GOOD EVENING! And welcome to… THE GIG REVIEW! This is a brand new, freshly-baked feature in the Michael A. Grant Blogging Universe, in which I will be taking a wry look at the preceding month’s performances, sharing some of my sublime and ridiculous adventures, and – who knows? – maybe even learning some life lessons …
One of the reasons I play so many different instruments is that I really enjoy performing in pit orchestras for musical theatre productions. In these ensembles, each individual woodwind musician is frequently called upon to swap between 3 or 4 instruments, and this practice of ‘doubling’ allows orchestrators to maximise the palette of sounds available …
I recently had the pleasure of collaborating with Cambridge-based composer Paul Wellings-Longmore, who despite not playing any musical instruments himself has written some thoroughly charming pieces for a variety of woodwind ensembles. He’s kindly allowed me to share the results of one of these projects, and so I’d like to present ‘Variations on a Theme’, …
This week, I have been mostly practising… The teeny tiny squeaky squawky Eb clarionet! Why have I been doing that, you may wonder? Why put myself and my local community through such torment? Surely any instrument that requires earplugs merely to practise should not be permitted at all in civilised society! Well I’ll tell you …
It may have escaped your notice if you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past couple of months and didn’t see any of my posts about it on this blog or Facebook or Instagram or Linkedin, or any of the 100 posters I distributed round South Manchester, or the feature I got in the …
The programmes are printed, the venue keys are collected and the banter is well and truly planned – all is set for the concert premiere of ‘Miniatures’ tomorrow night! But at this late stage, have I lost my drive for relentless self-promotion? Not on your nelly! See below for one more teaser video featuring a …
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “What if I go along to Michael’s concert on Friday and find that the whole thing’s a big joke and that all the music will actually be performed by an AWFUL trio of trad. jazz clarionet, broken sousaphone and £30 violin!?! What then?” Well don’t worry! I promise …
Have you heard the neeeewwwwwwws? I’m in the paper again! For the right reasons, I should add. If you’ve picked up your copy of Didsbury Post you’ll have found this lovely little spiel in the ‘What’s On’ section. What you won’t have found, though, is today’s teaser video – see below for a clip from …
My my, look what arrived in the post this week – it’s only the full printed scores for my suite of twelve original piano solos, ‘Miniatures’! That’s right, you can now own every single note of the music, beautifully engraved and printed on 52 entire pages of the finest paper money can buy. So if …
Are you going to be a million miles away from Manchester this Friday? Do you really really hate classical music, and wouldn’t be seen dead attending a solo piano recital? Well don’t worry – there are still things you can do to help spread the joys of music and make the world premiere of ‘Miniatures’ …
