‘Looking forward to Maxamorphing this weekend on the Battle Tour!’

Maxamorphosis.

Noun. (pl. -phoses) zoology; musicology; choreography.

Rare process of transformation involving endangered species of violus-saltador (viola-dancer).

Looking forward to taking a monster program to Shanghai with Aurora this Tuesday! As well as a small forest’s worth of orchestral works, I’ll be playing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, my first close encounter with this extraordinary piece.

In the meantime, a nice review of my Chromatic Fantasy which I played last Saturday at Kings Place:

‘…an exquisitely executed rendition, and one which had its audience utterly transfixed.’

5* by Julia Savage for www.bachtrack.com

‘I’ll be having Chromatic Fantasies next week. That’s to say: I’ll be playing Kodaly’s transcription of the amazing Chromatic Fantasy by Bach, a piece of music that delves into another world, timeless and powerful. Three very different events and venues, full details are under concert listings on this website. Hope to see you there!

1: The Cello Factory, Waterloo. Part of the Indra’s Net Exhibition – Wed 17th April

2: Club Inegales, Draught Orders Bar, Euston – Thurs 18th

3. Kings Place Hall 1, Bach Unwrapped Festival, Aurora chamber concert – Sat 20th April

A couple of pictures from last week’s Tales in the Tower, a storytelling evening in the top of the Tower of St. Augustine in Hackney where I performed The Willow Baby and Other Tales (see under ‘Projects’ for info about the forthcoming book!). Other news… Aurora’s New Moves concert at LSO St Luke’s last Saturday got some smashing reviews, including 4 stars in the Times (Richard Mirrison) and 5 in the Standard (Barry Millington) which finished: ‘Refreshing the repertoire and broadening appeal are imperative these days. Nobody does it better than Aurora.’

‘A photo from last Friday’s sessions recording ‘Flower of Cities’ by composer Steve Goss. All in all a cracking day, and a great concert later that weekend as part of the Guildford International Festival! Back this Sunday for a ZRi gig…’

Left to right: Lawrence Ungless (bass), Tommy Carroll (conductor), Stewart French (sound engineer), Steve Goss (composer), Craig Ogden (guitar), John Williams (guitar), Tim Evans (percussion), Max Baillie (violin).