To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.
Explore #WeAreOCA
Skip Navigation
As I write, the 17th Leeds International Pianoforte competition, held only every three years, comes to a close after three exhausting weeks, with yet another winning name from the 60 entrants – that of 24-year old Italian Federico Colli – added to its distinguished history. The competition, still masterminded by the 92-year old Dame Fanny Waterman […]
Read More
The garden of my new Suffolk home has been a considerable challenge, offering me since early in May the toil of ridding the quarter acre, surrounded by Leyland Cypress, of artificial grass-turf covering the site of a once useful swimming pool and a residue largely occupied by persistent weeds. The solitary work through weeks of […]
Read More
Following on from my previous blog post about using music technology to develop compositional skills and provide performance, I wanted to take a look at the situation from a slightly different angle. Composers with instrumentalist friends, or who can find or form ensembles to work with, can get works played, even if just to hear […]
Read More
This month heralds the issue of a CD of my music through the generosity of the British Music Society, a now highly distinguished organization founded over 30 years ago specifically to promote interest in British music, and particularly that which is not heard as often as Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Delius and Britten. The BMSrecording catalogue […]
Read More
The musical world is inclined to venerate Mozart rather too much, I would suggest. It was not until he was 18 that he wrote the first of the very few accomplished symphonies of his lifetime (No 29, K201 in A) and that was his 39th piece in that form – ten are unnumbered. Throughout […]
Read More
As many composition tutors will tell you, the key to developing properly as a composer is to be able to hear the music you are writing. This presents the distance learning student with a particular problem, namely, where to find performers. Students, writing for instruments they don’t play, have to be able to network in […]
Read More
Regular readers of my blog posts will know that collaboration is at the centre of my musical life, and one recent project seemed to provide an interesting (and perhaps unusual) case study. Scott Miller is a composer and electronics performer based in St Cloud, Minneapolis. Like most of the composers I work with, I first made […]
Read More
Last month, the phenomenon of cyber bullying became headline news when Conservative MP Louise Mensch spoke out against the onslaught of misogynistic abuse to which she had been subjected on the micro-blogging site Twitter. Mensch is a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee. The comments, many of them explicit and most of […]
Read More
Following the announcement of vacancy on the OCA Student Association Committee for a Music Student Representative, we have received one nomination and so Elaine Goodall will be appointed to the position unopposed. Elaine’s election statement is available here. OCASA President, Stan Dickinson, will organise the handover from previous representative, Chris Lawry, in the next couple […]
Read More
As students will have seen in Stan’s announcement, there is a vacancy on the OCASA Committee for a music representative, to replace Chris Lawry. This is the formal announcement of an election for that role. Nominations All students currently studying music courses with OCA are eligible to stand and to vote. Students who wish to […]
Read More
