The Great Northern Piano Session VII
July 1, 2022My Personal Experience as an Audience Member I was at Gosforth Civic Theatre this evening for the 7th in the series of Great Northern Piano Sessions, run by Steve Luck as part of his Atmospherica composer concert series. An audience of around 60 was treated to 3 sets of contemporary piano music, presented by 3 independent composers with very distinct musical styles. As Steve reminded us (the audience) this evening, we really “make” the music ourselves because we receive the “vibrating air molecules” aurally and our brains interpret what we hear. In that spirit, I’m writing this short piece to…
Retiring in the UK in the 21st Century
For some people today, retirement has changed beyond recognition when compared to retirement 50 years ago. In this article, I aim to explore some of the underlying factors affecting retirement today and to explain some of the ways in which…
Christopher Paul Berrie (1956-2022)
My 4 brothers and I all went, at some stage in our schooling, to the Perse School in Cambridge. When my eldest brother David died, my immediate older brother Chris wrote a brief obituary that was published in the Old…
BOOK RECOMMENDATION: You Are Not A Fraud
If I’m honest about it, although I didn’t have a label for it until recently, I’ve experienced #impostersyndrome my whole life. In my childhood, painfully in my adolescence and in all the jobs I’ve done, I’ve always considered myself to be “not…
Truth to Power
I sing with a local community group called Sing United. One of our key characteristics is that we sing “songs with meaning”. Each concert is dedicated to a local cause and the songs are grouped around a central theme that…
What advice would you give your 20 year old self?
With the benefit of 20-20 hindsight and 41 years more experience, I would tell my 20 year old self … To stop worrying so much about what other people think and what they think I should or should not do…
Were your parents happy?
QUICK BIT OF BACKGROUND: On my 60th birthday last year, my wife bought me a subscription to Storyworth. The basic idea is that I receive an email every week, asking me a question about my life and I write an…
Retirement Blues
I’m wondering if this is just me. This post is about my experience of two years of retirement. Let me explain. Just over two years ago, i retired from full time work. I dedicated some of my time to my…
Happy Memories!
From January 2005 to December 2019, I sang under the musical leadership of Gary Griffiths, initially with Sing Live and from 2009 with Inspiration. I hadn’t sung since school but I quickly discovered how much I enjoyed choral singing. While…
Back to School
Today is Anjanette’s 1st day working full time in the job she secured shortly before the school broke up for summer. So my new routine kicks in today as well which, roughly speaking, will be: 08:00 – Deliver Anjanette to…
Papay Final Day. Holland Museum.
Yesterday I took mum to visit the tiny museum at Holland Farm. It’s always open and you can enter and look around anytime. The museum is set in an old stone building and it houses an assortment of old farm…