If you haven’t yet discovered the delightful gem that is the 1901 Arts Club, now is the time to do so….
7 Star Arts present a trio of concerts at the 1901 Arts Club this autumn featuring leading musicians, including pianist Viv McLean and up-and-coming soprano Sofia Kirwan-Baez, in a range of imaginative programmes of music from Nadia Boulanger to George Gershwin and Benjamin Britten – and much more besides. These concerts are in support of English National Opera’s Benevolent Fund
Housed in a converted schoolmaster’s house a stone’s throw from Waterloo Station, the 1901 Arts Club is an intimate, convivial chamber music venue whose ethos, ambiance and decor is inspired by Europe’s ninteenth-century Salon culture. It’s the perfect place to enjoy music with friends, and it boasts an elegant upstairs bar for pre- and post-concert socialising. And at these concerts with 7 Star Arts, you’ll have the chance to meet the artists as well.
Tuesday 24 September HIDDEN GEMS OF FRENCH SONG with Sofia Kirwan-Baez
Hotfoot from her recent appearance at Longborough Festival Opera, soprano, pianist and songwriter Sofia Kirwan-Baez takes you on a journey through French song, from Nadia and Lilli Boulanger to Edith Piaf and Barbara. Plus a few surprises along the way…
Wednesday 4 December CLASSIC GERSHWIN with VIV McLEAN piano & SUSAN PORRETT narrator
7 Star Arts most popular words and music production makes its 1901 Arts Club debut. This “glorious celebration of Gershwin’s life and music” weaves the vibrant music of the ever-popular composer with his fascinating life story from birth in the colourful, teeming New York of 1898 to his tragically early death in 1937. Programme includes Gershwin favourites The Man I love and Rhapsody in Blue as well as lesser-known works.
This interesting new release from British pianist Duncan Honeybourne, with British-American violinist Leora Cohen, introduces the hitherto little-known music of Jessy Reason, known somewhat cryptically during her lifetime as “J. L. Reason”.
A long-forgotten, enigmatic figure, Jessy Lilian Reason, née Wolton, was born in London in 1878, the daughter of a wealthy hop merchant. In 1902, in Cornwall, she married a gentleman of private means twenty years her senior, with whom she settled firstly in Devon and later in Tonbridge, Kent. In the late 1920s the couple made a final move, to Reading, where Jessy died in 1938.
In May 1992 a writer called Alan Poulton discovered a large stack of handwritten music manuscripts in a second-hand bookshop. He purchased the collection and during the 2020 Covid lockdown, now retired and with time on his hands, he set about exploring and cataloguing the manuscripts, and researching the life of the woman who had composed 70 handwritten works in the early decades of the twentieth century. The paperwork accompanying the collection reveals that Mrs Reason studied composition with the renowned composer and conductor Eugene Goossens; she was then in her mid-40s, her tutor some 15 years younger. How much of Reason’s music was performed during her lifetime remains unclear: all that has come to light so far is a performance of a single song at London’s Wigmore Hall and a song cycle given at a minor concert in West London, all in the early 1920s. (The current catalogue of Reason’s music, compiled by Alan Poulton, can be found on the British Music Society website.
Pianist Duncan Honeybourne is a passionate advocate for lesser-known and rarely-performed music, and this new release by Prima Facie Records reflects his unerring ability to unearth really fine music and bring it to a wider audience by recording and performing it (see also his release, also on the Prima Facie label, of piano music by William Baines). On this recording he is joined by young British-American violinist Leora Cohen. She brings a wonderful range of colours and nuance to the Three Poems for Violin and Piano, matching Honeybourne’s playing with a remarkable sure-footedness, sensitivity and musical maturity.
This disc presents Jessy Reason’s entire output for solo piano, together with the Three Poems, and as such is a wonderful introduction to Reason’s writing. She was clearly a highly-skilled yet largely self-taught composer and musician (her writing for piano reveals an intimate knowledge of the geography of the keyboard): in his biography of his mother, Richard Reason describes her as “an ardent musician, with a fiery style of violin-playing . . .teaching herself the whole technique of writing for full orchestra”. Her scores, some of which I have seen, thanks to Duncan Honeybourne, are elegantly crafted and neatly laid out.
Leora CohenDuncan Honeybourne
By turns richly romantic, impressionistic, darkly lyrical, sensuous and harmonically complex, there are hints of late Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, even early Messiaen in Reason’s sophisticated, inventive music. This inspiring legacy of work is brought vividly to life by Duncan Honeybourne on a piano contemporaneous with the music, a 1922 Bösendorfer.
Piano and Chamber Music by Jessy Reason
Duncan Honeybourne (piano) with Leora Cohen (violin)
Following one of those wonderfully serendipitous encounters on the internet, I am delighted to present “Notes from the Keyboard”, a series of articles for adult amateur pianists, by Dakota Gale, chronicling his own experiences of learning the piano as an adult.
Four years ago, my wife surprised me with a digital piano for my birthday. I’d mentioned my desire to learn a few times and, ever the muse, she called my bluff.
I couldn’t read music. Finding middle C was a quest. I was a B-E-G-I-N-N-E-R.
And yet…she was right. At 38 years old, I tumbled rapturously into the world of piano.
Four years later, the honeymoon phase is over, and yet I remain motivated to play every day and am still loving the journey. (<–understatement: I’m head-over-heels for it.)
I even do stuff like learning to do portraits by drawing musicians! (My wife tells me that’s eccentric…)
I’m playing pieces by Chopin, Debussy, Beethoven, Liszt, and other famous composers that I thought were a decade off. Even facing the inevitable frustrations of piano study, I’m finding joy in piano every.single.day.
Learning piano transcends fun – I feel like I’ve unearthed a gift, a path to access some of the most beautiful music ever written. Accessing the pieces revealed a fountain of satisfaction that isn’t tied to money or achievement, a much-needed oasis of play as an adult.
In fact, I’ll often drop into a flow state for 30 minutes and be surprised when my timer goes off. Where else do we get that feeling once we’re done playing with Legos or mud pies?
You, mega-savvy adult reader, can do it too!
Adults CAN learn to play piano
I share my achievements not to brag (many pianists young and old far outshine my abilities), but to offer hope to adult learners. If you’re telling yourself, “Oh, I could never learn to play” or “I’m not musical” or “only kids can learn piano,” let me persuade you otherwise.
I’m shocked how many people tell me only children can learn. Well, kids are “naturals” at learning because:
They don’t over-complicate things, focusing on foundational blocks that are small and approachable. (Be it music, language, or other skills.)
Kids are able to practice more undistracted hours because an adult provides housing, food, and does their laundry. Their job is to be curious sponges; our Adult Role is often yawn-tastic Tuesdays, repeated.
Adults lack those luxuries. We put pressure on ourselves, try to play songs that are too hard for us, question if the time investment is worth it, and simply don’t have as much time to practice.
I’m an adult. (It snuck up on me.) On top of all the typical adult stuff, I have far too many hobbies. Sometimes friends do annoying things like interrupt my piano reverie to invite me to dinner or on bike rides. *sigh* The inconsiderate louts, I must practice!
And yet by carving out time each day to study piano, in a few months I reached a deeply satisfying level of proficiency that kept me coming back. After four years, I’m frankly astonished sometimes at what my fingers can do.
As a bonus, it’s beautiful for people to listen to (or so they pretend). A skill I’ll enjoy and develop for a lifetime, long after I’m done taking irresponsible risks on my mountain bike.
Beyond that, I’m fired up! I look forward to enjoying creating music the rest of my life and only wish I’d started earlier.
Dear reader, welcome to “Notes from the Keyboard: Adult Piano Chronicles” on The Cross-Eyed Pianist. This will be an ongoing series about my journey learning piano as an adult. I’ll share my journey (ups and downs!) and headaches with pieces and how I resolve them. I promise to absolutely not take myself too seriously—after all this is a hobby, not a vocation.
If you have ideas for topics you’d like to hear about from a dedicated amateur student of classical piano such as myself, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m looking forward to sharing this journey with you!
Dakota Gale
When he isn’t playing piano, Dakota Gale enjoys learning languages (especially Italian) and drawing. He also writes about reclaiming creativity as an adult and ditching tired personal paradigms in his newsletter, Traipsing About. He can often be spotted camping and exploring mountain bike trails around the Pacific Northwest.
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
British composer and multi-faceted musician Matt Dibble died tragically in 2021 at the age of 40 from complications following the AstraZeneca covid vaccination. His untimely death left a void in the classical, jazz and pop worlds: he was a musician of great breadth, versatility, talent and innovation, and his 24 Preludes & Fugues, released posthumously, are a testament to this, blending neo-Baroque, jazz, easy listening pop, klezmer and folk music, and modernist influences into a deeply personal collection created over six years.
Only a handful of close friends knew of the ‘Preludes and Fugues’, which Matt began in 2015 and composed very privately, completing the set within mere weeks of his passing. Such was his devotion to this project that, when he first went to hospital, he told those with him where the compositions could be found, should anything happen to him. With the secrecy and longevity of the project, and the incredible timing of its completion, the story behind this music is akin to a romantic tragedy.
The Cross-Eyed Pianist is free to access and ad-free, and takes many hours every month to research, write, and maintain.
If you find joy and value in what I do, please consider making a donation to support the continuance of the site
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