25/1/18
 

Mai Yamada has released a fantastic CD of French music, Damase, Ravel and also a piece by Hartzell: Dandelions on the Sony Japan label.

5/1/18

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Well done to Kei and Mai and all those who attended the fantastic concert at St Stephens Church on Gloucester Road. Programme included my Barcarolle, new Piano Sonata and a premiere for the fabulous English Composer James Lill.

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21/7/16

The concert went really well at St Stephens! Thanks to everyone who helped out, Mai, Kei and Ingrid for performing brilliantly and Yuki for making the concert happen. Recordings are up now! Check out Kei and Mai's Youtube channels for the other pieces played:

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4/4/16

Yuki's visit to Angola went really well and the conductor of the orchestra told me that they all enjoyed the piece I wrote for them very much. They will be off to visit Japan in May where Barcarlle will be played in many different cities.

10/3/16

I've added a forum to the website. Now anyone visiting can go there and write things.

So go there right now and write something!

I've finished the Barcarolle which Yuki Ito will be conducting in Agola.

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6/10/15
 

Have had confirmation to have my five piano pieces played as an event at the Open Arts Cafe at Marble Arch in London.

10/8/15
 

The concert at St James was a great success with Ana Ferreira performing the Santos superbly under the batton of Pablo Urbina. The Siciliana that I wrote was also well received along with Yuki's brilliant interpretation of the Rococo Variations. Next concert we have plans to do a concert of my own music at the same venue! Should be fun!

24/4/15
 

We had lots of positive responses from the April concert. Am now working at preparing for our new June Concert with Ana Ferraria.

10/2/15
 

The Concert on January 30th I think everyone can agree went really well! Still waiting for the recording of the Violin Fantasy. Have been writing a Cello Cadenza for Yuki Ito who is playing Haydn concerto in C (violincello). I really enjoy working on Haydn's music beause the themes are very compact. The matirial is very good and it makes the work of creating a Cadenza a lot easier than say for a Romantic or 20th/21st century composer. That's not to say one is better than the other just that if say I had to write a cadenza for Bartok I'd have to think a lot more. Maybe the fault is purely mine and maybe I should be thinking a lot more for Haydn? There's something to think about eh?

28/1/15

Had a rehearsal with the In Tune Orchestra on the 26th. We rehearsed Schubert and the Fantasy for two Violins. Lots covered although a lot of players missing from this rehearsal. Am excited to work with Yuki when he comes and conducts on the 29th for the rehearsal before the concert on the 30th. Programme is Hartzell Fantasy, Schubert 5 and Bach Harpsichord Concerto no.7 played on Piano. Of the three I will just be conducting the Fantasy so it will be enjoyable to just sit back and listen to the other pieces.

11/11/14
 

Finished the Two Violin Fantasy yesterday and put the two violin parts into Sibelius and sent them off to the soloists. Lots and lots of Sibelius work to do what with putting that piece onto Computer as well as the Symphony but all the hard stuff is done now. Hopefully can get back to some of those other projects I need to cross off.

31/10/14
 

Made progress with some of the Lyrics for Essie today. Have added the arrangement to the website as opus.23b. Also the hard rough work for the two violin piece is pretty much done now so I can get back to orchestrating it. Have been working on my conductor skills for the April 10 event. Full score of the Rococo Variations arrived yesterday but unfortuately the wrong version! This one has what Tchaikovsky actually wrote instead. I was looking for the version where it has what he didn't write.

23/10/14
 

Working well on the Orchestra piece which turned into a Violin and Orchestra piece and is now a Duet for Violins and Orchestra. Having to put other projects on hold as I get newer things in for example this violin fantasy needs to take a step back while I work on arranging Essie for this new Tokyo concert.

Have to make sure I prioritize the order right so that I get the things that expire soonest done first. Was thinking today about the whole classical scene and considered the idea that maybe we are turtling ourselves up? When threatened turtles tend to withdraw into their shells and maybe that's what we're doing as a whole group - waiting and hoping it's going to pass. What I think we really need to do is just go in guns blazing and shake things up. We can't keep on doing what we've been doing for the last 100 years. The dinosaurs went extinct and so can we, it's not a case of waiting it out and it's certainly not a case of giving up.

4/10/14
 

Met with Yuki Ito yesterday and we talked about the Cello Concerto as well as upcoming concert in St Martins next year.

I'm removing Faridpur from Opus.18 and integrating it into a collection called "Gallery". This Opus is going to contain all of the old Solo Bass pieces I wrote. It needs to be done before they get lost. Some haven't been written down and I feel it's important at this point to get them at least onto Sibelius.

Attended "Masterclass" with Eric Whitacre at the Royal College of Music on the 1st of October and was extremely impressed with his philosophy of the current situation of classical music.

2/9/14
 

Symphony Opus 20 has now been fully orchestrated and can be considered complete.

Have started today orchestrating the cello Concerto numbering it as Op.24.