By |

Last week I went up to Hertford, the attractive county town of Hertfordshire, to attend an inaugural concert and reception, ahead of this year’s Hertfordshire Festival of Music (HFoM) which runs from 7 to 14 June.

I have been involved in the Festival since its founding by conductor Tom Hammond (who tragically died in 2021) and composer James Francis Brown, initially in an ad hoc way by sharing details of the festival here and on my social networks, and since 2020 as the Festival’s publicist.

Now in its ninth year, the festival has grown from a weekend to a full week of concerts and related events/activities. The ethos and aims of the festival have remained largely the same – presenting world class classical music and musicians in the heart of Hertfordshire alongside education and outreach projects within the local community – and each year sees a different Principal Artist (Emma Johnson, Ben Goldscheider, Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough to name a few) and Featured Living Composer (e.g. Judith Weir, CBE, David Matthews), as well as musicians who live and/or come from Hertfordshire (flautist Emma Halnan, pianist Florian Mitrea). The concert programmes are varied and imaginative, and the range of artists is impressive. Previous performers/ensembles have included ZRI, the Rosetti Ensemble, pianists Katya Apekisheva and Charles Owen, violinists Litsa Tunnah, Mathilde Milwidsky and Chloe Hanslip, cellist Guy Johnson, and guitarist Jack Hancher.

Potential audiences (and reviewers) who live in London are often reluctant to journey too far out of the metropolis to experience live music (it was via an online discussion about this issue that I first met Tom Hammond, back in 2015), yet the ease with which one can travel to Hertfordshire was quite evident when, after having lunch with my father near Kings Cross, I took the Circle Line a few stops to Moorgate and thence a train to Hertford North station (Hertford has 2 railway stations; trains from Hertford East go to Liverpool Street). The journey was less than an hour, comfortable and pleasant, and my hotel was an easy 10-minute stroll from the station to the attractive historic centre of town. Hertford is also easily accessible by road, again less than an hour’s drive from London.

HFoM concerts take place in the town’s two main churches, St Andrew’s and All Saints, both of which are within walking distance of the town centre. Other events take place at the Hertford Quaker Meeting House (the oldest meeting house built by Friends that has remained in unbroken use since 1670), and other local venues.

If you were to make a mini break or weekend visit to Hertford, or even just a day trip, you’ll find the town has a good range of independent shops, cafes, restaurants and pubs. Ahead of the evening event, I enjoyed a stroll around the town in unexpectedly mild sunshine.

This year’s festival runs from 7 to 14 June. I can’t reveal the full programme yet but I can tell you that this year’s Festival theme, ‘Shadows to Light: Musical Journeys in Conflicts and Peace’, which celebrates the universal language of music through times of adversity and peace, and touches on the 80th anniversary of VE Day alongside contemporary global conflicts. From young musicians to established international artists, jazz music, the Hertford Community Concert Band, and even a special Festival Church Service, this year’s Festival offers something for everyone and features over 30 events across music and outreach activities, of which 50% are free, with concessions applied to ticketed events.

You can enjoy early access to Festival news by signing up to the HFoM newsletter or by following the festival on social media.

Hertfordshire Festival of Music website

Hertfordshire Festival of Music is built on the involvement, support and encouragement of Hertford and the county’s communities who help build a thriving and rich Festival for the communities HFoM wishes to serve.

The Hertford hart
Artistic Director/pianist James Francis Brown & volist Sarah-Jane Bradley

By |

Guest post by Mark Glover

In this post, euphonium player and brass teacher Mark Glover talks about something that has an impact on everyone, but especially musicians.

A friend recommended this book by John Tierney and Roy F. Baumeister to me a while ago, during a time when I was struggling a bit with my own belief and my own confidence. It definitely helped me and following my performance at The Brass in Concert Championships, it is always good to reflect and remind myself about the powers of positivity.

Euphonium power of bad bookThe Power of Bad Hits Musicians Straight After the Performance

When I came off stage, in my last performance, I had some familiar thoughts going through my head. The power of bad had control over me. A few questions, that pop up subconsciously. A focus on certain things, but nothing I am in control of. It is a weird feeling, almost like a day dream where you reflect quickly and brutally on the experience of that performance. When you speak to others, they are often doing the exact same thing! Some questions include:

“What did I do wrong?”

“What didn’t go well?”

“What did people think about me?”

“How silly did I look?”

Why is it that my mind doesn’t praise me straight away or doesn’t congratulate me on an amazing performance? Well, this is ‘The Power of Bad‘.

Sometimes, yes, things do not go our way in life or in music. We might know we have messed up and know we didn’t give our best and we have to deal with it. We have all been there and it is not a nice feeling. I normally just think about my family (who will love me regardless of anything) and also just very seriously tell myself to get back up, learn from it and move on.

However, even in those situations, it is important to reflect positively. Look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Was it really as bad as we thought?

How to Overcome The Power of Bad as a Musician?

As a musician and as a brass teacher, I often think about the idea that we get the whole picture. We feel, we think, we hear, we sense everything that is happening when we perform. But, what does the audience take from it? The audience do not feel the technical elements of playing the instrument, they never get the perspective from our point of view. As a brass player, I can internalise the sound I make. I can hear it inside and outside. This is an experience that no audience member or recording device is picking up.

As a result, we can be incredibly critical and negative towards ourselves when the actual picture being offered is viewed very differently by others. Audience members don’t focus on the bad, they want to be entertained and want to enjoy the show.

I have taught GCSE music students a lot as a teacher and students at that age are unbelievably picky with their self image and self-esteem. I have written some advice for GCSE music performance, how to score higher marks, which can be read via this link if you are interested and have the time.

‘The Power of Bad‘ elaborates on the fact that ‘bad‘ is stronger than ‘good‘, but if we know how to deal with it, we can make sure that ‘good‘ prevails. I am not going to give any spoilers for the book because it does contain some fantastic revelations and I highly recommend you read it if you want more help in this area. It is one of the best books on happiness you can find.

Use Positivity as a Musician to Overcome The Power of Bad

After my last performance, as I was driving home, I used the time to run through my own personal performance and tried hard to find as much good as possible. There were a few places in the performance where I had to play very quietly, they were all successful. There were a few places where I had to play very high, they were all successful. I had to get up and move around to sit in other places, I didn’t trip over anything or fall off the stage (I have fallen off a stage before! 🤣).

I found that this positive list would go on and on and actually it completely buried any negative thoughts that I initially had.

You have to find more good in your life, make the good / bad balance tip very strongly in the good, even if it is just from lots of small little good things. Get a grip of your thinking, steer it in a positive direction.

A few days after the performance, I had the opportunity to listen and watch the whole thing, because it had been filmed. Not one thing that I believed happened and was negative, was audible to my ears on the recording. There lies the power of bad, but my strategies from the moment I left the stage to the moment I watched the recording were positive, I overcame the bad with the good.

Grab a copy of the book and have a read; it will contribute to making you a better musician and more balanced person. It discusses other topics as well, like business, politics and psychology and is one of the best self help books I have read.

Good Preparation Beats The Power of Bad

Before the end, it is important to remember that good will not always just fall on you by chance. In order to be successful and in order to perform brilliantly as a musician, it requires belief and effort. It might be you come off stage, knowing you didn’t perform well, but also knowing that you had not worked very hard in advance. Preparation is key to success and if you want good things to happen in your life or in your performances, it is essential that you walk in the right direction. For more help with performance, check out my E-Book, The Inner Battle Between the Practice Room and the Stage.

Read more articles by Mark Glover and browse his website at markglovermusic.co.uk

By |

MOZART & MORE….

Saturday 1 June 2024, 10am-4.45pm

PERFORMER PLACES NOW SOLD OUT – PLENTY OF OBSERVER PLACES!

A one-day masterclass for advanced adult amateur pianists (Grade 8+) with pianist and pedagogue Dr Michael Low, hosted by Frances Wilson (The Cross-Eyed Pianist) at the sumptuous London showroom of Coach House Pianos

Observer tickets £15 for a full day

Book now

The event will be friendly, supportive and inspiring, and a great opportunity to enjoy top class teaching in friendly setting, plus the chance to meet other pianists. There will be plenty of time for discussion, Q&As, and relaxed ‘piano chat’.

Praised for his innovative approach and passionate insight into piano playing, Dr Michael Low’s teaching career in Asia and Africa has spanned almost a quarter of a century. As a student, Michael studied piano with Richard Frostick (the current director of the BBC World Voice Programme) before enrolling as a member of London’s prestigious Centre For Young Musician where he studied piano with the international pedagogue Graham Fitch. He obtained his Honours at Surrey University under the tutelage of Clive Williamson before completing his Masters of Music whilst studying with Nils Franke and Niel Immelman. An International Scholarship brought Michael to Cape Town where he completed his Doctorate under the supervision of South African greatest living composer, Hendrik Hofmeyr. Michael has also worked with numerous eminent teachers and pianists including, Nina Svetlanova, Frank Heneghan, James Gibb, Phillip Fowke, Renna Kellaway, Carolina Oltsmann, Florian Uhlig, Gordon Fergus Thompson, Francois du Toit and Helena van Heerden.

Frances Wilson is an advanced amateur pianist and writer under the pen-name The Cross-Eyed Pianist. Established in 2010, The Cross-Eyed Pianist blog has become “an important voice in the piano world” (Peter Donohoe, international concert pianist) and enjoys a wide global readership with c25,000 visitors to the site per month. The Cross-Eyed Pianist is now one of the UK’s leading blogs on classical music, with a special focus on pianists and the piano.

Frances is an advanced amateur pianist who returned to the piano after a gap of some 25 years, achieving Licentiate and Associate Diplomas (both with Distinction) in Piano Performance in her late 40s. She has studied with a number of acclaimed teachers, including Penelope Roskell and Graham Fitch, and participated in masterclasses, workshops and courses with, amongst others, Stephen Savage, Murray McLachlan and Charlotte Tomlinson.

A passionate advocate of amateur pianism, Fran co-founded the London Piano Meetup Group in 2013, which, 10 years, remains hugely popular with adult pianists of all abilities.

By |

I admit it, I’m a fervent auto-didact, a “self-teacher” whose answer to “how do I do that?” is to either reach for a book or more likely these days, look it up on Google or YouTube.

For me, self-teaching goes hand-in-hand with mastery as both require a willingness to stick to the task with a deep sense of purpose and intent.

Self-teaching – the process of educating oneself without the guidance of a formal teacher or instructor- is a powerful tool that can be used to acquire new skills, deepen existing knowledge, and pursue personal interests. One of the main benefits of self-teaching is that it allows for a customised learning experience. Traditional music education often follows a one-size-fits-all approach, which tends not to treat each student as an individual, with their own strengths and weaknesses. With self-teaching, you have the freedom to choose the materials, resources, and speed of progress that work best for you. This can make the learning process more engaging, effective and, importantly, interesting.

Why is self-teaching important for the musician? Self-teaching can be a great way to build self-motivation and self-discipline. When you take responsibility for your own learning, you develop a sense of ownership and pride in your achievements. This can be a powerful motivator and can lead to increased confidence and self-esteem. More importantly, self-teaching encourages creative thinking, problem-solving, and curiosity – all useful skills for the musician.

My own experience of self-teaching has been extremely positive and motivating. When I moved away from London five years ago, I left behind several very important teachers and mentors, who had supported, encouraged, and inspired me while I was studying for professional performance diplomas, having returned to the piano after an absence of nearly 25 years. Having studied with two master teachers for nearly 10 years and received mentorship from several other significant pianist-teachers, I felt ready to “go it alone” and cease piano lessons altogether. I would not have felt sufficiently confident to do this had my teachers and mentors not instilled in me a sense of trust in my own musical instincts, secure technique, and a strong awareness of my own interpretative choices and artistry as a musician. Thus, I had firm foundation on which to continue my musical studies on my own.

It may take me longer to work out certain technical issues at the piano, but the process of self-teaching encourages one to find a way through a problem, which in itself becomes a useful learning tool. I also feel liberated from the sense that there is a “right way” to play certain repertoire; interpretative choices are down to my own knowledge and appreciation of the music.

Self-teaching does come with its own set of challenges, one of the biggest being staying motivated and on track. Without the guidance of a teacher, it can be easy to lose focus or become discouraged. To overcome this challenge, it is important to set clear goals, create a practice schedule, and seek out trusted friends and colleagues who can provide feedback and encouragement.


This site is free to access and ad-free, and takes many hours to research, write, and maintain. If you find joy and value in what I do, why not

BUY ME A COFFEE