I had a busy 10 days in the middle of March. First was a trip to the New England Conservatory in Boston, where I had sessions with 25 composers plus a concert in Jordan Hall which included Postludes with a remarkable young oboist, Kearson Erwin. The concert was conducted by my old friend, Stefan Asbury, who together with my equally old friend Michael Gandolfi looked after me while I was there. Everyone was buzzing with the news of the shocking dismissal of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s conductor, Andris Nelsons.
Next was this years’s Panufnik workshop in LSO St Luke’s featuring 8 composers-Amy Crankshaw, Elif Nur Karlıdağ, Zhenyan Li, Kit McCarthy, Marcello Palazzo and Miles Walter from the 2025/26group, with rehearsals for Laila Arafah and Yunho Jeong whose pieces were selected for main season performances after last year’s workshop. The conductor was Jack Sheen, just as efficient and authoritative as he has been for the last 3 years.
Finally 12 composers from the Royal College of Music whose short orchestral works were played in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, conducted by Graham Ross. This is such a good way for them to learn how to work with an orchestra-something which the Panufnik Scheme has expanded on. How much I would have appreciated such opportunities myself before my first scary encounter with the BBC Philharmonic (then BBC Northern) back in 1972!