In a few days it will be spring, and the year is passing by with record speed. So far in 2023 I’ve been on the road almost constantly, and in many different places. Right now I’m in San Francisco where tomorrow I give the first of three recitals in the Bay Area. The past two weeks were spent in beautiful British Columbia, performing and conducting Bach Concertos with the excellent Victoria Symphony, and giving three recitals, including one in Vancouver. On this tour I will still visit Seattle, Maryland, and Ottawa. The best thing, besides giving the concerts and talking with members of the audience afterwards, is seeing so many friends after the difficult years of the pandemic.
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Summer 2022 is now over, and here we are beginning a new concert season. I was heartbroken to miss most of the 2022 Trasimeno Music Festival in Umbria due to getting covid right at that time, but at least I was able to do the final two performances and see my wonderful audience again. Bravo to all the pianists who stood in for me at such short notice! And thank you to all of you who attended from various corners of the world. You are the best!
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I haven’t written a post for ages. As I’ve said before, it all goes on Twitter and Facebook. But here I am to tell you that the 2022 Trasimeno Music Festival (our 17th festival) will take place from July 1-7th. It’s a huge amount of work to put it together, let alone play 6 concerts during the week, but I’m always so happy when we bring great musicians and artists to Umbria, together with an audience from all over the world. This year we are presenting a very full programme with a wide variety of repertoire.
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The Trasimeno Music Festival 2021 (our “mini” version) was a great joy from start to finish. Even though we were saddened not to have our usual audience from all over the world (we missed you!) it was still wonderful to be together again with so many familiar faces, and to also welcome new people to the Trasimeno family.
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Great news! We have decided to go ahead with a reduced version of the annual Trasimeno Music Festival in Umbria, Italy from July 23-26, 2021. Of course we understand that many of our regular audience members will not be able to attend this year, but it’s important not to lose contact and to keep as much live music going as possible. It would have been too sad to have cancelled it for a second year.
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…And here we still are, locked down. Never did we think this would go on so long. While island countries like Australia, who have managed the pandemic well, are able to resume concerts with audiences, here in Britain and in most of Europe and the Americas, everything is at a standstill.
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It is now eight months since that first lockdown in March of this year. I don’t think any of us imagined then that we would still be in a terrible predicament with cases on the rise again all these months later.

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Here we are four months (17 weeks) into lockdown–such as it now is in London. Actually, it hasn’t changed much for me. Yes, I was able to go to the hairdressers for the first time and can finally get a massage next week, but indoor concerts for an audience are not happening anytime yet.
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It’s been eleven weeks now since I’ve been in lockdown in my London flat. Two months since I last posted a news item here. A different experience. But touring concert pianists are used to being alone, and fortunately I’m happy in my own company.
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How the world has changed since I wrote my last post at the turn of the year.

With the virus pandemic now overtaking all of normal life, I find myself in lockdown in my London flat, where already for two weeks I’ve seen nobody other than the cashiers in the supermarket around the corner. At least here I have my Fazioli F183 (not a concert model—smaller, but still a wonderful instrument and my companion in this flat since 1999); all my professional possessions like scores, books, tax papers; and endless things to keep me occupied.
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Another very unexpected award has come my way which will be presented in June 2020: The Wigmore Hall Medal. There is no recital and chamber music hall in the world that has the wide range of programming and array of artists as does the Wigmore, and this honour means so much to me.
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It was announced last week that I shall be the 2020 recipient of the City of Leipzig Bach Medal! This is an honour that has been awarded since 2003 to somebody who has significantly promoted the music of J.S. Bach around the world. Nothing could make me happier!
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