Two new bookings within the last few days have this month (March, snow and -3 in London notwithstanding!) set up to be a very busy and enjoyably varied one for my performing career.

Tomorrow, Saturday 3rd, I’m back to familiar territory in Oxford – joining the Arcadian Singers at Brasenose College Chapel for Biber’s Requiem in F minor, plus a couple of other choral pieces. That will be one for layering up if my experience of other medieval Oxford chapels is anything to go by!

On the 9th and (twice) 10th, I’m doing half of Panda Players’ run of Oliver! at the Elgiva in Chesham. I’m looking forward to reprising the violin cadenzas in ‘Reviewing the Situation’, and hope this Fagin has as much fun with them as the last one …

A rare weekday gig on Thursday 15th sees Elaine and I playing an originals set as Kindred Spirit Duo (itself a pretty rare occurrence), supporting (re-formed) notorious prog-early music-folk-rock outfit Gryphon at the Claygate Festival. We believe it’s a duo booking largely because of how much stage space and how many PA channels their rampant multi-instrumentalism requires!

The following night, Friday 16th, my viola takes up electronic company as part of a live string quartet helping realise the ambient / contemporary classical compositions of Dream Logic, aka Adam Fulford. It’s a support slot for VLMV‘s album launch gig (interestingly also to feature a string quartet!) at Archspace in Haggerston.

17th March is, of course, St Patrick’s Day and Kindred Spirit Duo are once again helping celebrate it with the Irish-oriented version of our folk and covers act at the Swan Inn in Isleworth. Expect much singing along and dancing and my infamous Shane McGowan impression on a slightly out-of-season ‘Fairytale of New York’ …

On the 20th, an unusual format of the Parlour Room project contributes to Conway Hall‘s La Belle et la Bête night with our ‘Requiems’ experience. This sees founder Sarah de Winter move from her usual cello seat to soprano solo for operatic arias accompanied by (my arrangements for!) string quartet, combined with digital projections in a multimedia performance that pushes well outside usual UK conceptions of what opera can be. We hope to carry it much further, but be there and say you saw it before it was trendy!

Kindred Spirit‘s first 2018 gig as a full band is on 23rd March at Twickenham’s Exchange arts and community venue (coincidentally about three minutes’ walk from my new flat!). We’ll be previewing tracks from our next album (my first with the band – recording under way now!) and delivering a full evening’s entertainment in this new venue, hopefully setting a trend for it promoting local bands and original music. Tickets can be bought and seats reserved online here, or at Twickenham’s Eel Pie Records (who are also doing a special deal on the Kindred Spirit back catalogue!).

On Saturday 24th, I head a little way further out to the south and west of London, to stiffen the forces of Ashford Baroque Ensemble accompanying Spelthorne Choral Society at St Peter’s Church in Staines. We’ll be performing Haydn’s well-known ‘Nelson’ Mass and the much more obscure d’Astorga’s Stabat Mater and I’m looking forward to deploying my authentic performance practice skills again (sadly not period instrument, until I find myself able to make a rather massive investment in that niche area of my career).

That brings us to this year’s early Easter, and to another month’s gigging. But I hope to see you before then anyway!