Barnes Festival 2024


The weeks before Easter are a busy time for epic choir-and-orchestra pieces. In the past few weeks, I’ve jumped in to guest lead several different orchestras and performances, including Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Saffron Hall (a lovely venue in the East of England I’ve never played at before).

Back in West London, the Barnes Music Festival is exploring the music of several local ‘legends’; intriguing musical figures who lived there, including Gustav Holst (he of The Planets - his 150 year anniversary) and Stephen Dodgson (100 year anniversary).

We opened the series last weekend with the Barnes Festival Orchestra performing Bach’s Magnificat alongside Dodgson’s intriguingly harmonically crunchy Magnificat … and there’s plenty more to explore including some of my favourite string chamber musicians.

Amongst others, Nicholas Daniel, the Kanneh-Mason Trio, the Sacconi Quartet, Madeleine Mitchell, and the Ekins Chandler Lowe Trio - three superb musicians I’ve worked with from time to time in sessions and orchestras.

So if West London is your manor, make sure to check out the festival here, it’s a good one! - BarnesMusicFestival.com

I totally forgot I'd ever recorded this testimonial! I was browsing the website of my brilliant friend Shehada Shalalda, the Palestinian luthier, and came across this video from 2018.

We'd been filming a series of concerts of Beethoven's 9th Symphony ('Ode to Joy'), which the Ramallah Orchestra was performing across Palestine.

Over the course of a decade, thanks to Ramzi Aburedwan and Al Kamandjati, the orchestra had played a symphony every year ... and in 2018, it was finally time to complete the cycle.

Shehada kindly lent me his latest violin to play for the concerts, and WOW. I've never witnessed a violin-maker improve that much in a year or two. I fell in love with the instrument straight away.

As good as my word, I eloped with the violin (I promised to sell it in Europe and signed a sales contract in Arabic that I *definitely* nearly understood) ... in fact, it's sitting here in London with me right now. Ahem.

It's been my Box Of Choice for all sorts of soundtracks in recent years, from that Ed Sheeran track to the BBC and ITV documentaries I recorded last year, and god knows what else.

Just don't tell Shehada I still have it - hopefully he won't see this blog post ... 😉

Life is better with SAFETY VAMPS!

It’s not often that I play in a pit band, so I’m enjoying the unique quirks of this format - particularly the instruction ‘safety vamp’.

Anything could happen, so you hold or repeat your notes (or rests!), hang there, and wait for the cue…!

And no that’s definitely not my music stand with the saxophone and the six nations on TV!

The tune Lillibullero has been going round and round in my head for AGES! It's such a lovely melody - allegedly written by Henry Purcell in the 1600s, but definitely first documented in the 1680s by English musician and publisher John Playford.

This is just a raw version I knocked together in a few minutes, but I think it could make a very nice string track ... if you agree, maybe I'll make it happen 🙂

There are actually lots of really great traditional English tunes from around that time. I think they often get overlooked because of the incredible strength of the Scottish and Irish fiddle traditions, but several melodies from that era that are really brilliant, IMHO.

"Head north on the M1 and I'll tell you where to intercept the van of Djembes ... tomorrow's workshop depends on it!"

I put it to you that there is no motorway, freeway or autobahn stop that is not immeasurably improved by the presence of one of the country’s most legendary Spoons players.

Jo May I salute you!

This, by the way, is why we all love working for Maria's Music Workshop Company.

Those kids don't know it yet, but this might be the spark of creative inspiration that leads them to Many Good Things.

Music education changes everything!

David and I have run a violin tuition studio in Central London for well over 10 years now, and we always find that the New Year is one of the most popular times for people to commit to new challenges on the violin.

That means it's also the most crucial moment to put in place support and accountability - to make sure that goals are reached!

We each have a couple of places available for adult learners (of any experience level), who want to take their violin playing to the next level this year. Coaching is available at the studio in Piccadilly, or online.

So if there's someone in your life who needs expert guidance to push their violin playing forwards in the coming year, then please send them to https://london.stringschool.uk/ - thank you! (or check out my Coaching page, here).

In the meantime, here's a very old video of us performing Handel-Halvorsen's Passacaglia back in 2013 at the old St James' Theatre (now The Other Palace) in London.

Needless to say we're better, wiser, and more good-looking nowadays*, but hope you enjoy it nonetheless 🎻😉

*don't believe everything you read on the internet

My recording of Thomas Hewitt Jones's 'Christmas Party' concerto with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia has just been re-released on Heritage Records as part of their ‘Child’s Christmas' disc - find it on Spotify and all major download networks.

Here's a video of the violin and piano version we made for Classic FM back in 2017!

Enjoy, and Happy Christmas to you! 🙂

**

There are few moments in a musician’s working day more joyous than when a freshly sharpened 4B pencil makes contact with a premium grade musical score.

This year, I’ve been blessed with a particularly uplifting fleet of pencils, not least this giant monster of a 4B, gifted to me by a kind orchestral colleague:


As a child, I was always told to bring a 2B pencil to rehearsals. Excellent tools, sure, for taking orders about bowings … that may later change, and require erasure and correction
🧐

But for creative exploration of ideas that can be easily erased, particularly temporary fingerings? Well, 4B is the business!

Strong enough to commit the idea, light enough to be removed without a trace when the idea turns out to be nonsense 🙃

But most of all, the sensation when one quality tool engages with another … nothing beats that pedal-to-the-metal, wheels-to-the-runway, bow-to-the-string moment of first contact, when the graphite hits the staff paper!

Pencil makers of the world, I salute you ✏️🫡🎖️🙂🎼

I took this photo at Coventry Cathedral recently.

The ‘new’ cathedral was built in 1962 after the old one was completely destroyed a little over 80 years ago.

It happened in November 1940, by the ironically-named ‘Moonlight Sonata’ Luftwaffe raid during World War 2.

Composer Benjamin Britten wrote a ‘War Requiem’, a magnificent piece of music, that was premiered here in 1962, soon after the new Cathedral was built.

In his score, Britten quoted war poet Wilfred Owen:

My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity…
All a poet can do today is warn.

The violin in the picture is by my friend Shehada Shalalda, a luthier from Palestine who has lived through too many wars, but who has transcended that pain to bring beautiful instruments like this into the world.

I snuck a moment or two to play, so that Shehada’s violin could fill the space and enjoy the acoustic. I think it liked it 🙂 🎻 🎶

It’s been a weirdly busy week for new releases of other-people’s-things-I-contributed-to.

Have a listen here:

House of Love (House of Light)

Since I joined the Berlin-based band House of Light earlier this year, they’ve released a brand-new album called 21st Century Prayer. From that album, new song House of Love:

I'm not on that recording, but at our first big London gig earlier this month, lead singer J decided to throw it in as an unexpected encore.

I won't admit here to having never played it before, but let's just say my sightreading-from-memory skillset now includes a 'restrict improv to most likely key' setting …

The House of Light is definitely a Very Interesting Thing, with a lot to say. Every time I peel back a layer of texture or meaning, I discover more. So look out for more 90s Berlinesque-ness soon.

Perhaps with a more contemporary orchestral influence, once I've channeled my inner Falco and interfered a little further with their sound 😐 ...


The Sparrow

Here’s a newly released film soundtrack I recorded with some other lovely box-scrapers last year:

It’s composed by the very excellent Christopher White, who not only designs beautiful sounds for the screen, but is also a master blower of the golden tube, arranger for Van Morrison amongst others, and a composer of Very Nice Music - check out his work here.

Here’s a bit about The Sparrow:

In Michael Kinirons’ debut feature, “The Sparrow,” a troubled teen in West Cork faces the aftermath of a tragic accident and grapples with the consequences of a well-kept secret.

Set against the backdrop of lush countryside and threatening coastal waters, Kevin Coyne, portrayed by Ollie West, navigates family dynamics and personal struggles in a captivating blend of moody cinematography, well-drawn characters, and suspense, marking Kinirons’ impressive entry into feature filmmaking.

Here's me and Chris working together at Air Edel on a previous project:


The Funny Snowman

A new Christmas track from Little Brother has emerged - tbh, I only contributed about 13 notes to this, but it’s a proper lovely feel-good nostalgic thing, with a tune that will earworm itself into your head (yes earworm is a verb – my blog, my rules).

Best served with roasted chestnuts, one too many sherries, and a Manhattan-sized portion of nostalgia-for-a-time-that-maybe-never-was.


Funny Song x Crazy Frog

Little bro again. Sorry in advance for destroying your sanity for the foreseeable future. Possibly the world’s most annoying smash hit meets possibly the world’s most annoying smash hit.

With a music video that is on first watch seems so abstractly surreal it's total nonsense, but is most probably meta-levels deeper than I've yet understood (catching missiles in mid-air and sending them back again?)

I didn’t have anything to do with this, but let's just say that one listen to the pre-release and my kids sang nothing else for the following month. WARNING: THIS WILL DRIVE YOU CRAZY

>EDIT - almost 1 million views in the first 24 hours.....<

You definitely don’t want to listen to this. Don’t click the play button.

No, don’t do it…!! Don't!!!

Oh dear, oh dear. Don't say I didn't tell you so ...............................

Simon Hewitt Jones c/o 1st Floor Studios, 41 Whitcomb Street, London, WC2H 7DT, United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)20 3051 0080, E: info@simonhewittjones.com