Jul 21, 2025 | Features
6 January 1946 – 20 December 2024 The late and much-lamented Anthony Green was a prolific composer, fine pianist, an inspiring teacher and an indefatigable and loyal champion of the music of his contemporaries. He received piano lessons from firstly his father,...
Jun 25, 2025 | Features
Where have we come from and where are we going? Do you remember when CDs first appeared in the record shops? Did you have conversations about which was better: CD’s or Vinyl – or even cassettes? Today the discussions seem to be centred around the relative merits...
Jun 22, 2025 | Features
Jack Van Zandt looks back on the life of composer Anthony Gilbert who died two years ago July 5th marks the second anniversary of the passing of celebrated composer and longtime Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) composition professor Anthony ‘Tony’ Gilbert...
May 27, 2025 | Features
How many British opera singers have a Wetherspoons pub named after them? Not many – but here’s one I stumbled upon when cruising along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to the former silk, cotton and coal town of Leigh in Lancashire… The Thomas Burke is a rather...
Mar 28, 2025 | Features
Born in Bolton in 1903, Thomas Pitfield was an almost exact contemporary of his fellow Lancastrian, William Walton. But he enjoyed none of the remarkable luck that saw Walton translated from Oldham to Oxford, and ultimately to an island in the Bay of Naples where he...
Feb 24, 2025 | Features
‘We made music just for the joy of it’, is a quote, describing the pre-WWII music-making by my father, the British composer, arranger, editor, writer and teacher, John W. Duarte. Jazz was his favoured style, but this was soon overtaken by an interest in the classical...
