Performance Anxiety: a negative association with one piece of music
I was working recently on an International Piano Academy in Germany, giving daily master classes to a group of committed and advanced...
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Charlotte Tomlinson
- Feb 13, 2014
Engaging and listening in music performance
Engaging in music performance It’s a tricky one that I find myself exploring a lot. It is so easy to lose focus and concentration when...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Dec 5, 2013
Hearing the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
It’s always refreshing to go to hear another country’s resident orchestra on home ground, and hearing the Concertgebouw orchestra in...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Nov 7, 2013
Lang Lang: when a classical musician hits world celebrity status
The BBC made a documentary on the Chinese pianist Lang Lang a few months ago, and it was fascinating watching. Lang Lang has become...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Oct 15, 2013
More passion in classical concerts please!
During a recent classical music concert, I was listening to a song recital and admit to being rather underwhelmed by the lack of passion...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- May 27, 2013
Memorising music
I have worked as a chamber musician and duo partner for my entire career to date and therefore I have not needed to play from memory in...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Apr 13, 2013
Listening in music
Listening in music is a strange one. It is as elusive a concept in normal everyday communication as it is in music. When do we really...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Apr 9, 2013
Teaching children: criticism or praise?
It only takes a period drama on television to remind us of how far society has moved in a relatively short period of time. I watched the...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Mar 26, 2013
Reality talent shows: does the culture of instant fame threaten the performing arts?
I was fascinated to hear the choreographer of decades of best selling West End shows, and former classical ballerina, Gillian Lynne say...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Mar 20, 2013
Stage Fright Part 3: How to manage your emotional response
In my last two blogs on this topic, I wrote about some practical tips for managing stage fright and the deep shame that many performers...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Mar 16, 2013
Stage Fright Part 2: Practical tips for managing it
This is the second in a series of blogs about stage fright. In my last blog, I wrote about how deeply ashamed many performers are about...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Mar 11, 2013
Stage Fright Part 1: are we too ashamed to talk about it?
Imagine this scenario: one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras is preparing to go on stage, at, let’s say London’s Barbican Centre....
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Feb 8, 2013
A meditative approach to practising
There is so much that is involved in practising a piece of music for a performance. At some stage, I will write about the nuts and bolts...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Jan 31, 2013
Performing from the score versus memorising
I heard somewhere that seven eighths of the world’s music is not written down. I suspect then that most of the remaining eighth is filled...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Jan 10, 2013
The child prodigy
The child prodigy is not a new phenomenon. We have had them throughout history. Take Mozart and Mendelssohn for example, both of whom...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Dec 11, 2012
The plight of good musicians
I was shocked to hear through a friend of mine when I was in Amsterdam about the way in which the orchestras are being ruthlessly...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Oct 16, 2012
The exhilaration of good chamber music
I have just come back from the most extraordinary concert and series of concerts at the Oxford Chamber Music Festival. Tonight was...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Jul 27, 2012
Extraordinary playing by West-East Divan Orchestra
Last night, I found myself gripped by a really vibrant, moving performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral symphony at the BBC Proms. It was on...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- May 29, 2012
An inspiring Chinese student
For the last couple of weeks I have been giving intensive lessons to a fourteen year old Chinese girl. She and her younger brother came...
Charlotte Tomlinson
- Apr 11, 2012
Moving performances
Why is it that some performances leave us cold, however immaculate, crafted and beautifully phrased they may be? And yet others can move...
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