Strictly Romance

I’ll be honest—I’ve never watched a whole episode of Strictly Come Dancing. I used to watch bits when my mother was alive as it was, latterly, the one thing that she still enjoyed and, like…


Do you take your piano with you?

Since 2018, I have been occasionally performing around the country with a show that mixes my stand-up comedy and impressions (and, more recently, my own poetry) with around 14 short pieces of…


Alistair McGowan plays the piano

I never thought you could get injured playing the piano!

"I never thought you could get injured playing the piano!" That’s what I hear whenever I tell people about my latest little niggle or slight ache or totally agonising pain which has come (probably)…


November Pop-up Piano Events

  There were a lot of smiles on faces of all ages after our three Pop-up Piano events last weekend—and not all of them thanks to Harry Hill. About 20 talented local players seized the chance to…


A House in Ireland -- the rise and fall of John Field

The Rise and Fall of John Field

John Field was born in Dublin in 1782 and gave his first public performance at the age of 10. He was musically educated largely by Muzio Clementi who took Field as a young boy to Europe to…


Edvard Grieg sitting at the piano

The March of the Trolls

Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, was allegedly only 4 feet 11 inches tall. And his wife, it is said, was even smaller. The local story goes that when the two of them went out walking around his home…


Stepping in for Simon Callow

I hope I can get through Tennyson’s epic poem, Enoch Arden, at the inaugural Ludlow Piano Festival without breaking down in tears after having to take up the reins from Simon Callow. Simon has sadly…