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Glad to see that the conference is returning in 2024. I'm looking forward to that.

I missed out on completion of a music degree when I was younger, but I've been very lucky indeed to have been taken seriously by the only school that would have me for an undergraduate degree at my age.

I'm currently studying production at HOFA but I'm pleased to announce that as of September, funding permitted, I will be on a fast track BMus course in composition as well at MMS in Innesmanning, Germany. This will mean having 2 Bachelors degrees one in Musical Science BSc Audio Engineering and Media Production and the BMus Composition. In addition, I'm hoping to get a piano Grade 8 by the end of the course to go with my Singing and Theory ones, possibly also the new ABRSM teaching Diploma and or performance diplomas. I'm now studying for my piano Grade 6 ABRSM. I recorded this number with my own production skills.

Although I'm learning the art of DAW based composition and production I still love the art of composing for acoustic instruments in a traditional way using traditional forms to try and keep these wonderful European classical genres we have alive and fresh.
I'm partly European conservatoire educated. It's where I learned piano as a second study at Cologne Conservatoire Wuppertal Campus so it's nice to still be involved in the music scene in Europe. It's pretty much dying off Classical Music in England. They've even axed the BBC Singers! Very sad! Many people won't have the joy of growing up in a church choir singing traditional English Cathedral Music or major oratorios in Choral Societies they are dying off with my generation in my home city of Colchester. The funding is all for new pop music. Our wonderful stars get less than a million monthly listeners on Spotify, very sad indeed. I think it's about being less exclusive and getting more people involved in playing pieces they can play perfectly and enjoy. There are so many very fine little pieces of less than 30 bars people can play and enjoy. It doesn't have to all be about the concerto final but it should be about people playing classical music and appreciating how hard the concerto final is to play in and win! Our younger stars have no hope without a substantial fan base and we're losing to pop by a country mile! So many pop musicians are involved because of pop's inclusive nature in the UK. Everyone who's anyone in music is an Ed Sheeran fan strumming a guitar no one want's to try anymore. I'm in tears.

My ABRSM Grade 6 Programme of 4 pieces includes the following:

1. Friedrich Kuhlau Sonatina 20 in C Nr.1 I. Allegro

2. Valse Poético Nr. 6 Enrich Granados

3. The Child that is Born on the Sabbath Day Richard Rodney Bennett

4. Hugh Gregory Waldock Piano Sonata 15 'The Old House' III. Giocoso

article posted by:Hugh Waldock, Waldock, Hugh