Gratifying how Christopher Morley finds our players have 'subtle empathy' & Sellengers Round was most interesting but, age 13, Mendelssohn wrote a tedious violin concerto in d. It was saved by energetic bowing! In contrast EUCO created a gossamer tapestry for Holst's Brook Green Suite.

A week to go before our concert in Taunton Music on the Quantocks 🎵 the early music republic. Austrian composers dominate the first half (after the great Corelli has led the way), so I think of this city.

We play two Christmas concerts next week, led by a great German, Hans Peter Hofmann. He'll make the most of seasonal and popular musical treats.

And remembering several of his pieces, including what we commissioned and featured at his excellent festival in Malta.

You might come to Spanish for music and tourism, German for familiarity and precision, French for food and film, Italian and Greek for history and culture, Chinese and Arabic for new frontiers. However you come to languages, your world will be a whole lot bigger and brighter.

Our solo players tuning up in the rehearsal at the Craxton Studio. A nice circle of friends, preparing well, as always.

It's Jan. 5 and I've just learned that I share my birthday with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in 1920, Alfred Brendel in 1931 and Maurizio Pollini in 1942. What a great line-up.

In the 1990s we provided expats once or twice a year with some much needed classical music. (Emirates Airlines allowed stopovers on their Asian routes without charge). In early 2000s we proposed to Abu Dhabi a residency. Within months a UAE Symph. Orch. existed + great venues

Elizabeth if it wasn't you putting this up I would think it's some kind of spoof! I've spent my whole working life in music and the arts and I sometimes now wonder what the point of it all was. Our culture really is running on empty.....

Bravo YCAT! Sadly the ecology is being upset as the number of concerts outside UK major cities diminishes. Young talents need work but regional promoters need help to cover costs & their fees. Look at chambermusicfund.org.uk & help fund it to sustain opportunities for them.

Fantastic news! EuropeanUnionChamberOrchestra worked a lot with the British Council over the years and indeed performed in Manila in 1991.....on one of our first Asian tours for the EU Commission. Important talks with their Ambassador (in his garden) led to good future orchestral connections.

Indeed fun, even fascinating. A conductor who we worked with in the mid-1980s would always say that 'East of Rosenheim is not the same!'.

One very positive outcome of 1990 was that wonderful East German musicians could come to play in the then ECCO. Much enthusiasm from them (and from Brussels)

I was so excited to learn German at school. It was a new code to decipher, access to a new bunch of countries to add to French, words and grammar that were closer to English (and words that made a teenage boy chuckle), the door to Dutch, Swedish and Afrikaans. #ShoutOutForGerman

Looking forward very much to Ben's recital with the wonderful Daniel Lebhardt this Friday in the Town Hall King's Lynn Festival

The last sentence of the article sums up a problem. Learning how to listen to music, for audience satisfaction, is more important than shrill participatory activities which schools and music hubs prefer because kids have fun. Rarely do they lead to serious musical understanding

Albert Birkle (1900-1986) "Passau mit Sonne", 1925

For 20 years EUCO was always in a far distant country, invited by EU Delegations for their Europe Day celebrations. Often such stirring speeches were given just before we went on stage. Then the EU Commission decided to only fund the (expensive) Youth Orchestra.....

Looks very like the wonderful buildings of England's Hanseatic town with its famous 74-year old Festival King's Lynn Festival (and an artistic director formerly well known across Europe)

Great to hear Rachel Podger live BBC Radio 3, while waiting for her performance with Brecon Baroque @klfestival on July 19. Could you back announce this?