Please click on a title to view a news item, or scroll down to browse news. The
most recent news items are at the top.
New Christmas card for 2008 -
25/10/2008
I have designed a Christmas card which will be sold in aid of The Bach Choir and will be available from mid-November. The card, entitled 'Christmas garlands', can be ordered now through the Bach Choir website by clicking on the link below.
Order Christmas cards
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3 Minute Wonder Film -
10/08/2008
To see my appearance in the short film, recently shown on Channel 4, please click on the link below, then scroll down to the thumbnail photo of me wearing headphones.
3 Minute Wonder film
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3 Minute Wonder TV programme -
21/07/2008
I will be appearing (very) briefly on Channel 4 on Tuesday 22nd July at 7:55pm in a three minute film about synaesthesia. The title of the film is 'Seeing a song, hearing a smile' and is part of the 3 Minute Wonder series which showcases the work of talented young film directors.
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Turn of the Screw book launch -
20/06/2007
'The Turn of the Screw: visual responses to Britten's opera' was launched at The Britten–Pears Library, Aldeburgh on Tuesday, 19th June. About 130 guests enjoyed a drinks reception in the magical library built by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears to house their extensive collection of books, paintings and sculpture. Andrew Plant accompanied Andrew Swait (treble) in a short recital of music by Poulenc and Britten and the glorious, sunny day allowed people to explore the gardens and environs. Pictured above is James Bowman receiving a copy of the book from Andrew and Jane, all three of whom have signed each of the 300 copies of this limited edition.
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Turn of the Screw book on sale -
13/06/2007
Book now on sale!
We are pleased to announce that, in preparation for the official launch on 19 June, copies of both editions of The Turn of the Screw are now on sale at The Aldeburgh Bookshop.
Click here to order on-line
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TOTS BOOK GOES TO PRESS -
07/04/2007
Andrew and I, together with our designers Richard and Sam Adams, have been working intensively on our Turn of the Screw book over the past few weeks. I'm very pleased to announce that the final draft (8th I think it was) of the book was sent to the printers, Hill Shorter, last Tuesday, April 3rd. We now have a short breathing space before the first proofs come back for checking. The photo shows Andrew (nearest the camera) and Sam working on the final, final version on computer last week.
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Sounding Art Press - new postal address -
28/01/2007
We now have a PO Box for Sounding Art Press. For all correspondence to the Press please write to:
Sounding Art Press,
PO BOX 49991,
LONDON,
SE5 5DG.
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New website launched -
05/03/2007
Today we have launched our new website for Sounding Art Press. Do have a look! You will find information about the press itself, and our forthcoming book:The Turn of the Screw - visual responses to Britten's opera. There are also some exciting plans re further publications.
Click here to see the new website
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New Hall Art Collection Auction -
10/04/2007
New Hall has an outstanding Collection of works by women artists, the second largest only to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. It has been created largely through the exceptional generosity of the artists themselves and includes works by Maggi Hambling, Barbara Hepworth, Paula Rego and Judy Chicago.
The New Hall Art Campaign is aiming to build on the foundation of the Barlow Art Fund to ensure that there is a permanent endowment to support the annual costs of maintaining the Collection, including cataloguing, labelling and conservation costs.
Many of the artists in the Collection have kindly donated 'postcards' to be auctioned in aid of this cause. You can bid for an original, postcard-sized work at http://www-art.newhall.cam.ac.uk/auction/. The auction will end at 4pm on Friday 20 April 2007. Full details on how to bid are available on the website.
P.S. I have donated a painting for this auction. Can you spot which one it is?
Click here to bid
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THE PROSPECTUS IS READY! -
08/03/2007
We have now taken delivery of our prospectus for the Turn of the Screw book and will be mailing this out over the next few days. If you would like to receive a prospectus and are not already on the Sounding Art or the Sounding Art Press mailing list, please send a message via the Contact form on either website, including your postal address, and we will 'rush' one to you, as the adverts say!
http://www.soundingartpress.com
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The Turn of the Screw book -
16/02/2007
Our Turn of the Screw book is now at the proof-reading stage which is very exciting. The prospectus and order form is at the printers now, and will be mailed out over the next two to three weeks. All the members of the Sounding Art mailing list will automatically receive a copy. If you are not already on my list but would like to receive a prospectus, please send me your details via the Contact page on this website.
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Auction of Promises -
30/01/2007
Chelmsford County High School for Girls
Centenary Ball and “Music Matters” appeal.
CCHS is consistently one of the top performing state secondary schools in the Country – this year top of the GCSE league table. The school which is currently celebrating its Centenary year has recently been granted its third specialism as a Music College; reflecting the ethos that music is central to a good education. The immensely talented student body includes a high proportion of musically gifted girls.
Accommodation for music at the school is very limited and funds are currently being raised to build a new state of the art facility to include teaching, performing and recording areas.
The £750,000 cost of this venture has been, in part, met by a substantial grant from the DfES. However, parents and friends have raised about £150,000. Work is due to start during Spring 2007 and it is hoped to complete the funding by the end of this year.
To round off the Centenary Year and to raise further funds for this worthwhile project the CCHS “Centenary Ball” is being held in the Great Hall at Kings College, Cambridge at the end of March. During the evening there will be professionally run Auction of Promises. I am supporting this event by providing an auction lot in the form of a commissioned painting of the music of the winner’s choice.
Chelmsford County High School for Girls
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Turn of the Screw book -
01/11/2006
Andrew Plant, pianist and musicologist at the Britten–Pears Library, Aldeburgh, and I are making great progress with our limited edition book of paintings and commentary on Britten's operatic masterpiece 'The Turn of the Screw'. We are working closely with the wonderful designer, Richard Adams and are on course to launch the book next spring. We are founding 'Sounding Art Press' and are currently working on a website for this. Meanwhile, more information will regularly be posted on the Sounding Art site, and on Andrew's site (see link below), and also of course through my own newsletter. If you are not already signed up to receive copies, please visit the Contact page and send me your details.
Andrew Plant, pianist and musicologist
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Boosey & Hawkes choral series -
01/11/2006
I have finished two new paintings for the Boosey & Hawkes 'Concerts for Choirs' series. One is entitled 'Pastorale', for a collection of English pastoral music; the second is called 'Confetti and Cake' and is for a volume of pieces suitable for use at weddings.
The photo shows the London Offices of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers, in the Aldwych.
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Boosey & Hawkes' Concerts for Choirs -
12/08/2006
Recently I have been working on some paintings for the front covers of a new choral edition, Concerts for Choirs, for Boosey & Hawkes. The first two volumes, 'Christmas in Blue' and 'Calmo' appeared at the end of July, and a third volume, 'Sing Britannia!' is to be published in the autumn.
Two more of these anthologies have been planned and I have been commissioned to design the covers for these too.
More information about these publications can be found by clicking on the links below.
For 'Calmo':
For 'Christmas in Blue' :
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Interview for BBC 4 -
31/10/2006
Following on from the previous news item, my interview did take place after all. After the fire the Royal Albert Hall was, astonishingly, up and running 24 hours later in time for the Prom concert on 4 September. The work which was scheduled for the previous evening, Matthias Pintcher's 'Herodiade Fragmente' sadly had to be ditched and I was not therefore able to show the painting that I had done specially for the broadcast. (This work can however be viewed on the Artworks page of this site). I was interviewed up in the gallery by Zeb Soanes (of BBC R4 shipping forecast fame!) and discussed with him the paintings that viewers had submitted in response to various pieces of music.
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Fire at the Albert Hall! -
03/09/2006
I was due to do an interview at the Prom concert tonight at the Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately the concert has had to be cancelled following a small fire which started in an oven in the Artistes' Bar. The sprinkler system waterlogged the main circuit board of the hall, cutting out all the electrics, and there is apparently also some smoke damage to the hall, together with a flooded basement. BBC4 TV are planning to run my interview tomorrow (4th September) in the Prom interval, if the hall is habitable by then. Watch this space...
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New Christmas Card design -
01/11/2006
This photo shows my new Christmas card design which is sold in aid of The Bach Choir. The image is entitled 'Jingle Bells' and includes various elements relating to this well-known carol. The cards are available by following the link below and cost £6.50 for ten (plus P & P), with discounts for orders of more than 50 cards.
Click to order Christmas cards
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James Bowman's 65th birthday concert -
14/08/2006
James Bowman will mark his 65th birthday with a recital of English Song by candle-light in the magnificent 15th-century church of Blythburgh, Suffolk on Saturday, 14 October at 4.00 p.m. James will be accompanied by Andrew Plant (piano) in a programme to include works by Purcell, Vaughan Williams, Howells and Britten. Tickets at £18 (to include interval wine and a programme), concessions £15, are available from 01737 779690 (answerphone), or in person from wrapCD, 158 High Street, Aldeburgh. Tickets will also be on sale at the door, subject to availability: all seats are unreserved. I am helping to organise this event, so do join us for what will undoubtedly be a most joyful occasion!
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Interview for BBC4 TV -
30/08/2006
I will be interviewed live from the Royal Albert Hall in the interval of the Prom concert, on Sunday 3 September. The BBC has invited viewers to submit art works inspired by music and has asked me to talk about them. The broadcast will go out at approximately 8pm on Sunday. More details can be seen by clicking on the link below.
Link to BBC4 website
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Summer Newsletter -
10/08/2006
My summer newsletter is now available. If you are not already on my mailing list and would like a copy, please send me your postal address via the Contact form.
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Tewkesbury Spring Festival -
16/05/2006
Exhibition: I will be showing watercolours of English Song and oil paintings from my Rachmaninov Vespers series on Saturday and Sunday, 27 and 28 May, 12 noon – 6.30pm in Beauchamp House, Abbey School, Church Street, Tewkesbury (opposite the Abbey). All work will be for sale.
Concert and talk: The English Song Book concert is on Saturday 27 May at 1pm (tickets £5). Baritone Francis Brett joins Nicholas Chalmers (piano) to perform a series of songs with connections to the Cotswolds, including George Butterworth's 'Bredon Hill' and Gerald Finzi's 'Earth and Air and Rain'.
Andrew Plant, Curator for Exhibitions at the Britten–Pears Library, musicologist and accompanist (and my co-author on the Turn of the Screw book!) will be giving a pre-concert talk at 12.30pm on 27 May. Free to concert ticket holders. Both the concert and the talk are in Beauchamp House, in the exhibition room.
A performance of Bach's Mass in B minor will be given in the Abbey at 7.30pm on 27 May. For more information and to book tickets please contact the Box Office on 01684 295074. Website: www.awakenyoursenses.org.
I will be at the Festival all day on Saturday 27 May for these events, and look forward very much to seeing friends there.
Tewkesbury Festival website
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Concert on 27 January 2006 -
09/02/2006
27 January was Mozart's 250th birthday. My brother, Andrew Mackay, conducted a celebratory concert at St. Martin's Church, Salisbury at 7.30pm. The programme included the Mozart Vespers and Requiem, with The Sarum Consort, The Sarum Players, and Olivia Robinson as soprano soloist.
The church was absolutely packed, even with extra chairs up, and there was a tangible buzz as friends met friends, and then enjoyed a musical feast, which was followed by an equally packed and jubilant reception in the church hall opposite. A wonderful way to celebrate Mozart's 250th.
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New painting added to website -
17/03/2006
I've recently added 'Chichester Cathedral from the North Walls' to the artworks page. I painted this watercolour during the 2003 'Paint the City' competition, organised jointly by the Chichester Festivities and Pallant House Gallery. This painting was exhibited in the cathedral cloisters and won a 'Painter of the Day' award.
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Website changes -
11/03/2006
You may
notice small changes here and there. Tim Ault at Alberon Systems has done
much work 'behind the scenes' to allow the mechanics of the site to work
smoothly with Safari, the Mac browser of choice. I also use an ancient
version of Internet Explorer so he has a challenging task. I'm always
grateful for any feedback as to how this site functions with your particular
computer, browser, operating system, etc. We have also reached the
proof-reading stage, so I am open to all suggestions for improving the
grammar, spelling and so on...
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The Turn of the Screw - progress on book -
03/03/2006
We are planning to publish all 33 of my Turn of the Screw paintings as a Fine Art book, with musical commentary by Andrew Plant (Britten–Pears Library). Todd-White and Son are a photographic firm in central London who specialise in fine art photography and who can take pictures of these paintings without having to remove them from their frames. I am making good progress in collecting the paintings from all over the UK to get these photos done. If you own one of the Turn of the Screw series, you should be hearing from me in the near future!
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Hayward Gallery Night: 10 February 2006 -
12/02/2006
There were 650 visitors to the 'Late Night at the Hayward Gallery' on the South Bank on Friday 10th February.The Dan Flavin exhibition was open, and there was music, a display of 1960s style lighting effects and a bar in the foyer of the Sunset Pavilion. There was an amazing 'buzz' and the crowds stayed until 11pm. I ran three informal Art Workshops for visitors during the event, which was huge fun. Though most people were complete beginners when it came to practical art there were some stunningly good paintings produced during the course of the evening, which we hung on the walls of the 'Talk Space', and a great deal of laughter and good humour as well. All my workshop attendees can now truthfully boast that they have had their paintings hung at the Hayward Gallery.
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BBC1 - 'Recipe for Success' -
07/01/2006
Last autumn I took part in some filming for the BBC 'Child of Our Time' series. The episode I appear in will be broadcast on Sunday 5 February at 8pm on BBC 1. The programme is titled 'Recipe for Success' and the producer says I am on air for about two minutes. I've no idea which two minutes of the 10 hours we spent filming will have been selected (!) but I think the programme itself should be interesting and worth watching.
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Filming for BBC TV -
23/10/2005
On October 7th a four-person film crew from BBC 1 descended on my studio for the day. The filming was for the series entitled 'A Child of Our Time' : four hour-long episodes to be shown in January 2006. I was filmed painting, playing the oboe and being interviewed about my art and synaesthesia. It was alot of fun even though probably only about 2-3 minutes of our 10 hours of filming will ultimately be shown on TV. I will post more information, including the date of transmission, on the News Page when this becomes available.
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Catalogue Raisonne : progress report -
30/06/2005
We are currently working hard on a complete catalogue of all my art works. This is a mammoth task since we have to track down somewhere between one and two thousand works in the UK and abroad.
Andrew Plant, musicologist, has already put over 800 paintings on the database. We are working slowly back through years of assorted files, lists and packets of photographs (much of this is pre-digital).
We will be contacting people we have down as owning my paintings at some stage, probably in late 2005 or early 2006, in order to gather missing information and cross-check our records. So anyone who has a 'Mackay' stashed away in the attic, please dig it out, as we will definitely want to include it.
N.B. Proof-readers please note: I know that raisonne should have an acute accent on the 'e' - we are working on the problem!
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'The Choir' Radio 3 broadcast this Sunday Jan 8th -
05/01/2006
Sunday January 8th 2006 18:30-20:00 on Radio 3.
Aled Jones begins his new series on choirs by devoting the whole of the first programme to the work and achievements of Sir David Willcocks. Last autumn I and three other Bach Choir members were interviewed for the programme at Westminster Cathedral Hall, where our weekly rehearsals take place. Hopefully, we should be on air for a few seconds(!).
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Bank Holiday Event -
21/10/2005
I hosted a two day fund-raising event over the August Bank Holiday at my home and studio, for my mailing list members and their families and friends. Many thanks to all those who came and who supported Macmillan Cancer Relief by buying paintings, prints, postcards and tombola tickets! The event produced over £4000 for Macmillan - a most satisfactory result.
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New Christmas Card Designs -
12/09/2005
I have designed two new Christmas cards this year.
The first has been commisioned by the Musicians Benevolent Fund with a design based on Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Christmas Carols'. This is now available to order through the MBF website. The second card, designed for The Bach Choir, is entitled 'On Christmas Night' (shown on the right). It is now available through the Bach Choir website.
Musicians Benevolent Fund Christmas card orders
Bach Choir Christmas card orders
Download file
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Launch of New Look website -
15/07/2005
My website 'Sounding Art' has been re-done with the help of Tim Ault of Alberon Systems, based in Oxford. The main changes, especially to the art works pages will enable me to update the paintings from home and add new works to the site as soon as they are painted and photographed. The site will continue to be worked on and improved in the next few weeks and months. Any comments and suggestions will be most welcome. All will be read and noted, and your feedback will help us to maintain a site that is, hopefully, useful and interesting.
Alberon Systems website
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New website feedback -
09/08/2005
Many thanks indeed to everyone who has been kind enough to send me their comments and suggestions about the new-look Sounding Art website. I am really most grateful. Your feedback has given me loads of ideas as well as pointing out some very basic stuff that needs attending to. We are working on it all and hope to correct the more major glitches as soon as possible. Other things may take a little longer. We are hoping to add a 'Members Forum' in due course.
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Summer newsletter just out! -
27/07/2005
I have just posted out my summer newsletter. If you would like to join my mailing list and receive regular copies of the newsletter please email your details via the contact page.
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ARTISTES' ART -
01/07/2005
This is a fund-raising idea: I am going to offer 'artistes', famous singers in the first instance, a free art lesson or two in return for a small painting to auction for charity.
I have always been impressed at the wonderfully high standard of paintings that adult beginners have produced on my weekend art courses in previous years.
I am gradually assembling my list of singing stars, and recruiting the fearless amongst them to take part! This project will be launched in the autumn with a view to a gala event/exhibition/auction of paintings in an exciting venue in a year or so's time. Watch this space for more info.
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UK Synaesthesia Association Annual Meeting -
16/05/2005
The UK Synaesthesia Association Annual Meeting took place at University College London during the weekend 15-17 April 2005.
I was invited to take part in a panel discussion on 'Synaesthesia, Art and Creativity' . The other panel members were: Ed Hubbard (INSERM, Paris), Daniel Glaser (UCL, and Scientist in Residence at Institute of Contemporary Arts) and Maggie Boden (author of The Creative Mind). Since about 60% of the audience were themselves synaesthetes, a very lively discussion ensued!
I held an exhibition of music paintings during the weekend, featuring a selection of the Rachmaninov Vespers oil paintings and English Song watercolours.
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