I look forward to perform an absolutely stunning programme with Dunedin Consort, focussing on celebrating St. Cecilia (the patron saint of music), Henry Purcell, and the whole musical ecosystem of London in the last decades of the seventeenth century. The programme will include Blow’s stunning Ode on the Death of Mr. Henry Purcell, the ensemble will be led by Nicholas Mulroy, and you can catch us in London’s Wigmore Hall and in Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

It was an enormous pleasure to premiere composer Elizabeth Kelly and poet Matt Walton’s collaborative works exploring themes of the  FOREST exhibition at Nottingham Castle, which presented various contemporary artist’s deep and enduring connection to British Forests, Sherwood Forest, and the legendary Major Oak. The ensemble involved the brilliant baritone Marcus Farnsworth, violinist Tamaki Higashi, violist Carmen Flores, and cellist Tim Smedley. You can listen to the new works HERE.   

Alongside fellow Ensemble 1604 (now known as Haptic) musicians Tim Cooper and Lucia Capellaro, it was really inspiring to be interviewed by Dr James Cook as part of the Artful Inquiry podcast of the Edinburgh College of Art, about how ‘early music’, live improvisation, and electroacoustic music collide in innovative new works. If you are keen to have a listen, click HERE.

Our new EP on NMC Recordings with Ensemble 1604 & Stef Conner, performing Stef’s piece, Ghost Weavers, and recorded live as part of the New Music Biennial ’25 is available on all major streaming platforms, or you can purchase it HERE. Take a listen, if you get a chance!

I am hugely honoured to be a recipient of the University of Nottingham’s prestigious Lord Dearing Award for outstanding contribution to the development of teaching and student learning. Click here to read more about the award. 

Turnstone Society presents an exciting, new programme as part of the Tage Alter Musik Medingen on 28 June. The fantastic actor, Sebastian Dunkelberg, will perform his rendition of the first German translation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and this enactment will be combined with music from Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Elizabethan consort pieces. On this occasion, the guest musicians of the group will be recorder player, Anna Fusek, and theorbo player, Gianluca Geremia.  

It will be brilliant to premiere Stef Conner’s new piece, Ghost Weavers, commissioned by The Night With for Ensemble 1604, as part of the New Music Biennial 2025. The new electroacoustic piece incorporates intriguing layers of old and new music, and reflects on the textile industry of Bradford. Our first performance will take place in Bradford itself (7 June), and later, we will repeat the piece at Southbank Centre (4 July). The first performance will be broadcast in the New Music Show of BBC Radio 3, and later in the year it will also be released on NMC Recordings. 

I’m excited to take part in a set of performances that will bring together players of Dunedin Consort and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Dunedin players will perform excerpts from Handel’s Water Music before joining forces with RSNO to premiere Neil T. Smith’s Hidden Polyphony. Catch us in Edinburgh and Glasgow on 16 and 17 May. 

I was really proud to lead NottsCollective during the year, a new student ensemble I started at the Department of Music of the University of Nottingham. Such a great pleasure to co-create and work with the students on diverse programmes that included Hindustani classical music, arrangements of 17^th– and 20^th-century Western art music prepared by group members and/or me, jazz, minimal music, US & Chinese pop, Irish folk, and a brilliant original composition written specifically for the group by one of the players!