Blog sign off

Today is my last at Britten Sinfonia, and what a great way to finish - I'm off to Glyndebourne this morning to see The Yellow Sofa. Way back in April 2007, when we were getting our digital act together, we thought Britten Sinfonia should have a blog and, for reasons I don't clearly remember, I took on the writing. Well, it's been brilliant fun trying to give a wider perspective on the orchestra's work, starting with our tour of South America (the very first proper entry being uploaded from Madrid airport at vast expense (it was pre-wi-fi)). Umpteen visits to Krakow, promotional visits to Spain and Asia, blogs on many of the multifarious composers we have commissioned, the tours around the UK, our collaborations with the Michael Clark Dance Company and the Royal Opera House, London Jazz Festival concerts, concerts in some of the most beautiful buildings in the country (not least our reegular haunts of Ely and Norwich Cathedrals and King's College Chapel here in Cambridge): it is a rich vein from which to draw, and I know the blog will continue to illuminate our work. I'm off to The Sixteen as Acting General Manager, so paths will cross...........

John Bickley

'What the future of music will be like': 5-star review

Richard Morrison in his 5-star review in today's Times of our London Jazz Festival opening-night concert with Dhafer Youssef and Joanna MacGregor: 'A classical chamber orchestra on the opening night of the London Jazz Festival with a Tunisian oud player? Purists on every side must have been steaming from all orifices. But this is the future of music. And it works, as this exhilarating fusion showed.'

London Jazz Festival

Our collaboration with pianist Joanna MacGregor continues at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday, the opening night of the London Jazz Festival: full details and booking here. I was at the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group's 'Jazz in the House' celebration to launch the Festival last night (live music by Guy Barker). There are more concerts this year than ever before: Courtney Pine is at the Barbican on 20 November; Scene Norway is a festival within a festival, with eight days of concerts at Kings Place curated by Fiona Talkington; and a celebration of the life of Esbjorn Svensson on Sunday at the Southbank Centre - these are just three of the three hundred events on offer.

London Jazz Festival

On Friday evening we are performing in the London Jazz Festival, with Joanna MacGregor, Dhafer Youssef, Peter Herbert and Satoshi Takeishi. Works by Dhaffer Youssef and Arvo Pärt frame the programme, and there is music by Bartók and Gabi Luncă. Joanna has written of Luncă: 'Spoken of as ‘Tziganza de matase’, the silken Gypsy woman, the silvery-voiced Gabi Luncă came from a poor family of musicians in the village of Vărbilău. In a unique musical partnership with her husband, the accordionist Ion Onoriu, she was seen as among the greatest Rumanian singers, the grande dame of Lăutari (Roma) music. Motherless from the age of three, and never forgetting her deprived childhood as one of twelve children, she built a children’s home next to her house in Bucharest. She was recorded in her heyday in the 1960s, her songs elegantly speaking of yearning, anguish and loss; in Sus în deal, pe poienită a blackbird sings ‘Why do some have luck in abundance, while so little left for me?’'

Hisham Matar on Dhafer Youssef

Booker Prize-shortlisted author Hisham Matar ('In the Country of Men') has written a very thoughtful piece in the New Statesman about Dhaffer Youssef, with whom we are performing in the London Jazz Festival on 14 November. He concludes: 'Unlike, for example, the Arabic novel, which apart from very few exceptions is struggling to gain the attention its literary heritage promises, Arabic music like Youssef's seems to have found ways to remain vital and ambitious, relevant, and engaged.' I also like his attempt to unravel the confusion caused by the description 'world music': 'The problem seems to be with the word 'world'; as an adjective it has come to mean a sort of anthropological, homogenised muddle, and so does little to reflect the careful, earnest engagements of artists such as Dhaffer Youssef.' Read the full article!

Sell-out 'In the Spirit of Gil and Miles'

Luciana Souza, Romero Lubambo and Alex Acuna joined Britten Sinfonia in a sold-out Queen Elizabeth Hall concert on Saturday night, as part of the London Jazz Festival. Directed from the keyboard - and the accordion - by Gil Goldstein, In the Spirit of Gil and Miles ranged across the masterpieces of Gil Evans and Miles Davis, and took in music by Federico Mompou, Rodrigo, Egberto Gismonti, Villa-Lobos, Hermeto Pascoal and Bach, and the premiere of Jackie's Dance by Gwilym Simcock (whose first album Perception is currently causing a stir).

Read John L. Walters, writing about the concert in today's Guardian: 4-star review.

The concert will be given again in Birmingham on Tuesday evening at the Town Hall: you can book tickets here.

If you can't make it to Birmingham, catch the BBC Radio 3 broadcast on Wednesday evening at 7pm.

Jazz in the House

To the House of Commons for the annual 'Jazz in the House' reception, hosted by the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group. This is always an occasion to catch up with friends and colleagues from Serious (the Festival promoters), the BBC and the world of politics. Hosted by Lord Colwyn and Michael Connarty MP, with music from Lea DeLaria and the Janette Mason Trio, this was also a great opportunity to tell people about the Britten Sinfonia concert in the Jazz Festival on 24 November: 'In the Spirit of Gil and Miles'. James Purnell's speech revealed an interest in Miles Davis, so I had a chat with him about our concert. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was last seen heading for dinner, clutching one of our leaflets.........

Just missing the train at King's Cross is slightly less tedious than it was now that you can wander over to St Pancras and stand under the miraculously restored roof. Last night it was a hive of quiet activity as the last remnants of builders' detritus was being cleared away, platforms and walkways swept, with Eurostars lined up ready for the first services today.