Knowledge Exchange Violin is now back and running, in earnest! Note – I am posting updates on this post in reverse order, so older posts will be below. Stillwater Minnesota – 16-17th October I arrived in the USA 48 hours ago, and the first day or so have been hectic, so now, it’s not a […]
September 18, 2024
As I begin a new set of collaborations with younger composers in the USA, Sweden and the UK, I have decided to make some of the conversation public: this won’t come in any particular order, and will simply put up the to-and-fro, where an interesting technical or compositional issue is covered. I will just publish […]
August 19, 2024
(Do follow the highlighted hyperlinks for supporting materials and music) The violin is eminently practical and portable. As well as being functional, it shares many of the attributes of figurines, whether religious or toys. Like a doll or a cult-linked fetish object, its allure, both for the user or viewer, are tied in with its […]
August 18, 2024
Three violas, one musician, one composer, one curator. Peter Sheppard Skærved, with Bradley Strauchen-Scherer and Michael Alec Rose In the Metropolitan Museum’s extraordinary collection of musical instruments are three special stringed instruments, made in three different centuries, three countries and two continents. There their differences might suggest that they are different instruments: but these […]
June 24, 2024
This summer (2024), I am returning to the six sonatas and partitas for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach, with a particular eye to my performances of the the cycle at Tremenheere, in July, August and September (LINK ) This of course, is NOT part of the cycle, but, for me, incredibly important for my […]
June 20, 2024
Towards a concert – 2nd October 2024 Sankt Petri Kyrka, Malmö. For years, I have been mesmerized by a space inside the great medieval Sankt Petri Kyrka, Malmö. In recent months, I have begun discussing a project responding to this, with the church and with an extraordinary group of Swedish composers. When you walk into […]
June 9, 2024
This is what is is all about – Paganini played on the Vuillaume made for Paganini, and given to his only student, Camillo Sivori, on his death in 1840. I am back in Genoa! It has been so long since I was last here, and the return has given me so much to think about. […]
May 18, 2024
Today, I am beginning a series of notes, partially to myself, but also as a scrapbook of ideas for other musicians. Things that that find interesting, important and frustrating. It all begins with Beethoven. I will post responses as they arise! Saturday 18th May – Beethoven is always right! I make a point of not […]
April 30, 2024
David Matthews – Quartets 8, 16, 17, and a Bach Arrangement A personal note from Peter Sheppard Skærved I have played David Matthews’s String Quartets for nearly all of my adult life, alongside my exploration of his solo works: I am writing this just a few days after premiering his ‘Arctic Suite’ for solo viola […]
April 22, 2024
Back in wonderful Zagreb, and the real work , on this, the latest stage of my ‘Knowledge Exchange Violin’ project. The theme that has emerged here over the past few months is Renewal & Restoration: what is our obligation to the past, present and future and how do these questions collide and collude. Powerfully evident […]
October 2, 2024