Good things

OK - I can finally share with you this great news: I have been awarded an £8,000 Pyramid Award by Deutsche Bank, to turn the Hesse Ensemble and Violin-MP3.com into something really good. They'll also be appointing me a mentor from the bank to assist with the development (who, ironically, turns out to be a distant relation of David's teacher, Lydia Mordkovich!). We'll announce the news more widely later in the year to coincide with the Hesse Ensemble's debut concert at the Academy (25th October), but you read it here first!

In other news, there's a new header at the top of the site with a violin on it, which replaces the panel of red. Makes sense to me. New logo to follow as well, next month probably.

Much interesting reading is being uploaded for you in the forthcoming week or two, including 'interviews' with many long-dead artists such as Ysaye and Heifetz. This is all courtesy of Frederick Martens, a 19th/20th century writer who notated many interesting encounters between himself and these artists at the beginning of the 20th century. That will all be onsite shortly.

By the way, for all our Scottish readers: if you're in Edinburgh this weekend, drop in to Greyfriars Kirk on Saturday evening for thebluecello, an evening of 'accessible' new music... including the premiere of an electric cello concerto by my brother Thomas, and new music from Howard Goodall, composer of the Vicar of Dibley and Blackadder theme tunes (amongst many other things!). Tickets are nearly sold out, so be quick.