http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog The Violin Blog Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:13:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Palestinian Resistance: A Short History 1948 - throw rocks 1967 - fire guns 1987 - shoot missiles 2000 - detonate suicide bombs 2003 - start a viola ensemble http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/10/06/tasteless-viola-joke/ Whilst in Boston, I’m staying with my Artistic Director from Al Kamandjati Camerata, Peter Sulski. He’s an ex-London Symphony violist (now a collaborative chamber musician) who is engaged in creating new community-based models for bringing international-quality music performances to specific areas. In his case, that’s three places: chamber ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/10/02/creating-community-cultures/ Most people don’t seem to know how to use New York properly. Almost everyone I meet here seems to fall into one of two categories: either they’re engaged in that cliched daily material-struggle, desperately trying to live up to what they think the city demands them to be. Or, ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/09/30/how-to-use-new-york/ Did you ever read any of my old blog posts? See the first few paragraphs of this one: http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/11/15/creative-tension-in-free-markets-long-post/ OK some of it is perhaps pretentious waffle. But have you seen the stock market indices of the last few weeks... are they not the most perfectly thrilling structures, full of ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/09/28/a-lehmann-symphony/ Writing this from the library of the Juilliard School, who seem to have their own Conservatory Penguin. Nice. I'm in New York briefly, to lay down the groundwork for some future projects, and then I'm relocating straight away to Berlin. I've been very fortunate to gain the support of the ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/09/25/new-beginnings/ Some big concerts in 2009. Hope to see you at one of them! Details here. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/09/12/new-concert-dates-for-2009/ http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/09/02/walton-canzonetta-video/ The most boring of problems... a connection failure with the server (don't ask me what that means). Anyway, sorry if you didn't get the webcast. But we did tape it, so highlights may/will follow. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/08/28/thwarted/ As I begin working towards bringing you a constant stream of live performances and videos, I'm going to test-webcast a couple of concerts, including a trial broadcast tonight which should be watchable via the internet TV thing on this page. No guarantees - this is purely a test, so there may be ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/08/28/webcast-today-kenneth-leighton/ I stopped blogging when I was in Palestine, and that was over a month ago. I will start again soon. In the meantime, I'm delighted to announce that the Imogen Holst CDs will be released very soon, but early copies are now AVAILABLE (yes! really!) so if you'd like to be ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/08/05/hello-3/ We played a concert in the Centre for Jerusalem Studies in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem. The venue itself was a derelict spa awaiting restoration, and a beautiful underground space (if horrendously dusty!). The centre staff decorated the hall with candles and some kind of incense. A ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/24/concert-in-jerusalem/ In Ramallah now, it's so easy to forget that you're in a conflict zone, because during the day everything is so vibrant and normal-looking. But take a step outside the city and you can run into trouble. It's early Sunday morning here, and our (American) artistic director just came into the ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/22/dont-go-jogging-in-ramallah/ The educational structures and musical experiences that are being instigated in the West Bank by Al Kamandjati, Barenboim-Said Foundation, National Conservatory etc. [and indeed in other countries by other organizations and individuals] are, when done right - and things aren't always yet done right - the most direct mechanisms for ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/21/why-musical-culture-matters/ I didn't do any teaching beyond the occasional masterclass during the last few times I was here. But this time, I volunteered to teach for a couple of afternoons. It took me at least half an hour with the first student to realize that calling the strings 'G, D, A, and ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/20/arabic-violin-lessons/ There's something in the air. Ramallah is much more awake than it was a year ago. It's very subtle, but it's noticeable. Leisure facilities are open that weren't before. Trading is fractionally busier. New restaurants have opened up. Prices are higher (though fuel counts for a lot of that). The ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/19/reawakening/ Back in Ramallah for some concerts, & also some teaching this time which is interesting. Concerts in Ramallah / Jerusalem on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Nice to see they're laying down arms for a bit. Hopefully that means that some of the 1million Gazans will have at least something to eat/cook/fuel/treat ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/17/im-in-palestine/ For all of you who've been waiting for the Imogen Holst String Chamber Music disc - perhaps the most jinxed project I've ever been involved with (not least because of my own inexperience) - it is ALMOST here. Just don't ask me to pin a date on it :). We're ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/09/imos-nearly-here/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZJR-XlUT4 I believe this is actually a recording of me playing when I was very young, though I don't remember who the pianist is or where or when it was recorded. How it has turned up on some weird animation mashup beats me. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/06/07/what-the/ I was amused by this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7400109.stm Wine can affect the way music is played too. I was talking to someone the other day actually, about an event, and I had to explain that I was attending in a 'professional capacity'. They didn't seem to understand what it meant, so I defined it as ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/05/14/music-and-wine/ Once upon a time there was a boy who really liked buses. He really, really liked buses. He loved the way they turned. He loved the way they parked. He loved the way they moved gracefully in the hands of the right driver. As soon as the boy was old enough, he ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/05/05/once-upon-a-time/ My brother recently returned from a fascinating month-long trip to Los Angeles, where he assisted composer David Buckley on post-production of the forthcoming Jackie Chan film, The Forbidden Kingdom. Whilst there, he also contributed to Town Creek, a horror film that's set to appear sometime between now and Halloween. There was a ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/28/jackie-chan-the-forbidden-kingdom/ Some Thoughts The old guard is competitive. The new order is collaborative. Sure, it's a vast generalization, but it is often true. The fusty old professorcrank passes on his trade secrets to his favoured students. His folly? Scarcity = value. Back then, maybe. Not now. The real truth about his 'secret method' of creating ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/26/open-source-culture/ Tommy was working on Imo next door during a Virtuoso Violin rehearsal, and 30 minutes later what do you know, but he's written a full 'News Theme' jingle for us to play! [audio:http://www.simonhewittjones.com/mp3s/VV-news.MP3] Anyone want to licence it out for your Radio or TV station? Get a bit of VV on your ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/24/virtuoso-violin-tv-news-theme/ In many of London's beautiful little churches, great traditions go on. I played Mozart's Mass in D today in the tiny minstrel's gallery of a church in Central London where as a special treat, the full baroque mass was being served, complete with all the trimmings of violins, trumpets and ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/23/easter-music/ Simon: What are you going to play for me today? Student: I've brought Massenet's Medication. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/22/misunderstandings/ I've a new role: Artistic Director of Music And The City. It starts on 17 April in London, and you're invited! MATC is a musical evening for amateur and professional musicians, inspired by the salon culture of 1920s Vienna. Think of it as a musical meeting point; an opportunity to explore, ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/20/music-and-the-city/ A nice thought from Neil: We only alter the frame when it presents the picture in a better light. Otherwise it's just a distraction. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/18/when-do-we-alter-the-picture-frame/ Forget this violin-playing malarkey, this has to be the proudest moment of my life to date: I have created a completely original viola joke! Q: Why don't violists make good policemen (or women)? A: They can't stay on the beat! :) http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/16/why-dont-viola-players-make-good-policemen/ I should have done this ages ago. The schedule is finally updated for the Spring ... do take a look here to see all the new concert listings. http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/13/lots-of-new-concerts/ I've just realised that the deadline for this was Monday and I never posted it on the blog before now. Oh well. I hope you knew about it already if you wanted to enter :) But don't worry, if you've missed this opportunity but would still like to write something for ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/11/call-for-compositions-oops-i-seem-to-have-missed-the-deadline/ However routine and normal and environmentally damaging air travel becomes, it will never lose its magic for two reasons. Firstly, for every second of the journey, your life is in someone else's hands. But secondly, you cannot help but realize how small and meaningless you are. It's so ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/10/view-from-a-plane/ It's often argued that our multimedia world is a recipe for mass Attention Deficit Disorder, and this is frequently depicted as a bad thing. But in fact there is a valid place for multiple streams of information, beside those that provide an opportunity to focus on one single thing for an ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/08/concentration-long-post/ I'd be surprised if you'd not already come across this, seeing how many views it has had on YouTube... httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmjGDBWZZFw Extreme he may be, but the new mainstreams often start life on the fringe of what's normal, and work their way in. If you think closely about what Gilles Apap does, you ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/06/iconoclast-or-prophet/ I mentioned, before my last blogbreak, that I would try and catch some of the Barenboim Beethoven Cycle in London. Sadly for me, it was sold out so quickly that I just couldn't get in. I did manage to get to most of the talks that Barenboim gave, however. (If the ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/04/everything-is-connected/ Bach's face has apparently been reconstructed digitally by experts with access to his bones. The result was nothing like the well-known portraits of old: How does that affect your preconception of Bach? So famous are the painted images of the composer, that many of us think of an austere man in ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/02/whats-in-a-face/ This is astonishing. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyPAIpXm-nU So, if a Robot could create an emotional response in a listener, regardless of whether it is experiencing emotion itself (which it isn't, because it's a robot), would that make it a musician? http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/01/robot-playing-violin/ Hello again :) http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/03/01/im-back/ In case you're wondering where I've got to, I'll be back before March, but until then my blog will snooze. I'm working on a large number of projects (Court Lane Music has finally moved out of three years of development and there's loads of new repertoire and groundwork to prepare). ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2008/01/30/hello-2/ . Photo: Rebecca Shannon http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/29/fatal-error-please-restart/ If you've enjoyed my blog posts from the holy land, please 'stay tuned', because there's plenty more where they came from. Although I won't be coming back to the region until later in 2008, there are many tangentally related things to explore, starting immediately after the New Year. So please, ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/28/middle-east-travelblog-to-be-contined/ Time always flies on these trips, and it's impossible to get done everything you'd like to do. One of the themes I wanted to explore was the difference between Western and Arabic music, particularly from the point of view that Arabic music tends to be written in a more emotional ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/27/parting-thoughts-music-and-the-middle-east-2/ . http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/26/its-just-a-fence/ In London, they've banned bottles of water at airport security for ages now - for sensible reasons perhaps, but reasons that logically and logistically are completely disproportionate to the level of the threat posed. To my knowledge, no other country does this. Even in Tel Aviv, they weren't very bothered ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/25/tel-aviv-airport-a-fun-place-to-spend-an-afternoon/ We joined Nabeel Abboud Ashkar and his students in Nazareth for our final concert. These young Arab-Israeli / Palestinian students are fantastic musicians and, without flattering them too much (for they read this blog!), I've no doubt that the future of music here is in safe hands if there are ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/24/nazareth-never-lose-the-art-of-asking-why/ Visiting the Taybeh brewery brought home how political most things are, and that especially in a place like Palestine, a simple business (like theirs) or cultural program (like ours) can take on many subtle meanings. However, the most basic point is that by simply doing something, there's a kind of ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/23/the-politics-of-everything/ Our next concert was in Taybeh, the only remaining Christian town in Palestine, and the home of Taybeh Beer, the only independent Palestinian brand of beer currently on the market. We were given a guided tour of the brewery (drinking before a concert? eh?!) by David Khoury, the mayor of Taybeh, ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/22/taybeh-beer/ I stepped out of the taxi and into a pool of blood. To my right, a butcher was hacking away at an animal corpse that was hanging above the pavement. Opposite, foul-smelling crates of offal cluttered up the roadside, and a herd of goats munched forlornly as they waited, unknowingly, ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/21/eid/ Blair in Bethlehem Tony Blair was in Bethlehem earlier this week, supposedly as a tourist. "Bethlehem is safe" was his message. And he's absolutely right - at the present time, there is nothing the ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/20/blairthlehem-this-is-a-good-place-to-visit/ I was pleased to go to Jericho, and although we had little time to see the town, the uninhabited desertscape between Ramallah and Jericho is a sight to behold. The difference between the desert and the town (an oasis of underground springs, evidenced by the Palm trees and greenery all ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/19/concert-in-jericho/ Adrian Boult Apocryphally, Sir Adrian Boult was taken to the Palestine of old by those in charge of the British mandate, back in the middle of the last century. He was really quite enamoured ... http://www.simonhewittjones.com/blog/2007/12/18/beecham-on-boult-in-palestine/