First published in The Herald on 26 November, 2014

Kyung Wha Chung is back. “It’s hard to believe,” says the 66-year-old violinist, cheerfully slapping the coffee table as if to confirm that yep, all of this is real. “In some ways I feel like I haven’t been away, but on the other hand I had an incredibly enriching life while I was gone. Coming back onto the stage was completely unexpected. But here I am! Ha!” She lets out a raucous, hearty laugh. Chung is a lot of fun to interview. She’s feisty, spontaneous and caring; at one point she leaps up to wrap a jumper around my shoulders because she thinks I look chilly. In recent years she has been through the kind of painful experiences that might dampen the most resilient spirits, yet today she is as sparky and passionate as her classic fiery performances.

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First published in The Herald on 19 November, 2014

There was never going to be universal jubilation about Creative Scotland’s 3-year Regular Funding plan, announced last month. The arts funding body had £100m to divvy out between 264 applications; they chose 119. What a thankless task. For the 145 applicants who don’t feature in the CS ‘portfolio’ (the word of the moment) there are other routes to financial support, offered on a shorter-term basis but potentially amounting to similar annual sums. Last week’s surprise Scottish Government intervention awarding £1m direct funding to Scottish Youth Theatre (shared with National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, National Youth Choir of Scotland and Scottish Youth Dance) suggests the overall picture is far from complete.

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First published in The Herald on 18 November, 2014

Fielding Hope is a gentle, easy-going kind of chap: meet him on the street and you’d never guess he’s a major driving force behind Glasgow’s DIY music scene. Under the moniker Cry Parrot he has produced ear-bending nights of indie, punk, noise, electronic, experimental jazz, free improve, those misfits categories of ‘alternative’ and ‘underground’. His annual Music Language festival gave a platform to artists who usually operate below or beyond the commercial radar and introduced a substantially youthful audience to a slew of experimental sounds. As music booker at Nice’n’Sleazy he presented a roster of intriguing, artistically ambitious acts at the grimy Sauchiehall Street venue. As co-curator of Counterflows he helped bring some of the leading international acts in avant-garde music to Glasgow. His programming is like the best kind of music collection: if it’s interesting, it’s worth hearing. Inevitably some genres get less attention than others (straight-up folk isn’t really his thing and contemporary classical doesn’t get a look in) but still, the range is impressive.

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First published by The Herald on 12 November, 2014

It’s a strange business, being an orchestral leader. In simple terms the leader is the person who sits at the front of the violin section just beyond the conductor’s left elbow; who walks on stage after the rest of the orchestra is seated and takes a solitary bow; who plays violin solos when required then merges seamlessly back into the group. But there is so much more. As tends to be the case in music, the magic that elevates the mundane is essentially intangible.

Laura Samuel, who when she auditioned for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra job four years ago hadn’t played in an orchestra since she was 18, says she never had a conversation about what was required. And yet anyone who has been at a BBC SSO concert in the past two seasons will know that Samuel is a rather special leader. As co-founder and 16-year member of the Belcea Quartet, her panache as an instrumentalist is obvious: she’s a commanding, flexible, stylish musician. She leads with forthright gestures that are clear but never pushy or directive, and her stage presence is simple, unshowy, amiable. Under her leadership the BBCSSO strings sound terrific – full of energy, focus, depth and charisma.

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