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And just like that, my website has been revamped, rebooted, renewed and reborn by the absolutely wonderful and creative team at Piranha Designs Gibraltar!!! Check them out here:

www.piranhadesigns.com

Not only are they tremendously hard workers, they are also incredibly conscientious, imaginative and wonderful for musicians like myself who are more into Bach, Beethoven and Bartok and are clueless about what looks good on a website. I can’t recommend their work more highly.

It was very nice and relatively relaxing to sit on the other side of The Table! What a great time listening to so many talented violinists at the Singapore International Violin Competition with fellow jury members, Mauricio Fuks (my old teacher from Menuhin School whom I hadn’t seen in 28 years), Boris Kuschnir, Paul Rozcek, Sylvia Marcovici, Takashi Shimizu, David Takeno, Victor Tretyakov, Nam Yun Kim and Qian Zhou. Violin competitions are always such an interesting study in the psychology of a musician while playing under pressure. Few ever make it past the preconceived set of ideas that you must play “perfectly” in order to win a top prize. The ones who do stand head and shoulders over the masses of violinists who play invariably either too fast, too cold or without adventurous imagination. Often the wish not to “offend” the multitude of musical tastes on the jury results in a rather “safe” or should I say ‘bland’ telling of great musical stories. But truly, how can you ever succeed in not “offending” 10 different musical opinions ? Someone is bound not to like what you say as a musician. But in reality, NO ONE likes to be bored by an unconvincing and unimaginative musician. So you may as well be yourself and give your musical ideas full reign. Chances are, you’ll be too powerful to say no to, even if someone on the jury disagrees with your ideas. So just go for it, for goodness sake!

It has been a while!

I think I’m better at playing the violin than updating my website.  And now (I’m a little slow at announcing this) you may call me Professor! That’s right, since September 2017, I’m Professor of Violin at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. And yes, I’m the old- school type who carries a scowl and a stick with me to lessons.

You better believe it!;)

After much anticipation, my first collaborative CD with wonderful Belgian pianist, Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort is here! Recorded in the wonderful acoustic of the Akademiezaal in Sint Truiden, this recording presents works by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Available on Etcetera records. Out now for purchase here!