LATE FEBRUARY …

As the month moves Marchwards, I shall regretfully though optimistically sit around the BASCA Board table for the last time as a Director (and founding co-Chairman) this week.  Music work is demanding more and more of my diary again – just like in the old days – and I am so happy to return to it as more of a full-time activity.

And what are the current projects?  Most immediate and compelling (because it is being newly created now) is THE DRUMMER BOY OF WATERLOO, for Novello & Co.  Megg and I hope to have a first draft written by the end of May.  CUCKOO ROCK is still receiving final tweaks before publication; and a new show for children to perform, based on THE OTTER’S FIRST SONG COLLECTION which I wrote with Michael Hinton, is in its early stages of preparation, again with Michael.

Then next week I also start on the long-awaited project in which a selection of my recent library tracks are being reworked as a listening album.  These are tracks commissioned by Music Sales for a sound world centred on piano, alto sax and cello with a rich collection of other keyboards, percussion, acoustic instruments and computer generated sounds.  I shall be working with John Mercer of Riverrun on this project (John will co-produce), and we hope that this will be the first of a long-running set of pieces in which I explore a new approach to instrumental singles for a series of download albums.

So very much a time of collaboration: Megg Nicol, Phil Bowen, Michael Hinton and John Mercer.  However, I also hope to be starting on a new project of my own soon, so do please stay in touch.