What's New

30 April 2026

The Seven Sins of Tango

Pride, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Gluttony and Lust … in TANGO form ... Before summer projects loom, one…

5 April 2026

Re-New

Easter is perhaps my favourite time of year … not for any particular religious reason, but for what…

19 March 2026

Reinventing Opera from a Performer’s Perspective

During the production process at Mayflower Studios in Southampton, OperaUpClose asked me and soprano Ceferina Penny to sit…

16 March 2026

Video Trailer: Where There’s A Will (Gianni Schicchi)

Here’s a new video trailer for the OperaUpClose Where There’s a Will (Gianni Schicchi) production, as the tour…

12 March 2026

Dvořák Requiem in Cambridge

I’m in Cambridge all this weekend for two wonderful events – on Sunday 15th, the Gianni Schicchi tour…

5 March 2026

Gianni Schicchi (OperaUpClose)

After a month or so of hibernation, the new season is about to kick off… First up, an…

2 January 2026

No Surprises – Radiohead Reimagined

Hello and Happy New Year from the Motorway Services! We’re on our way to one of the last…

1 December 2025

Christmas At The Movies

Look! The Christmas at the Movies disc has arrived … and you should get hold of it! It’s…

14 September 2025

Walk My Way, And A Thousand Violins Begin To Play

A brand new Ella Fitzgerald show for this season, Ella & Friends, from the Concertante. Misty, one of…

10 September 2025

Where There’s A Will…

One of the projects I’m most excited about this season is taking me to a different kind of…

4 September 2025

Czardas

And suddenly … it’s September again! I have some very exciting new projects coming up this season, which…

Duo Rhosia and SHJ in the Finnish Church, London (2025)
25 August 2025

Why Cultural Exchange Is So Important

A short piece for a Scandinavian music magazine: I’ve always believed that cultural exchange is essential. The more…

7 April 2025

Winter (In Spring) In Guildford

2025, let’s be ‘avin you! (Guildford, April 2025)

31 December 2024

Korngold – Serenade for Violin – from ‘Der Schneeman’

Here is Serenade from Der Schneeman by Erich Korngold (recorded in Birmingham just before Christmas). Happy New Year!…

11 December 2024

Homeward Light

Few things in life are certain … but death, taxes and Christmas singles by Thomas Hewitt Jones are…

20 November 2024

Great Art

Before the onslaught of the Christmas season, a precious half day of study time: I’m working on Prokofiev’s…

24 October 2024

Antony Pitts: Requiem for the Time of the End – Lux Aeterna

Check out this extraordinary music. If you’re short on time, start with the last 2 minutes of the…

15 October 2024

James Bond … In Ireland!

Recently I’ve been directing some of the James Bond tour for the original Candlelight Concerts people, London Concertante.…

25 September 2024

Why Orchestra Music Will Inspire Your Children

I’m now back playing hundreds of concerts a year, and night after night I can see from the…

4 September 2024

Theme from Schindler’s List

Here’s a snippet of the gorgeous theme tune from the 1993 Steven Spielberg film, Schindler’s List. The music…

10 July 2024

High Tide 2024 – a music festival … FREE at the point of use!

One of the biggest projects I’m involved in this year is the 2024 High Tide Music Festival in…

17 June 2024

Princess Turandot Needs A Therapist

Funny how repertoire sometimes comes in batches all at once. After a week of Nessun Dorma performances as…

14 May 2024

Violin Movie Music

I’ve been working on a lot of movie music recently, for two different projects with Cambridge Philharmonic and…

4 May 2024

The Magic of Vienna – Strauss in Guildford

Grüß Gott people of Surrey, UK! Wilkommen Sie here in the lovely Viennese town of… Guildford, where the…

17 April 2024

Spring Violin!

I had so many projects happening simultaneously in late March and early April, that I completely failed to…

12 March 2024

Barnes Festival 2024

The weeks before Easter are a busy time for epic choir-and-orchestra pieces. In the past few weeks, I’ve…

27 February 2024

Shehada’s Violin

I totally forgot I’d ever recorded this testimonial! I was browsing the website of my brilliant friend Shehada…

3 February 2024

Life is Better with Safety Vamps!

Life is better with SAFETY VAMPS! It’s not often that I play in a pit band, so I’m…

23 January 2024

1.0 Lillibullero

The tune Lillibullero has been going round and round in my head for AGES! It’s such a lovely…

12 January 2024

Motorway Service Spoons!

“Head north on the M1 and I’ll tell you where to intercept the van of Djembes … tomorrow’s…

6 January 2024

🎻 Space for 2-3 new violin coaching clients in 2024 … 🎻

David and I have run a violin tuition studio in Central London for well over 10 years now,…

24 December 2023

Time for a Christmas Party?!

My recording of Thomas Hewitt Jones‘s ‘Christmas Party’ concerto with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia has just been re-released…

21 December 2023

4B or not 4B? A love letter to the 4B Pencil

There are few moments in a musician’s working day more joyous than when a freshly sharpened 4B pencil…

11 December 2023

All an artist can do today is warn.

I took this photo at Coventry Cathedral recently. The ‘new’ cathedral was built in 1962 after the old…

24 November 2023

New Music for November – a Snowman, a Sparrow, a Crazy Frog and the House of Love

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…

20 October 2023

Work In Progress – English-Scottish Thing

Very rough first draft (I haven’t worked out all the harmonies or instrumentation yet) of Bovaglie’s Plaid –…

12 October 2023

Thinking of the Middle East

I am thinking of everyone who is hurting so deeply from the awfulness in the Middle East and…

20 September 2023

New Season, New Concerts

Where did Summer go? Anyway, lots coming up including new adventures with Worthing Philharmonic, the Music Workshop Company,…

1 June 2023

Violin Classes in June

Classes Here’s some of the repertoire for this month’s violin classes, which take place on Zoom every Thursday.…

24 May 2023

Unboxing The Violin Player 1

we got surprises we got. yeah! what comes next?    

9 May 2023

Violin Player 1 & 2 in LONDON! May/June 2023

Hello!!! For the first time in many many years I’m back with a PROPER LIVE VIOLIN SHOW!!!! (London,…

4 May 2023

Music for King’s New Hat Day

A small production job helping THJ with a new arrangement of God Save The King, in preparation for the…

1 May 2023

Violin Classes in May

In this month’s violin classes, I’ll be exploring several different styles; a concerto, a quartet, some 20th century…

10 April 2023

Doves Ascending

A short improvisation, responding to the Peace Doves at Rochester Cathedral, an installation by sculptor Peter Walker, during…

6 April 2023

Violin Classes & Coaching

Since the pandemic, I’ve been running weekly Violin Classes on Zoom for ViolinSchool. I’m now opening up these…

16 March 2023

Regards from Rochester

I’m looking forward to playing in this world premiere on Saturday 18th March at 7pm. The livestream will…

23 February 2023

Showreel 2023

I’ll have a full showreel available soon. In the meantime, here are a few images of recent projects!…

21 May 2022

Edinburgh Romance

Little brother wrote very nice tune called ‘Romance’ that seemed right to play for baby brother’s wedding in…

5 December 2020

Hybrid Violin Orchestra

Our first hybrid orchestra concert, by no means the last. Innovating through necessity. Give it another 5 years…

13 July 2020

Violin Orchestra – Streets of London

Pandemic? wot pandemic? this might have been Saturday 11th July 2020, not the 13th. Either way, retrictions lifted…

2 December 2019

Session at Air Edel with Christopher White

A day in the life of an awesome composer. I love working with creative genius people like Chris…

20 March 2019

All Aboard the ViolinBoat!

Boat + River Thames + lots of violins. This was the first of several should-have-been-first-day-of-Brexit days, if I…

13 September 2018

Ode to Joy

JOY – EMPATHY – UNITY – PEACE. Simon and I spent a number of years between the signing…

16 June 2016

Learning to play the violin, in three minutes

I taught BBC World Service presenter Julian Marshall to play the violin. In three minutes...

27 February 2016

Christmas Party (THJ tinkling ivories)

We recorded this for Classic fm sometime in 2016 or 2017 after the album came out, at Holy…

5 January 2016

Vivaldi Four Seasons

A short excerpt from a live performance, probably around 2016

2 October 2015

Bruch Violin Concerto

1st movement of Bruch’s violin concerto with Lindsay Ryan and Harmony Sinfonia in South London, UK (Herne Hill…

20 December 2014

Bach in Jerusalem

Eat that, reverb machines!!!!!! A snippet of Bach someone recorded on their phone at St Anne’s Church in…

8 May 2014

Living Symphonies

I worked with James Bulley to contribute some scrapings for the fascinating Living Symphonies project, a commission by…

4 August 2012

Baaartok with Neil in Reading

19 June 2012

Piazzolla ‘Primavera’ Tango

Happily, I no longer own this shirt. Final runthrough before performing at the Barbican in London (2012)

8 February 2011

Who Is My Neighbour?

Here are many quartertones, accompanying a fairly timeless story, presented, with my implicit consent, in a very Christian…

2 April 2009

Kreisler: La Précieuse

Viennese sweetmeat + classical haircut. Recital at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester with pianist Daniel Swain.

8 April 2007

Old City

In Easter 2007, after a week spent soaking up the sounds of Old City Jerusalem for the first…

23 February 2005

The Violin Player

The original recording of ‘The Violin Player’ by THJ. The most bittersweet piece I know. Recorded at the Riverfront…

1 January 1988

Early box scraping tendencies

In the late 1980s I had my own personal assistant who would place the bow on the string…