The image of the rose and nightingale is deeply intertwined with Russia’s cultural identity. Look only to Russian fine art in the nineteenth century, and the nightingale, or those gathering to admire it, appears as an inseparable part of the epoch’s complex narrative of identity. It is, of course, a borrowed and appropriated inspiration. Neither the heady fragrance of the rose, nor this unassuming brown little bird are natives of Russia - especially not its cultural melting-p

Turning off onto the embankment of the Fontanka the hubbub of Saint Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt almost immediately melts away. In that pocket of calm stands the majestic Sheremetev Palace where I would be making my own Saint Petersburg debut in a recital of Sergei Rachmaninov's songs with two superb Mariinsky Soloists, Ekaterina Shimanovich and Natalia Evstafieva. Walking into the concert hall nothing can prepare you for the resplendent mirrored walls and glistening crystal

Mikhail Lermontov was perhaps the most esteemed Russian Romantic poet of the Golden Age after Alexander Pushkin's death in 1837. Sometimes referred to as the 'poet of the Caucasus', Lermontov was actually of Scottish descent. He is considered by many to be the founder of Russian psychological realism. The exotic touch and complex psychological dramas of his poetry have proved a magnet for composers. The fusion of fairytale and psychological or emotional realism was the ter

An afternoon personal guided-excursion of the city to calm the nerves and help settle the mind from yesterday's day of masterclasses; a hearty Russian soup and dumplings to shake off Saint Petersburg’s chilling wind; and a rehearsal followed by Russian pastries and tangy green apples to keep energy levels up – it can only mean one thing... In a few hours Guildhall School musicians Alexandria, Emelia, Ugne, Jonathan and Liam would be making their Russian #debut! R to L: Jonath

No cultural exchange is complete without a good get-together for some direct and honest conversations. This is why when planning for this huge project as part of the British Council's official programme of Year of Music UK-Russia began a year ago today, Dr Lidia Ader (Senior Researcher at the State Rimsky-Korsakov Museum in Saint Petersburg) and myself were keen to provide a platform for musicologists, cultural historians, performers, composers and pedagogues to share experi

Have you ever thought you were being ‘helpful’ only to find that your meddling was… unhelpful? This blog post is a bit of a fly-on-the-wall moment looking at this. In it you can have a glimpse of the kind of work I've been putting in behind the scenes with the Guildhall School students as part of the Year of Music UK-Russia project ‘A Voice between Nations’. As musicians we often like to think of ourselves as that helpful link between a composer’s ‘idea’ or concept, and the

Words are pretty important. The English adage – ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ – sums up their power in much the same way as Soviet-Russian writers were considered ‘engineers of the soul.’ Is not the Russian adage – ‘a word is not a sparrow, if it flies away it cannot be caught’ – uttered to calm a raging refusal on the tip of one’s tongue, the slightly more impulsive equivalent of the quintessentially English ‘can I think about it?’ Being bilingual from an early age

In just a few days I'll be travelling to Russia to perform as a soloist, with some wonderful colleagues... and with reinforcements! Back in 2019 I had blissfully filtered out of my mind how terrifying it might be for someone who has never spoken a word of Russian to brave Cyrillic and sing Russian to the Russians... Yet, rumour has it that when the Guildhall School of Music & Drama announced that it would go along with my somewhat insane optimism, the list of fearless volunte