Andrew Higgins – Pianodao

Andrew Higgins: Seasons

Products featured on Pianodao are selected for review by ANDREW EALES.
PIANODAO REVIEWS POLICY

From time to time I review a music book here which subsequently establishes itself as a favourite with my students; such a book was the brilliant Birds: Études-Tableaux composed by Andrew Higgins, which I reviewed here.

I was therefore naturally pleased to receive Higgins’ latest collection, Seasons, which is again published by the forward-looking publisher EVC Music, whose many recent useful and eye-catching publications have made such a positive mark on the pedagogic repertoire in recent years.

Rather than lazily giving us more of the same, Seasons is quite a different proposition from Higgins’ last book, so let’s take a closer look…

EVC @ the RAH

Pictured (from the left) – Andrew Eales, Elena Cobb, Lindsey Berwin and Heather Hammond.

PATHWAYS FOR TEACHING

Supporting Teachers • Promoting Learning
Written by ANDREW EALES

We often hear of a decline in music education within UK state schools – and without doubt, over the last 25 years of teaching I have witnessed a steady but undeniable diminuendo in the musical life of local schools here, often despite best intentions.

How wonderful, then, to see buoyant evidence of enthusiasm for music among young people – as was most certainly and robustly the case when I attended the Elena Cobb Star Prize Event at the Elgar Room in London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall last week.

Here was a showcase of great playing delivered by young people from around the UK and beyond, each performing and clearly relishing music by a host of living writers, and in many cases in the very presence of those composers.

Birds: Études-Tableaux

THE PIANODAO MUSIC LIBRARY

Products featured on Pianodao are selected for review by ANDREW EALES.
PIANODAO REVIEWS POLICY

As a reviewer I get to discover a surprising amount of great new pedagogic music, but it’s predominantly at the beginner to intermediate level. So it is particularly exciting when something arrives that is more challenging, and yet just as appealing.

Birds: Études-Tableaux is a collection of six pieces by Andrew Higgins, published by EVC Music Publications, and subtitled modern virtuoso studies.

If you’ll pardon the pun, it perfectly fits the bill! Do read on for further twittering about these wonderful pieces …