We will be taking Music, Mayhem and a Mezzo up to Edinburgh in a couple of weeks for our very first time at the Fringe. Terrified and excited in equal measure so if you are anywhere near, please come and watch us squander our musical talents on comic songs, musical mashups and piano acrobatics - we have a daunting number of seats to sell! We will be at theSpace @ Niddry Stret (Upper) 6:35pm, 5th-13th August Ticket link

We are super excited to be returning to The Crazy Coqs on July 21st at 9:15pm. We enjoyed ourselves so much with our first musical cabaret show last Christmas that we decided to do it again! Join us for an hour of musical fun and high jinks whilst sipping one of their delicious cocktails. It will be a great opportunity for us to try out some new mashups and songs on you before taking the show up to the

Only two weeks till Christmas and we've just finished yet another arrangement of O Come All Ye Faithful. This time it is for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to play at our annual Christmas concert in the Brighton Dome this Sunday. (Tickets still available here: https://brightondome.org/event/28776/brighton_festival_chorus/)  When you've done over twenty arrangements of the same song/carol, you are always looking to do something new which is why we have managed to get

Although we’ve been working on some music for a new film that is currently being shot, lockdown has given us a chance to work on some new material, written and performed by ourselves, rather than producing someone else for a change. We've called the concept, Vocalise as it is just vocals and the first track we are releasing, Pathétique, comes out today. As it has been extremely difficult to record a choir in the last

Amidst the hell (shared by all) that is juggling homeschooling, a family of five stuck together 24/7, getting our own work done and trying to keep a music business afloat during yet another lockdown, we have had some moments of calm. Light for the World, the album we recorded with The Poor Clares of Arundel, was released towards the end of 2020 and we were all delighted by the response it received; so many people found it calming, relaxing

  We have been very lucky to keep busy these last few months when so many of our talented colleagues in the business are struggling to make ends meet. Public concerts are showing few signs of returning any time soon, despite the concert halls and theatres working so hard to keep going and it is frustrating when not one case of COVID has been reported from a theatre or concert performance. On a happier note, the album we made over

Here we both are in the control room at Abbey Road (Studio 2, the famous one!). This was our first session back after lockdown with the RPO for Universal in Germany and the new Howard Carpendale album which we've been producing over lockdown. We were so lucky to have a project already underway! We decided to wear the plastic visors, rather than the nose and mouth masks. It would be impossible for James conducting otherwise. It did feel rather

Last weekend saw our annual family Christmas Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Brighton Festival Chorus and Brighton Festival Youth Choir. We were delighted to perform to a packed Brighton Dome again this year and the audience was in fine voice - they’re good singers in Brighton, especially after they’ve had an interval drink... We also gave an interview on BBC South East earlier this week for our new album, Christmas Piano. We began Piano Hands as

Two albums released in two weeks makes for exciting stuff and obsessive checking of sales/chart positions on Amazon/iTunes etc. First up was Cilla Black with the Royal Philharmonic, released on the 16th November. I was lucky enough to go on Woman’s Hour to talk about the album with Jane Garvey, the clip is up on the Media page of our website. Apparently I provided the light relief after the very heated debate on whether trans women

After a blistering June and July, I was looking forward to singing an outdoor Prom concert at Gisborough Priory. It was going to be a treat after months stuck in the studio and a chance to dust off my vocal chords and launch myself once more into the flag waving multitude of slightly inappropriate nationalistic songs. Don’t get me wrong, we all love them, myself included, but best to try not to pay too much attention to some

We are in high spirits after receiving two nominations for best album from The Classic Brits this week. Alexander Armstrong’s album, In a Winter Light and also the album we produced for Dame Vera Lynn’s centenary called 100. I don’t see how we can possibly win against the might that is Boe and Ball, but it is still lovely to receive nominations! We also have an album of John Williams, A Life in Music

Christmas came early for us this year in the form of Alexander Armstrong’s new Christmas album, A Winter Tale. As we’ve known him since our University days, it was a real treat to work with him on the album even if it did mean recording Christmas carols in June!   What was lovely was revisting with Xander some of the many carols we performed together as choral scholars in the days when James would have been

Yes, it’s official. Having spent several months this year recording him, we can verify that not only is he a really lovely bloke, but Jason Manford can sing - and really rather well. In fact, he’s been singing for years having toured the country in several musicals but most people still only know him as a comedian instead of the all round entertainer he is. James first conducted him in a duet on Alfie Boe’s

The centennial of Ella Fitzgerald’s birthday has been celebrated throughout this year and now culminates with the release this Friday of SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME. It’s been two years of work for us and features digitally remastered vocal tracks from Ella’s original Decca and Verve recordings paired with newly orchestrated and arranged performances by the London Symphony Orchestra and a duet from Gregory Porter.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J94EWJ_sT2o When

Here’s a lovely story for those of you fed up with the rather depressing news we have to face every day at the moment. This photo, taken on the Greek Macedonian border last year, was shortly after this young Syrian violinist crossed the Mediterranean Sea with his violin in a dinghy. The boat capsized three times but Rami had wrapped his violin in plastic and swam with it on his back to safety. It was very moving to

We did try tweeting Ed Sheeran, currently hogging the No.1 spot in the charts, but he wouldn’t do the right thing and endorse Dame Vera’s new album! However, we were delighted to get the number 3 spot when all the ages of the other artists in the top 5 combined still don’t reach Dame Vera’s 100 years. It was an absolute pleasure to produce this album but quite a challenge as

We were delighted to see Collabro’s new album, Home (produced by ourselves of course), enter the charts at no.7 this week. Even more impressive is that these four gentlemen did it all on their own. Who needs Simon Cowell when you have four such enterprising and hard working lads. From start to finish, they A&Red the album, sang on the album, marketed the album and having landed a Top 10 spot, left many other of

We are in Liverpool for the second time this week to record the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. This is a new project with Classic FM to celebrate their 25th birthday. I can’t say what it is yet, except to say that the 25 years has a special significance with the music we are recording and it has been the most orchestrating fun we have ever had on an album. This week has also seen the announcement of our

We’ve had a couple of months of producing in the studio so we are both looking forward to getting back on stage tomorrow for the annual Family Christmas Concert with the Brighton Festival Chorus and Youth Choir accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic in the Brighton Dome. We will be welcoming back the tenor, Nicky Spence who is bound to make someone corpse, just hoping I can hold it together this year. Studio wise, we have had a ball

I’ve duetted with all sorts of people over the years, probably the most memorable was with Meat Loaf on ITV’s Popstar to Opera Star when I accidentally picked up his water bottle at the sound check, before realising my error when the lining of my oesophagus was burnt raw after taking a rather large swig. At Port Eliot Festival, however, my duet partner wasn’t capable of drinking anything and didn’t even bother

We are still finishing off a piano album of Christmas Music. Who knew that Jingle Bells would work so well in the minor? There is nothing like arranging Christmas Carols during a rather wet May to discover how depressing you can make them sound. Turns out that not only Jingle Bells, but Ding Dong Merrily on High and The First Nowell can all be made to sound utterly miserable without much effort. Imagine what we’ve done to God

Last Saturday was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death and James spent the day in Stratford Upon Avon celeb spotting with the BBC Singers. They did a couple of live broadcasts with James conducting while they were there; they had to justify their day out after all. It turned out that a lot of people also thought it would be fun to spend the day hobnobbing with acting royalty, and even real royalty, so much so, many of

As someone who used to work at ENO, I have been closely following recent news about the ENO chorus; although they are no longer striking, the chorus still face a large salary reduction, a nine month contract, and a 10% reduction in their workforce. Our national opera company now has a part time chorus. And now their music director, Mark Wigglesworth, has resigned amidst rumours that he was unhappy with the direction of the company. He had apparently made a

  In the words of Noddy Holder: “It’s Christmas” For James and me that means a return to the Brighton Dome this Saturday, December 12th for the annual Family Christmas Concert with Brighton Festival Chorus, Brighton Festival Youth Choir and the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra. You might have seen the chorus earlier this week surprising commuters in Brighton Station with a flashmob performance? We are delighted to welcome back the tenor, Nicky Spence, who is flying in

Earlier this year we were commissioned by the 2015 Brighton Festival to write a Cantata for Liberty, Invictus, to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. It draws on texts from a number of authors about Liberty. 'No Rack Can Torture Me' is a setting of a beautiful Emily Dickinson poem, and forms the second movement of Invictus. It's an especially poignant text for us with James’ Parkinson’s diagnosis; there is a very personal and

I’ve just signed an online petition to say I believe creative subjects should be included in school accountability measures. Last month the Government announced that every child starting in year 7 in September will be expected to study core academic subjects that make up the Ebacc right up to GCSE. The omission of creative subjects from this core will inevitably lead to a decline in resources and space in the timetable for the arts. Yet there are numerous

This week is a busy one. Collabro's new album, Act Two went into the charts at no.2, Quadrophenia (for which we acted as mix consultants) was released in the UK and US and the premiere of our new Cantata for Liberty, Invictus, will be in the Brighton Dome this Thursday. As tickets sales have been a bit slow, on Saturday morning James and I went onto BBC Radio Sussex to try to promote the concert. Imagine my horror

We heard today that the record we produced for BGT winners, Collabro, is at no.2 in the Midweeks. Ironically the album's called Act Two so I can't help wondering if they made a mistake not calling it Act One, maybe then we might stand a chance of pipping Florence and the beautiful red hair to the no.1 spot... The boys are doing a great job singing on every television show possible so fingers crossed it stays

5 years ago we produced an album for Universal called Classic Rock; orchestral arrangements of rock anthems. We used rock musicians from Sweden and City of Prague Philharmonic. I know it was 5 years ago as I very clearly remember being fast tracked at Swedish passport control due to being heavily pregnant (with twins) and on crutches. At the time I was terrified they were about to tell me they wouldn’t allow me to fly but I think

Here it is, Alfie’s new Album of Italian songs is out today. We recorded it in April/May this year in the very same studios as the original Band Aid single “Feed the World” which has sadly now been made into a block of luxury apartments so this will be the last album produced there. My favourite song on the album is Addio, sogni di gloria which means ‘Goodbye, dreams of glory’. We were

This is a photo of the service station I stopped at to ‘refresh’ halfway through a 4 hour drive though the Atlas Mountains last week. Before you ask, they didn’t sell coffee. I was on my way to work on the set of a film being shot out there, in the same place as Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, The Mummy and pretty well any film involving sand in the last few decades. The music we have

James and I were up in Scunthorpe with the RPO last weekend giving them the full Last Night of the Proms treatment. What a crowd! The Baths Hall can’t seat more than a thousand but it sounded like there were 10 times that. 3 encores and then James was booed for finally leaving the stage! Next week the same team is in Lowestoft. We will be entertaining local school children in the afternoon before giving another Prom concert

Is the picture too large? You couldn’t see the orchestra and teeny tiny James conducting if I posted it any smaller. Symfunny was a huge success. It was a fantastic night, everyone, both performers and audience were incredibly warm and generous and Parkinson’s UK announced that 125k was raised for research into new treatments and that golden ticket, a cure. We were both overwhelmed by the support we received from friends and colleagues and even some

Have you booked your tickets yet for Symfunny, an evening of music and laughter on June 4th at the iconic Royal Albert Hall? If the answer is a no, we have some new acts just been announced to tempt you further to part with your £25 for an extremely good cause, research into Parkinson’s Disease. New acts include the female comedy duo from the BBC, Watson and Oliver who will be using the full Symphony Orchestra in

I haven’t blogged for a while but we have had a lot happening in our lives, as always. James has been diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease. Obviously this has been pretty devastating news for a guy with a young family. But, James has decided to try to do something positive with this news which is why we have announced in the press today that we are going to hold Symfunny, an evening of

Is it me or does the holiday period get longer each year? I’ve sent emails to people that have bounced back as they are ‘out of the office’ for nearly 3 weeks now. Personally I’d rather we adopted the Italian model and closed down the country in August when we could at least enjoy good weather. 3 weeks without working is fantastic (if you are lucky enough to get it), but to spend it

We are having great fun arranging some items for the Classic Brit Awards 2013 which are happening next week in the Royal Albert Hall. The God of the piano himself, also known as Lang Lang, will be playing one of our arrangements in a duet version with another artiste. We reckon we’ve put some tricky little bits and bobs for Lang Lang to get his fingers around. What am I saying? It’s all just a

Very quick post to suggest the perfect way of avoiding sitting at home with all the leftover chocolates… a trip to the cinema. The film, Quartet which James and I worked on as Music Producers is in the cinemas now. It’s Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut, stars a plethora of titled English actors and features some of your favourite bits of classical music all in a couple of hours. What more could you want