Author
Jonny is Encore's Head of Artist Relations. He's responsible for supporting and helping musicians on the platform and writes most of the musician-facing articles on the blog. He can usually be found singing in choirs, drumming in bands, or nodding meaningfully to particularly good chords in London's jazz bars.
Congratulations! The thousands of hours of practice have paid off and you’re about to play with your favourite ensemble. You have your instrument and your concert clothes and you’ve successfully taken the train to a new city…but wait! How do you find the stage door? The rehearsal starts in ten…
But what, you say? I’ve just done them! I locked myself in a basement with energy bars and coffee for a week straight, wading through tea-stained receipts in a plastic bag (and how did that second bag end up behind the sofa?) and then trying to work out how much of my rent I can […]
What lies beneath someone who can transform a few blocks of wood into a beautifully crafted musical instrument? We spoke to the violin maker (or luthier) William Szott to find out. Becoming a luthier is hardly a ‘conveyor belt career’. What made you want to take up the profession? It was my passion…
We sat down with Edward Hughes, conductor and co-founder of the Godwine Choir to hear about their upcoming Christmas concert and what it takes to build a choir from scratch. Godwine Choir began singing together in April last year. What was it that motivated you to found the group? Godwine came into…
Manchester Universities String Society burst onto the city’s music scene earlier this year with a captivating blend of innovative programming and fierce professionalism that would rival ensembles many years its senior. We caught up with the man behind the MUSS, violist Toby Holden, to learn what it…
We sat down with jazz bassist and composer Misha Mullov-Abbado to chat about his highly acclaimed album New Ansonia and how this ‘unfailingly inventive, artfully produced, and delightfully sunny debut’ (The Telegraph) came to be. New Ansonia by Misha Mullov-Abbado I imagine you’ve been surrounded…
Over the last four years Filthy Lucre, the alt-classical brainchild of Cambridge grads Joe Bates and Anthony Friend, has been breaking new ground in the realms of live music. Their events, which move from classical concert to gig to club night, are held together not by genre boundaries but by…
Jonny Venvell sat down with Young Musician of the Year 2014 winner Martin James Bartlett to discuss his life so far as a concert pianist, the importance of music education today, and how to bluff your way through Messiaen. Martin offers me a warm greeting as I duck out of a biblically wet London…
This week Zoe sat down with the globe-trotting conductor and oboist Toby Thatcher to discuss his origins in Oz, his love affair with London, and partying to Prokofiev! What’s the music scene like in Sydney? Is it very different to London? It’s quieter for sure. There’s less going on, but the…
We caught up today with violist Lawrence Power to talk about his upcoming West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival, and why it’s one of the best-kept secrets in the classical music world. Lawrence Power is a musician who hardly needs an introduction. Since leaving the Juilliard School at 20, he has…
To mark our launch at the University of Edinburgh last week, we sat down with Amanda MacLeod, the current President of Edinburgh University Music Society, to discuss some of her most memorable moments, as well as some of her big plans for the future… What was your first ever concert as part of…
As part of our referral scheme, Aditya Chander, a tremendous violinist and formidable composer, earned himself an interview and a professional photo shoot after referring over fifty people to join Encore! None of this comes as a surprise when you consider the wide reach of this young man’s network,…
