• The Conference

    Let’s talk about conferences. There are few things I love more. Maybe orchestras. And guess what: my mother was wrong when she said you can’t have it all in life. The truth is, you can have it all, or at least I can have it all (I don’t dare speak for the other gazillion people on this overcrowded planet), because…

  • The Essay

    There’s this joke where a pregnant and very worried woman asks her friend what will happen if she has an ugly baby. And the supportive friend consoles the pregnant women by saying, ‘Don’t worry. If you have an ugly baby, you’ll never know’. I just hate that joke. I don’t find it funny. But above all, it’s factually untrue. I…

  • Christmas Carol Singalong

    For many years, I have wondered if cheesiness can kill you. Now, I finally know the answer. Cheesiness, even on a grand scale, cannot kill you or else I would have died a couple of days ago at the Christmas Carol Singalong at the Royal Albert Hall. But the good news first: I have finally figured out how to use…

  • The Seminar

    We recently had our first seminar. I dread seminars because you actively have to engage with your colleagues or at least convincingly pretend to do so. Also, they are the most horrible waste of time because I don’t think that I have ever learned anything useful in a seminar. For many students, they are nothing but the self-help group they…

  • The Audition

    Have you ever found out about an audition for an orchestra spot you really wanted one day before the audition? If not, I’ll tell you what that feels like in a minute. But first, let’s go back to the beginning of the story, which started about nine months ago in Vienna. I have long ago given up pretending that my…

  • Goldsmiths

    When was the last time you’ve felt old? Mine was on Wednesday when one of my university colleagues called me a ‘real adult’. Apart from that, I just loved my first week at Goldsmiths although at the very beginning it was not clear that I would. First of all, Goldsmiths is situated in New Cross, an area described as ‘diverse’…