Abbey Road Session Two

Wow...... the second session of Superstorm (which I have been orchestrating) happened last night at Abbey Road, and again was a really exciting moment for me personally and professionally. Mark Sayer-Wade's score is really first-rate for this project, and matches the picture very very well, and it is such a pleasure working alongside my old RCM buddy Jon Paxman (a horribly talented man). Again we had the awsome Julian Kershaw conducting (a consumate professional whose birthday is coming up: Happy Birthday Julian!), and an orchestra filled with the world's finest players. I'm not kidding: I had a chance to look at the personnel this time, and just as an example we had on horns Richard Watkins, Mike Thompson, David Pyatt and Richard Berry, and on trumpets the legendary Maurice Murphy and the awesome John Barclay. It goes on and on... the whole orchestra was fabulous. It is a real privilege to be working with these people on this project. Roll on no 3.

I also have to start thinking about my own conducting as well, as my jazz ballet Fantine will be premiered on Saturday 24th February at the Turner Sims Concert Hall in Southampton. then the following week (alongside Superstorm episode 3 orchestrations) I'm back at Greenwich Theatre to see the performance of the ten-Minute Musical collaboration I worked on last week, Face In The Crowd, which will be showcased alongside the five other collaborations. It will be interesting to see what others have come up with. So today is a rare day off amongst all this busy-ness. It's a beautiful day outside. Think I will go for a jog....