In the third and final of my City Lit ‘taster’ sessions this week, one of my students regarded me with raised eyebrows after some point I’d made about Lieder. ‘You’re one of those tutors who tells jokes, aren’t you?’ she declared. ‘Good.’ As you might expect, I get quite a
Maybe it’s because I’ve had two lovely trips to Bath this week (once to judge for the Mid-Somerset Festival, once to take part in Bath MozartFest), but Jane Austen has rather been on my mind. Not so much the feisty heroines like Lizzie Bennett, or the well-meaning interferers like Emma
One of the great buzz phrases of commerce and indeed education, as anyone who has ever worked in either will know, is the need to ‘manage expectations’. Put to particularly brilliant effect in the BBC’s hysterical 2012, the idea of managing expectations can cover everything from carefully choosing publicity shots
It’s that time of year again, and I’m back in the stunning surroundings of north Yorkshire for the 2016 Ryedale Festival. Better still, I’ve been working again with the wonderful Heath Quartet in four concerts, presenting the entire late Beethoven quartets in tandem with T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, read with
Dear Santa, It’s been a while – hope the reindeer are holding up after all this year’s adverts suggesting you’re travelling by minicab. I’m sure the folks at FIFA have been bothering you about it, too [ed.: Festive Institute of Flying Animals]. Still, at least the whole NSA scandal seems
It’s that time of year again when school and university students up and down the country are facing deadline days and examinations. Assignment writing through the night on coffee and energy tablets, revision cramming as you struggle down the corridor towards the exam room… we all know the drill. And
