CENTRAL ENGLAND: Mike Wheeler's concert reviews from Nottingham and Derbyshire feature high profile artists on the UK circuit - often quite early on their tours.
PODCAST: Join Jenna Orkin, Maria Nockin, John Daleiden, Gerald Fenech, Julian Jacobson, Patrick Maxwell, Giuseppe Pennisi and Mike Wheeler for a fascinating fifty-minute audio only programme.
DISCUSSION: Composers Daniel Schorno and John Dante Prevedini discuss creativity, innovation and re-invention with Maria Nockin, Mary Mogil, Giuseppe Pennisi and Roderic Dunnett.
Michael Kearns was born on the Canadian Prairies. After high school and working in a mine, he travelled to Europe and ended up in Oxford, where he was introduced to classical music and an important violin collection. Subsequently he enrolled at the Newark School of Violin Making in Nottingham and some years later set up Oxford Violins, where he makes and restores violins, violas, cellos and guitars. Other interests include writing, painting, film making, gardening and classic car restoration.
Kearns' latest novel, Clinkerstone, published by Troubadour Publishing Ltd on 28 September 2024 in paperback (ISBN: 9781805144779) and eBook (9781805149491) formats, draws on his experience as a violin maker to provide an adventure story with a strong musical connection.
While researching his novel in Ireland, he also got involved with the Donegal Violin Trust - a scheme for lending promising fiddle students decent instruments. To date he has restored and delivered thirteen violins into the system and has also initiated a similar project at the National School in Letterfrack, Connemara.
The novel's story begins in 1982 when its central character, Sean Gallagher, a talented Irish fiddler, leaves the west coast of Ireland to work for his uncle's construction firm in Chicago. All goes well until he is forced to flee for his safety after a run-in with a local protection racket. Reduced to busking on the streets, his life continues to spiral downwards when his violin is stolen, followed by an epileptic attack that lands him in hospital.
While recovering, Sean has a potent encounter with the terminally ill Charles Peccatte, a wayward if remarkably insightful pianist and composer, who is in the desperate throes of trying to finish the last movement of his piano sonata. The death of Charles launches Sean on a quest to discover the whereabouts of the sonata's first two movements. The journey takes him down the Mississippi River and eventually to Marion Landray, Charles' estranged, reclusive wife. The novel's press release describes this as 'a life-changing encounter for both, that will unearth far more than the music ...'
Further information: oxfordviolins.com and mikekearns.net
Posted 4 October 2024 by Keith Bramich