Dear Thorpe Magazine Readers – 2018 is quickly evaporating as we approach yet another C…..mas – (can’t quite bring myself to spell it out yet!!), and I have to admit to missing scribing for your mag over the past few months – so here I am with you again, to see the year out! This […]
Welcome dear readers to the emergence of Spring! Already this year we have borne witness to the passing of two eminent people, one a comedian and the other a scientist – both very necessary in our troubled world….and we’ve had the joy of the winter Olympics too. I have felt incredibly inspired by the life […]
Dear readers…..I’m hoping that as you read these words which have been penned in early November, that our first St Cecilia Festival has been a resounding success…with pots of money raised for St Michael’s Church and for “Help Musicians UK” (HMUK). I also hope that my speech at the HMUK St Cecilia Festival at Westminster […]
It’s amazing what can be crammed into a short period of time called summer….what with gigs, workshops, teaching and brain stimulating travel…including a (thankfully flat) bicycle trip up the west coast of Holland too! However, throughout all this nurturing and refreshing revelry, the emergent thought of a celebratory concert in Thorpe that I shared with […]
My life seems to be full of uncertainty and distress at the moment, making everything appear topsy-turvy and nonsensical. One of my best friends recently succumbed to cancer…..and too soon after this tragedy I found myself supporting another dear friend at her husband’s funeral. Both people were wonderful musical souls and exceptional artists who were […]
Guest writer: Fiona Baines (from the “TWN Collective” – Thorpe, Wimborne & Nottingham) My cherished friend and music colleague Fiona Baines from Nottingham has become a familiar voice in our amiable village of late. You may recall Fiona’s soaring descant at Midnight Mass in 2015, or her dazzling performance at the St Michael’s Springtime Concert […]
“Knowing you, this will inspire you to write some amazing music, a good story and…..who knows what?” messaged one of my sparky Essex students to me the other day. “Oh, and take care of yourself ☺” Some of you may know the term ‘leitmotif’, a posh expression for a recurring theme. Now, this appears to […]
I drifted into Rome’s Basilica of Saint Cecilia on a beautifully clement February afternoon (meanwhile snow was drifting into Essex – good timing Catherine!). I was greeted by the mellifluous intricacies of baroque organ music. So, perching myself on a pew beside a gleaming marble sculpture of the famous patroness of musicians, I gave myself […]
Brrrr….it’s chilly out there! With the English winter really biting down now and the wind whipping around my hair, causing all manner of mayhem, my thoughts turned to escaping the dismally dark days. As if by instant connection, my mobile text alert chimed with a new message: “Ciao bella….February in England is too cold and […]
The beginning of yet another New Year was nearly upon me, and a proverbial blank piece of music manuscript lay on the table….my head buzzing with thoughts of what might be in the year ahead. This was all accompanied by feelings of both excitement and trepidation of the hidden and yet to unfold secrets of […]