To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.
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Contemporary music can cause passionate enthusiasm in some and complete bafflement in others. For many, there remains a sense of dread, and an expectation of the ‘squeaky gate’ incomprehensibility that has become the new music stereotype. For the general public, classical music is a niche market, and within that, contemporary music has an even smaller […]
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Almost eight months into the four year part time masters degree in Fine Art, James Kowacz, one of OCA’s current MA students, is embarking on a fascinating participative project, ‘A Seat in the Memory’. He is looking for people to contribute to it. Whether you are a photographer, artist or creative writer, you can contribute […]
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In a series of meetings with Goethe, the great poet and dramatist in the 1820s, the young Mendelssohn engaged the aging poet, then in his seventies, in discussions of great depth regarding the importance of hearing and creating music as the continuation of tradition. Goethe was having a difficult time understanding new music; he was […]
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I’ve been involved with music-making for virtually my whole life. My formal musical education began with (at my insistence) recorder lessons at the age of three, and then eventually, flute lessons, when I was just about big enough to play, at the age of six. I learnt to read music at the same time as […]
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Why I wonder do some musicians feel it is necessary to impose their own identity on the work of the great masters? Last week the Croatian born pianist and composer Dejan Lazić presented to the Proms audience the results of his six years of work translating the violin concerto by Brahms into a piano concerto. […]
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I was in Grange-over Sands the other weekend. In keeping with its somewhat old world charm, it has a bandstand where live music is performed on summer Sundays. It had to be relocated from a previous site near the railway station since ladies complained that their clothing was being ruined by soot from passing steam […]
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This is the first We Are OCA post to be authored by OCA’s new music tutor Duncan Druce. In addition to his work as a composer and arranger, Duncan is known as a violinist and viola player, specialising mainly in the baroque and classical periods. He is also a regular contributor to Gramophone magazine. Great […]
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Music composition – and indeed other – students may be interested in an event on Saturday 4 June at 2:00pm in London. Harpsichordist Jane Chapman will be performing a selection of new pieces for harpsichord and electronics by composition students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. OCA students with a valid student card […]
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Community music is gradually gaining ground in Britain. Among the most famous examples are More Music Morecombe (www.moremusic.org.uk) and Sistema Scotland (http://makeabignoise.org.uk). As a music composition and drawing student with the OCA, my interest in conceptual and socially engaged art has inspired me to develop my own interpretation of community music. My professional background is […]
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Andrew Haydon’s coverage of the Arts Funding Cuts was an excellent exploration of what was good, bad and indifferent about them. It made me think that anyone who cares about the arts should be engaged in the debate about arts funding cuts, it may mean fewer (or different? even – better?) exhibitions and theatre and […]
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