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The End Of ViolinMP3.com!

OK, this is what's happening.

It's impossible to run a website without having people to do it for you, when you have a violin to play! At least, that's the situation for me.

So from 1 February, ViolinMP3.com is - shock, horror! - going to be mothballed and archived. If you're reading this there or on my blog at http://www.courtlanemusic.com/blog/ - this is the last post. And if you're reading here...

http://www.simonhewittjones.com/

...then it's the first one!

Let's be honest, ViolinMP3.com had run its course; it wasn't getting updated often, and it was very generalized, unexceptional writing... millions of other websites do that better.

From now on, there's just one website, and it's a simple blog in my name. More music, less extraneous bits. More writing, although less about technology and more about the violin (though I'll continue to explore the 'essential questions' that ViolinMP3.com helped to identify.

RIP, ViolinMP3.com (2002 - 2007). I enjoyed working with you.

See you at http://www.simonhewittjones.com/.

[please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds! New RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/simonhewittjones ]

[http://www.courtlanemusic.com/blog/ and ViolinMP3.com will both stay online indefinitely as an archive]

And Now A Short Interlude Whilst I Reflect

I've only just taken a look at the footage from the Gardening Club. Raw(!), but the beginning of an answer I think. Or at least the next stage of questions ;)

I'll get a snippet of it on here soon.

For now, I'm going to take a little time out to reflect on the Virtuoso Violin Tour, build up some repertoire for concerts later in the year, and start working out how best to move forward (I have a month's break from performing anyway, so I'm going to expand London Violin Studio - enquiries welcome!). But I think there are some fundamental changes underway, and the subjects of environment, repertoire genre programming, new music, juxtapositions of type of music (e.g. virtuoso to sonata ratio) without seeming boring, are all part of it.

One thing I won't be doing for now though is any more adminstration. If I don't reply to any emails for several months (or possibly forever) it's because I'm practicing ;) . There are so many exciting possibilities now, but I can't do it all on my own, because I have a violin to take to the next level. Agents and/or administrators over to you!

Another thing I might do is move this blog over to wordpress, and perhaps make some swingeing changes to ViolinMP3.com. We shall see.

May I close with one more thank you for the amazing generosity of those who supported us in the last month or two. It would have been even tougher without your help. I (& we) will be back, bigger, better, more refined, soon.

See you in a month or so.

Yourspace Maybe. But Not Myspace

Myspace is supposedly the pinnacle of music social networking sites. Well, if you're wondering why my myspace page is over six months out of date then you should know that despite multiple emails to myspace explaining that my email address has expired, I have received nothing but identical copied-and-pasted standard replies (each taking nearly two weeks to arrive) telling me to reset my password using the email address... that I had already explained wasn't working. No sign of them actually reading my correspondence in the near future then...

I recognize the currency of Myspace at this moment in time, but in the longterm, I have yet to be convinced that it will in the future be relevant - particularly if they continue to treat professional musicians with the attitude they've shown towards me. If I ever regain access to my account, I intend to redirect it to my own website, and then forget about it for good.

There are good things out there though. I have since the beginning of our winter tour last month been addicted to a recording of Bloch's Prayer by cellist Olly Coates & others (accordion?).

http://www.myspace.com/olivercoates

It just so happens he's sharing a concert platform with me in London on Thursday. You have reserved tickets, haven't you?

Credit Where Credit's Due

I'm reeeeeally excited about the Gardening Club concert on 4 January.

Basically, because I know it's going to be great fun. We know and love the repertoire, the venue is just amazing, and everyone will be slightly out of their comfort zone, because nothing quite like this has been done before.

Having said that, I'd like to acknowledge a couple of people (who I don't know), whose ideas have inspired me. The way we're doing this may be new, but the concept behind it isn't.

The first is Matt Haimovitz, the American cellist. I don't know why he's not better known over here, but you can find most of his recorded work on the download networks and he's amazing. He's been doing 'indie-style' for years what most independent classical artists only dreamt of in the pre-download era, and Bach in a nightclub is probably second nature to him. Respect!

The second is Matt Fretton, who I also don't know and have never met, who is I think some kind of concert promoter here in London. He started the whole This Isn't For You thing, and I went to one, and it was fantastic. When you see an idea that's amazing, you want it to become mainstream, and if imitation is indeed sincere, I hope I'm being flattering. I also hope that I'm not the only 'Young British Musician' to be following his example. Formal evening recitals have their place and always will do, but so long as they remain the benchmark for classical performance then the genre is still at risk of stagnation, I think.

So often, the most incredible ideas are the ones that just pop into your head when you're doing something completely mundane. It's nice to combine the unknown-ness of those ideas with the security of a proven concept. Then at least it's interesting, even when it doesn't work.

Same goes for musical interpretation.

Thank You! ... And Another E String Bites The Dust

Why thank you? Thank you to you all for the amazing responses that we received on the tour, both at the concerts and by email, and thank you to everyone at the venues, the places that hosted us, that helped to promote the concerts, and of course for the invitations to return! And thank you to David and Kodo for being such amazing people and musicians.

The past few weeks have been without a doubt one of the most intense and exciting experiences of the whole violinmp3 'thing' so far, though they've been so busy that I've not even had a moment to post to the blog. We've two more performances to go, then hopefully 'Romance for Violin' will be out as a digital single in time for the New Year (rumour has it that it'll be on iTunes within a few days now). My brother and I are working on a live version which we'll premiere at the Gardening Club in London on 4 Jan (tickets here).

I've been through about 6 E Strings on this tour already (!!) and so it wasn't much of a surprise when another one snapped last night too. Next time, I'll try and improvise in the correct key... Listen for my desperate scrabbling up the wrong strings after [00:31] ! Ugh!

One Of My Many Skills