you need to know about violin playing (but were never taught)
Musical timing and closure, hearing and thinking for ourselves – just some of the things that teaching often fails to help us with,...
- Aug 26, 2014
A plea on behalf of amateur violinists
Two weeks at a violin practice retreat were life-changing for me, but left me wondering why there aren't enough places for amateur...
- Aug 21, 2014
Leopold Auer weighs in on the vibrato debate
Responses to my post about Menuhin's vibrato drew a mixture of responses. I’d remarked on it being ‘perfectly shaped’ and ‘fluid’ and...
- Aug 11, 2014
James Ehnes on violin obsession and existential crisis
My latest interview for Cozio, with violinist James Ehnes, has just gone live, so please go and visit. He had so much to say about his...
- Aug 5, 2014
Charlie Chaplin and his violin obsession
The great screen comedian was an accomplished amateur violinist who composed many of the scores to his films At the height of his...
- Jul 25, 2014
Fritz Kreisler: a violinist at war
The First World War began 100 years ago, on 28 July 2014, with Austria–Hungary declaring war on Serbia, a month after the assassination...
- Jul 23, 2014
Charles Beare – violin expertise ‘not the real thing’
At first I thought this New Yorker article about the Carpenter family by Rebecca Mead was going to be a puff piece, but it turns out to...
- Jul 5, 2014
Sheila Nelson and her work in Tower Hamlets
In the 1980s, string pedagogue Sheila Nelson took her seminal teaching techniques to underprivileged schools in the London borough of...
bottom of page