I use my extensive repertoire knowledge and programming skills to create bespoke concert projects to celebrate people, places and dates.
My love of the music of Finland, and of Jean Sibelius in particular, has resulted in several concert projects in recent years, including Finnish Independence Day (December 6th) and National Music Day (December 8th and Sibelius's birthday) performances at the striking Modernist Finnish Church in Rotherhithe, London (2011, 2012 and 2014); and in November 2015, Sibelius on Sea, a collaborative concert with Sibelius One in Brighton, featuring the renowned Finnish pianist and Sibelius expert, Folke Gräsbeck.
2017 was Finland 100: the centenary of Finland's independence from Russia. Here in Edinburgh, we celebrated Finland 500 - a feast of Finnish music, stretching back at least 500 years: from ancient runolaulu to the C16th Piae Cantiones to rip-roaring contemporary folk to Sibelius himself. Talented students from the City of Edinburgh Music School joined me for this event, which took place in the historic and very atmospheric Steel Shed on Leith Docks. Bedecked with blue and white, the ceiling twinkling like a starry arctic night, this unique space proved the ideal setting for a fabulous evening's entertainment. The 50 guests were treated to 60 minutes of music, whilst enjoying home-baked Karelian pies and cinnamon buns and home-brewed glögi.
Thank you for a really lovely evening! It was the perfect detox to a stressful week – the music, food, decorations were all wonderful – you had gone to so much trouble! It was really appreciated by everyone.
Thanks so much for organising the event on Friday – we really enjoyed it. The music was great and the Karjalan Piirakka were as tasty as my sister-in-law’s!
We really enjoyed last night, thanks for organising such a special event. We especially loved the whole juxtaposition between feeling like we were in some charming rural hut in the middle of the Finnish countryside but actually being in a metal box on the Leith quayside.
Kiitos paljon konsertista viime perjantaina! Se oli oikein kiva tilaisuus ja musiikki oli kaunista. Olitte nähneet vaivaa – tarjoukset olivat hyviä ja itsenäisyyspäiväkoristeet kauniita.
Thank you for a really lovely evening! It was the perfect detox to a stressful week – the music, food, decorations were all wonderful – you had gone to so much trouble! It was really appreciated by everyone.
Thanks so much for organising the event on Friday – we really enjoyed it. The music was great and the Karjalan Piirakka were as tasty as my sister-in-law’s!
We really enjoyed last night, thanks for organising such a special event. We especially loved the whole juxtaposition between feeling like we were in some charming rural hut in the middle of the Finnish countryside but actually being in a metal box on the Leith quayside.
Kiitos paljon konsertista viime perjantaina! Se oli oikein kiva tilaisuus ja musiikki oli kaunista. Olitte nähneet vaivaa – tarjoukset olivat hyviä ja itsenäisyyspäiväkoristeet kauniita.
For the Villages Music Festival in 2016, I arranged a concert inspired by the dominating feature of that part of Sussex : the magnificent South Downs. Entitled Music of the Hills, the programme comprised works by composers with Sussex connections (Bridge, Ireland and Elgar) and / or music inspired by hills (Howells's magnificent Piano Quartet Opus 21, “To the hill at Chosen”). In addition to chamber works for string quartet (Bridge's Noveletten and Sir Roger de Coverley) and piano quartet (Howells), I programmed two partsongs - Ireland's serene The Hills and Elgar's epic and eerie Death on the Hills - for which we were joined by a crack choir of Sussex singers. Performed in the airily beautiful church of St John the Baptist, Ripe on a perfect summer's night, the sun flooding in through the west window, you could almost have imagined yourself outside: and indeed on exiting the porch, the sight which greeted you was a long clear view straight to the hills.
So powerful is Howells’s music that we needed Bridge’s setting of “Sir Roger de Coverley” to send us home in good spirits after so fine an evening of superb music-making. And a final pat on the back for whoever put together so well-written and informative a printed programme.
Independent review
So powerful is Howells’s music that we needed Bridge’s setting of “Sir Roger de Coverley” to send us home in good spirits after so fine an evening of superb music-making. And a final pat on the back for whoever put together so well-written and informative a printed programme.
Independent review