Started my day at the most painful time of 5.00 am in order to be at the BBC Surrey radio station for my live interview on their breakfast show at 7.20 am, now ordinarily no one sees me up and about before 8.30 am so the early start was rather traumatic for me (and probably equally traumatic for the other people who experienced me at this time in the morning), I just don't know how those of you who get up at 5.00 am on a daily basis manage to do it.

I have resembled the living dead for the most part of the day.

I then spent the majority of the day glued to my computer as emails and phone calls were flying round as i organized my radio interviews and other media appearances for this week and next week to promote the album.

I`m so excited about the possibilities of the album, I have worked so hard on it and hopefully will be able to raise a fair amount for the Goldenhar Family Support Group to whom i am donating £1.00 per CD sold.

You can listen to sound clips from the album and/or purchase it by visiting my website and clicking the 'Music' tab in the main menu:

http://www.nicholasmccarthy.co.uk/
 

I have recorded pieces before, but they have always been live in front of an audience, so it has been a bit of a culture shock for me to record in a studio with only a sound engineer as my audience. The feeling between playing live in concert and playing for a studio recording is surprising. I found that my concentration level had to be so much higher when recording in the studio than playing in a concert, and for anyone who knows me in person, is quite a lot to ask.




So anyway, you can pre order my album through my website, just click the link below and go to the 'Music' section in the side menu to order.

Just

£8.99

with

£1.00 going to

Goldenhar Family Support Group:

http://www.nicholasmccarthy.co.uk/
 

Asides from the fact that I was pleased to be able to raise money for the charity (£1180.00 to be precise :-P) but my assistant and I were treated very very well, which i must say, is a bit of rare thing when it comes to giving charity recitals.

The person who organized the charity concert kindly put us up in a local hotel and treated us to a meal at the Swindon Rendezvous Chinese restaurant which was delicious.

I thought all the effort he went to was a lovely gesture and made my time in Swindon immensely comfortable.

The concert itself was held at the theatre in the New College and I was pleased to see that the concert was packed out, one because it meant I knew the charity would make a fair bit of money, and two because it's always nice to play to a full house.

As a result of a thoroughly enjoyable charity do, i have decided to donate some of the proceeds of my upcoming album (launched July 1st) sales to the worthy charity.

For more information on the charity please visit http://www.goldenhar.org.uk/
 

Me being the indecisive type, I have only just made a decision as to what pieces I am going to record for my album which will be launched early July. I've decided on the following:

Chaconne in D Minor Bach/Brahms

Prelude and Nocturne Op.9 Scriabin

Etude in A Flat Major Op.36 Blumenfeld

Tanulmany Balkezre Bartok


Nice selection?

What do you all think?

The pieces I have picked all have sentimental meaning to me, especially the Chaconne in D Minor and the Scriabin Nocturne, so I thought it would be great to record these pieces on my first album as they hold a lot of meaning.
 

I recently gave a recital of my new repertoire at a concert in London.

However, due to having a holiday in Las Vegas the week before the concert (i know, i know...not the best timing) I found myself practicing eight hours daily in order to try and be fully prepared for the upcoming concert.

Then, sure enough, two days before the concert i had bruised my thumb and second finger by playing the two Chopin/Godowsky Etudes I had programmed into my recital.


So, me being me i carried on practicing, ignoring the pain and taking neurophen like they were smarties. Whilst giving the recital I felt that I would not be able to play part of the program to a standard I would be pleased with due to the injury so i announced to the audience that i was to make a small programme change.

With hind sight , should I have stopped practice for a day or should I have played through the injury at the concert?

I would value your thoughts and views on this .
 

Asides from enjoying the competitors playing i was astounded by some of the performers attire. In particular, this one contestant who wore a pair of old trainers paired ever so elegantly with some trousers which had never before seen an iron.

Now, is this really an outfit one would choose to wear in a performance situation?

 I understand that a lot of musicians just don't care about their physical appearance, but it really did get me thinking about the importance of a performers appearances.

Ever since the 'new wave' of 'classical' (the term 'classical' used very loosely) artists such as Catherine Jenkins and Il Divo the way we as performing artists look has proved to, in some cases, be more important than the actual product they are trying to sell, i.e. music.